A mum who ballooned to 21 stone shed almost half her bodyweight after becoming worried she'd embarrass her son on her wedding day .
Clare Howard tipped the scales at 21 stone and 13 pounds after gorging on takeaways and stopping excercising.
But the 48-year-old decided to fight the flab last year with her wedding looming, Wales Online says.
And in the 15 months since, Ms Howard, from Swansea, south Wales, has dropped from a size 26 to a size 10.
"It started because my son was getting married and I didn't want to embarrass him because I was so big.
"By the time he got married in November I had lost six stone and four pounds and when they put the photos up everyone said about how amazing I looked and my son was proud," the mother said.
She joined Slimming World last year and started to exercise more.
She also ditched the greasy takeaways for nutritious home-cooked meals, such as curries and jacket potatoes.
"I didn't think I'd lose that much but I've gone from 21 stone and 13 pounds to 10 stone and seven and a half pounds now," the super slimmer said.
"I'd given up on doing anything exciting again, but in April I climbed up in the snow and it felt like an amazing achievement when before I couldn't walk 100 metres without being out of breath.
"I'm not working at the moment as I've been focusing on my weight loss and I would have been too embarrassed to go to an interview but I'm looking forward to getting back into work.
"It's all down to a lot of walking with my family and my dog and I've been able to get back into karate every week which I used to do before.
"Just to get the last bit of weight off recently I started going to Funkypump and I've turned into a bit of a fitness freak now."
But Mrs Howard conceded she "puts on weight very easily" and the a lack of exercise mixed with eating unhealthily resulted in her gaining weight.
She continued: "I haven't changed my eating habits, but I am eating a lot more vegetables and with a cooked breakfast for instance I would use fry light instead of butter or have a steak with a jacket potato instead of chips. I still go out for a lot of meals. I have gone back and fore [with my weight] over the years and I would put weight back on but this time something just clicked and the classes were fun so it was a joy to go to them.
"My family are all really proud and they have helped me and been walking in Mumbles with me even in the rain. "It was a nice birthday present to hit my target weight.
"I went out for food a few weeks ago and saw myself in a mirror when I came out of the toilet and was thinking 'oh my god, that's me'. It has been a shock."
