Operation Transformation leader draws on late husband for strength
Jennifer, 37, from Douglas in Cork, felt she had lost her way after her husband, Noel O’Donovan, died last year after a short battle with motor neuron disease.
“I forgot who I was — I didn’t know if I was married or single. Now I know it is OK to be me and start living my life again,” said Jennifer, one of the six leaders on the RTÉ programme.
Jennifer, a mother of one, said she felt her late husband carried her over the line at the end on the race on Sunday. “It was just euphoric,” she said yesterday.
“Noel and I discussed where I would go with my life when he got sick. He said, ‘If you sit at home and whinge for the rest of your days, I will haunt you.’”
The final episode of Operation Transformation airs this week and Jennifer believes the show has been a lifesaver. “My mum, Pauline Bonus, died of a heart attack when she was 46 years. I don’t want to go the same way and leave my daughter Tara without a parent. That was my reason for doing it.
“When I started the weight loss programme, my cholesterol was 8.1, it’s now 5.2. So, in the space of eight weeks, I have literally changed my life and my future.”
Jennifer believes a lot of her unhealthy eating and drinking was stress-related, and she also gave up smoking.
At the start of the series in January, she weighed 12st, 9.5lbs. She intends losing another stone by sticking to the weight-reducing programme and running, which she now loves.
“My goal is to be happy and I am getting there.”
Deirdre O’Donovan, also from Cork, weighed 17st 4.5lbs at the start of the programme and was morbidly obese.
A mother of two, she works part-time in the Mercy Hospital as a nighttime care assistant and had to learn how to stop emotional eating.
Husband John is delighted with her transformation and that she is again like the woman he married — happy and confident in herself.
Deirdre felt she had her emotional eating under control but, like any addiction, it was always going to be a challenge.
She weights 15st 4lbs and intends shedding another five stone over 18 months — about two pounds a week. Her dress size has reduced from a size 24 to 18.
“According to the statistics, I was on the verge of a heart attack and arthritis. I am not at that point now. I am still obese but I have a focus and the weight will continue to go down,” she said.
Former Kerry GAA star Paudie O’Mahoney, the oldest of the six Operation Transformation leaders, is now eating a third of what he used to and has stopped drinking. He weighed 20st 5.5lbs at the start of the series and has lost over two-and-a-half stone. He hopes to weigh 16 stone by July.
Paudie yesterday revealed he has started writing a book about his life. “It will chart the good times and the bad times. The last two chapters will be about Operation Transformation and the friends I have made for life.”
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