Closer magazine
Food addict mum Dawn Price became so obese her children had to take her to the toilet.
At 25st and size 33, she found herself unable to carry out even simple tasks.
She couldn't tie her own shoes without help from her daughter Jessica, now 19, and twins Emily and Lloyd, now 14.
But most humiliating of all, she couldn't go to the toilet on her own as she was so big, she couldn't reach round far enough to wipe her bottom.
Dawn, 41, from Caerphilly, South Wales, told Closer magazine: "It was so degrading. Every time I needed to go to the loo, I'd have to call one of the kids. I hated it, but there was nothing I could do."
Dawn eventually hit rock bottom and realised something had to change. So she joined a slimming club and managed to lose an amazing 9st in two years.
Dawn, who's 5ft 5, started gaining weight aged five, when her parents split.
Dawn before her incredible weight loss. Pic: Closer magazine
She said: "I'd only see Dad at weekends and, to make up for it, he'd buy me chocolate. I began associating food with love and my comfort-eating spiralled."
By the time Dawn was 13, she was 13st.
She said: "I was deeply insecure and hated my size."
She would tuck into bacon butties for breakfast, pies for lunch and takeaways for dinner, consuming more than 5,000 calories a day.
Then, in 1993, she fell pregnant with Jessica as a result of a brief fling, and her weight went up to 18st.
By the time she had her twins with long-term partner Darren in 1998, she'd gained another stone, then continued to gain weight over the next 10 years.
Aged 39, Dawn split with Darren and her weight went up to over 25st.
She said: "I hated my looks but, when I felt down, I'd turn to food. I'd get out of breath just walking a few steps.
Jessica had to yank me out of bed and all three kids had to help me in and out of the bath. I felt so ashamed putting my kids through that, just because I couldn't stop eating. I'd cry and apologise, but they'd say they didn't mind looking after me.
In 2009, Dawn reached her lowest point.
She said: "I was looking at a picture of my twins and suddenly realised I might not be around to see them grow up."
After joining a slimming club, she lost an incredible 9st 3lbs and is now 16st 6lbs, a lot of which is down to the loose skin she's gained from dropping weight quickly at the start of her diet.
She said: "I suffer from asthma, but can look after myself now. I'm no longer a burden to my children. I'm lucky to have such amazing kids. We now spend time together properly and go to the cinema or shops."
Go Dawn!
The full story appears in this week's Closer magazine, out now.
Wise words on motherhood
- <p> “You’re not a mother until you’ve had nits.”</p> <p> <strong>TV star Coleen Nolan</strong></p>
- <p> “I was not a classic mother...I didn’t bake cookies. You can buy cookies, but you can’t buy love.”</p> <p> <strong>Actress Raquel Welch </strong> </p>
- <p> <strong><em>“</em></strong>Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shovelling the walk before it stops snowing.”</p> <p> <strong>Actress Phyllis Diller</strong></p>
- <p> “Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he is buying.”</p> <p> <strong>Author Fran Lebowitz</strong></p>
- <p> “Life is tough enough without having someone kick you from the inside.”</p> <p> <strong>Comedienne Rita Rudner</strong></p>
- <p> “Having a baby is like watching two very inefficient removal men trying to get a very large sofa through a very small doorway, only in this case you can't say, 'Oh, sod it, bring it through the French windows.'"</p> <p> <strong>Comedienne Victoria Wood</strong></p>
- <p> “You can’t qualify in the subject but you’re expected to have a vast number of qualifications: chauffer, diplomat, vet, clown, Blue Peter presenter, chef, paramedic, critic, referee, weapons inspector, therapist, computer expert, liar.”</p> <p> <strong>Actress Imogen Stubbs</strong></p>
- <p> “A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.<strong>"</strong></p> <p> <strong>Author </strong><strong>Tenneva Jordan </strong></p>
- <p> "The first time you leave your child at school you're faced with a tough decision - down the pub or back to bed?”</p> <p> <strong>Comedienne Jo Brand</strong></p>
- <p> "There never was a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him asleep.” </p> <p> <strong>Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson</strong></p>
- <p> “A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child."</p> <p> <strong>Actress Sophia Loren </strong></p>
- <p> "Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease."</p> <p> <strong>American writer Lisa Alther</strong></p>
- <p> “Nothing will ever make you as happy or sad, as proud or as tired as motherhood.”</p> <p> <strong>Author Elia Parsons</strong></p>
- <p> "A mother “is a nutritionist, a child psychologist, an engineer, a production manager, an expert buyer, all in one.”</p> <p> <strong>Anthropologist Margaret Mead </strong></p>
- <p> “Motherhood is “having someone else to blame when there is a rude smell in the air.”</p> <p> <strong>Actress Jane Horrocks</strong></p>
- <p> “You know you really are a mother when: you use your own saliva to clean your child's face; your child throws up and you catch it.”</p> <p> <strong>Humorist Erma Bombeck</strong></p>
- <p> “The story of a mother’s life: Trapped between a scream and a hug.”</p> <p> <strong>Cartoonist</strong><strong> Cathy Guisewite</strong></p>
- <p> “Motherhood is not for the fainthearted. Frogs, skinned knees, and the insults of teenage girls are not meant for the wimpy.”</p> <p> <strong>Author Danielle Steel</strong></p>
- <p> “Never being number one in your list of priorities and not minding at all.”</p> <p> <strong>Model and designer Jasmine Guinness</strong></p>
- <p> “Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help mom with the dishes.”</p> <p> <strong>Writer P.J. O’Rourke </strong></p>
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