FEATURE: One Irish woman's journey from 19.5st to 9.5st

AT 40, Linda O’Leary, looks sensational. Tall, toned, and gorgeously slim, she’s wearing a skimpy, sleeveless dress. She runs a business offering weight-loss advice and, as she exudes positivity, it’s difficult to imagine O’Leary any other way.

But when she was 26, it was a different story. So different, that when she saw a photograph of herself on holiday, she freaked. Vastly overweight, she looked double her age. Weight had always been an issue for O’Leary. She’d tried every diet under the sun, from Weight Watchers to the cabbage diet, but now the scales showed she’d reached 19½ stone.

O’Leary considered herself happy. She and her boyfriend loved food; they enjoyed eating at home, and away, and she’d numbed herself to her problems.