Mum Pamela O’Rourke made a daily dash to the trash to hide mountains of food wrappers in a ritual that hid her sorry secret.
After the kids had gone to school and her husband was at work, Pamela ordered takeaways for breakfast and curry for lunch.
McDonald’s meals or baskets of KFC arrived five days a week for five years.
The bill hit £600 a month – £36,000 in total. But the real cost was to 5ft 2in Pamela’s morale as she piled on 6st thanks to her 4,500 calories a day.
Today, she reveals her takeaway torment – and how she managed to bin the junk diet and shed the fat.
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Secretary Pamela, 41, says: “It all started when I was picked on at work and spiralled into a depression where I didn’t want to leave the house.
“I’d order McDonald’s, KFC, cooked breakfasts – and curry for lunch.
“I’d have liked to have spent the money on clothes, socialising and saving for our dream holiday home but I was wasting it on food.
“I just couldn’t stop. I never used scales but when I stood on them after five years and saw I weighed 15 stone I wanted to disappear. I hated the way I looked.”
Pamela hid the wrappers to stop husband Gary, 42, daughter Payton, 11, and son Jayden, 14, finding out.
At teatime she cooked them healthy food and tucked into it herself.
She goes on: “I was in a dark place. As soon as I saw Payton and Jayden get on the bus for school, I went back to bed and slept the day away. I only got up to eat.
“It made me happy for a short time, so I didn’t care how much I spent. I was desperate to feel good again.
"I didn’t want my family to find out because I was ashamed of the downwards spiral I was trapped in.
"If Gary and I got invited somewhere, I would make my excuses not to go. The times I had to go out I dreaded seeing anyone I knew. I caught people laughing.
“A guy in the local garage said ‘You’re getting bigger and bigger’. I sat in my car and cried. Gary suggested it was because I wasn’t as active as I used to be. He knew I was comfort eating but didn’t have a clue about the takeaways.”
Two things turned Pamela’s life around. First, she got a new job with an electrical firm in Glasgow.
Second, last November, she saw an old school friend on TV – an Army veteran who had motor neurone disease and was raising money for stem-cell treatment.
She says: “He was so inspirational and I thought, ‘What am I doing feeling sorry for myself when he is fighting for his life?’”
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Pamela ditched the takeaways. She took up walking and stuck to 1,000 calories a day, eating chicken, fish, vegetables and salads.
Gary was understanding and told his wife her happiness was more important than the money.
She adds: “I was 15st at my biggest. Now I weigh 8st 11lb and have gone from a size 18 to a size 6. I’m so much happier and healthier.
"Now I’m saving the money I once spent on takeaways. We hope to buy a new home – a far more worthy investment than fast food.”
