A Northern Ireland woman has told how she shed more than 14 stone after her doctor told her she would be dead within a year.

Bridie Coulter from Antrim has been named the UK 44+ Slimmer of the Year after she dropped from 24st 7lb to 10st 2lb.

Bridie, who was morbidly obese and used to wear a dress size 34, is now a slimline size 8.

The 47-year-old — whose nicknames at school included Mrs Blobby and Jolly Green Giant — is slimmer now than when she was a teenager, when she weighed 12 stone.

Her weight peaked at 24st 7lbs and caused her difficulty walking and breathing. She also suffered chronic chest infections, swollen joints, back pain and sciatica. Her doctor warned that, unless she lost weight, she had only a year left to live.

Bridie said: “I used to be like a drug addict, but my habit was food.”

On joining the Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Club Bridie was “horrified” to discover how much she weighed. “I wasn’t aware how dangerously overweight I’d become and didn’t realise how ill I really was.”

It has taken Bridie three years to drop from a size 34 to a svelte size 8 and she has no intention of returning to her sedate lifestyle. She said: “You can’t keep me still now. I walk to the supermarket, a four-mile round trip, twice a week, work out five times a week and, in the taxi office where I work, I can be found skipping when the phones are quiet!”

Rosemary Conley has said of Bridie’s achievement: “Never before have we had a female Slimmer of the Year who has lost this amount of weight. By losing such a colossal amount of weight, Bridie has not only improved her life, but she has also extended it.”