Walking back to happiness

THE first time Teena Gates went to use a treadmill, she could only manage to walk on it for one minute.

“I was seriously obese — my feet flowed out over the edges of my shoes, I was in great physical pain,” she says. “I walked with a stick when no-one was looking. I was too proud — or whatever it was — to actually pull it out and use it when colleagues were around.”

At the time, Teena weighed 23st and had been told she needed to lose weight in order to have an operation to remove her gall bladder.