Operation Transformation hopefuls aim to transform lives that got out of control

Twenty hopefuls faced the final cut for the ninth season of RTÉ One’s Operation Transformation in Dublin yesterday.

The show is set to be screened from January.

Last year’s season, with episodes broadcast twice a week, attracted around 469,000 viewers.

RTÉ Radio 1’s The Ray D’Arcy Show will follow the leaders as they undergo a series of tough quests, as well as the national campaigns.

Ray said some of the candidates had been through harrowing times in their lives.

“It takes a huge amount of strength to stand up and want to take control of your life,” he told them.

Prison officer Jimmy Bermingham, at 24 stone, is the heaviest candidate.

Jimmy, 34, a father of one, gets out of breath doing simple things such as getting out of the car. He avoids social occasions because he is so self-conscious.

“I think I’d make a good leader because I want to change so badly,” he said.

Another candidate, Clare Scanlan, originally from West Cork but now living in Monagea, Co Limerick, with her husband, Tom, and two children Liam, 11 and Caoimhe, 10, weighs 16st 5lbs.

Clare, 39, feels she has just been existing since the death four years ago of her eldest son, Darra, from sudden adult death syndrome. He was just 15 years old.

“I applied because my life is running away from me and I need to catch up,” she said.

“I’d like to be happy.”