Kathryn Thomas wants to transform celebs on Operation Transformation
The presenter revealed her wish as the search for five participants to go in front of the cameras for season eight of the programme was launched yesterday.
.@gokathrynthomas and last year's leaders of Op Trans popped into studio this morning ahead of the new series. pic.twitter.com/RlAjHsKedb
— Oliver Callan (@OliverCallanRTE) September 30, 2014
Speaking at the launch of the hunt for participants, who have until November 4 to apply, the Carlow woman said she would jump at the chance to organise a celebrity version of the health and well-being programme in the future.
Pointing to recent comments from radio broadcaster Ray Foley about his own battle with the bulge, she said such a show would help people to see weight problems can affect anyone — and carry no shame.
“I’d love it [to do a celebrity show], it would be amazing,” Thomas said. “Celebrities have this image in the press and then like I’m A Celebrity... you put people in a situation like that and you see their true personalities.
“I thought it was great [Foley’s comments about his weight issues] as it shows it’s not just women who worry about it,” she added.
The RTÉ star was speaking alongside 45-year-old Kildare man Marc Gibbs and 36-year-old Siobhán McKillen, from Clondalkin in Dublin, who were two of last season’s show leaders.
Combined, the pair lost eight stone due to sensible eating and achievable fitness — and have urged others to take part in the next season, which airs from January.
Gibbs is now a weight-loss instructor with Unislim, helping eight people lose two stone each since March, while McKillen joked that she can now “borrow” her twin sister’s clothes.
Asked how her husband likes his new slimline wife, she added: “He’s never been like that. If I put on weight he’d still say I look beautiful... I probably would have divorced him if he hadn’t!”
Operation Transformation’s medical expert was approached by a political party to run for election but turned down the chance due to the “compromises” entering politics would bring.
“I have been asked by one political party, one of the bigger ones, and have said no,” Wicklow-based GP Dr Ciara Kelly told doctors’ magazine, Forum. “If you go into politics, the reality is there is a series of compromises that need to be made, and sometimes when that happens you lose sight of the big picture,” she said.
Stressing the need for people “outside the political sphere” to comment on health matters, the GP said in her view the RTÉ show is the “single biggest game-changer in terms of improving physical activity and diet that we have seen in recent times”.
“The HSE or Government could not have afforded to buy the type of coverage it achieves,” she said.
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