COUNTY Durham mother, Sue Thompson is set to take her family on their first ever holiday abroad together after losing 16st – more than half her body weight.

For years the 40-year-old managed to convince her family and friends that she had a fear of flying, but the truth was that she was terrified of squeezing her 27st frame into an aeroplane seat.

Later this month, after dropping ten dress sizes with Slimming World, Sue, husband Shaun and daughter Jessica-Ray will be jetting off to Spain on a long-awaited trip.

And it’s now a double celebration as Mrs Thompson, from Chester-le-Street in County Durham, has been named Slimming World Consultant Slimmer of the Year 2013 because of her incredible weight-loss.

She had been overweight since her school days but says it was only after becoming a mother to Jessica-Ray, 15, that she began to seriously worry about her size.

“I knew I wasn’t one of the skinny girls at school but it never affected me when it came to friends or boyfriends and I wasn’t bullied or anything like that," she said. "As I got older I started to gain more weight but even embarrassing situations, like the time I cracked a sunbed at a tanning salon, didn’t motivate me to lose weight.

"It changed when I had Jess, I hated the idea that I might be an embarrassment to her or Shaun. They never said anything and I know they loved me whatever my size but I always worried about how my weight impacted on them.”

She avoided school events like plays and parents evenings, worrying other mums would think she was a bad parent because of her size. Sue made excuses around social occasions too, fearing she’d embarrass husband Shaun, 44.

In March 2010 Sue set about changing that fate and joined her local Slimming World group. Two friends had joined the club and had great weight losses in their first week so, feeling inspired by their success, she went along but kept it a secret from family and friends for weeks.

“I was totally embarrassed. I was terrified I’d be too big for the scales and even made my friend check with the Consultant first, and I worried I’d be the biggest person there," she said. "I probably was the biggest but it didn’t matter, everyone was different shapes and sizes but we were all in the same boat and in it together.”

Mrs Thompson started following Slimming World’s Food Optimising eating plan and couldn’t believe how much she could eat compared to other plans she’d tried before.

She loved being able to satisfy her appetite on ‘Free Foods’, like fruit and veg, pasta, rice, potatoes, lean meat, fish, eggs and fat-free dairy, without weighing and measuring, and swapped takeaways for simple homemade meals. A family favourite now is baked salmon with a jacket potato and vegetables.

She says: “I always say I’m not on a diet, I just eat healthily now. I’ve got a completely different relationship with food. It used to be a battle, but now I know how to eat healthily and that I can still have treats if I want them so there’s nothing to fight anymore. If I want a treat I have it, but I’ve found that a lot of the time you only want it because you think you can’t or shouldn’t have it.”

Mrs Thompson lost 10st in 12 months, was 15st lighter by her 40th birthday in October 2012 and has now shed a total of 16st two and a half pounds. She’s dropped from 27st 8lb to 11st five and a half pounds and from a dress size 32 to a 12.

As well as slimming down, she has had her eyes lasered so she no longer needs glasses and adopted a new hairstyle. “People often don’t recognise me and say that I look like a new person, I feel like one too. At T in the Park someone even described me as a cougar, I couldn’t believe they meant me!" she said.

On top of the physical transformation, she has taken on a new career. After 20 years working for the NHS she became a Slimming World Consultant and began running her own group helping other people to lose weight as she had done, and she’s recently started training to take the role of District Manager for Slimming World looking after 144 groups in the Durham and Wearside area.

Any Slimming World members – current or former – interested in finding out more about becoming a Slimming World Consultant like Mrs Thompson can visit www.slimmingworld.com or head to Slimming World’s national opportunity event at The British Banker’s Association, Pinners Hall, 105-108 Old Broad Street, London on Wednesday, June 19 from 7am to 9pm.