AN overweight woman was spurred to lose five stone after she was diagnosed with a serious medical condition.

Sarah Davison, of Redcar, east Cleveland, lost 70lb after she was told she had the potentially life-threatening condition sleep apnoea.

The condition is characterised by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep. Each pause in breathing, called an apnoea, can last from a few seconds to minutes, and may occur five to 30 times or more an hour.

The 42-year-old, who did weigh 15 stone 12-and-a-half pounds, was so terrified she might not wake up she joined a slimming club.

“I didn’t know what to expect at all, but because it was just over the road from my house I went along,” she said. “That was in September 2007.

“I found that the food I was allowed to eat was normal and suited the family too. With a husband and three kids to feed that was important.

“I hoped to lose enough weight to stop me having to wear men’s XLsized tops and jogging bottoms, so I feel better about myself.”

The mother-of-three is now ten stone and 12-and-a-half pounds and no longer suffers from sleep apnoea.