A SUPER-slimmer has made history after losing 24 stone in 24 months - by eating nothing except chocolate-flavoured milkshakes.

At nearly 40 stone, mum-of-four Mandy Stinton from Evesham was so fat she couldn't even walk and had barely left the house in years.But after slimming to 14-and-a-half stone, the 43-year-old has been to the cinema for the first time in more than two decades, is due to go on an aeroplane for the first time in her life now that she can fit into a seat, and, to the delight of her husband David, is able to climb upstairs to sleep in the marital bed again."People think he's got a new woman - and he has in a way," said Mrs Stinton.

"The real me was hidden under all those layers of fat."

Shedding the pounds by eating nothing but formula food has not been easy, but incredibly Mrs Stinton, of Henry Street, has gone off the rails just twice - on Shrove Tuesday when the temptation of pancakes was too much, and once when walking past McDonald's.

She didn't even give into temptation on Christmas Day, allowing herself just a bowl of sprouts alongside her shakes."I'm no angel - I was still cooking for the family and thought about food every day and could have murdered someone for a chicken curry," she said."But something had to be done - I was desperate."

Mrs Stinton started dieting in January 2005 after her weight rocketed after she was diagnosed with cancer - from which she has now recovered - and started suffering from crippling depression.

On an average day, she would gorge on breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper supplemented by crisps, cakes and chocolate. "My jaw never stopped," she said.Wheelhair-bound, she was referred to an obesity clinic at the Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham where a specialist suggested the Cambridge Diet - created in the 1970s to help hospitalised obese people lose weight before operations.She embarked on the plan's Sole Source Programme, consuming a formula food containing around 415 calories a day, and was provided with a counsellor to help her along.The only flavour she liked was chocolate velvet, and this is the only flavour of the diet she has consumed for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the past two years.But it has worked - her weight loss is the biggest single amount lost by a person in Cambridge Diet's history.And she still wants to lose more - she is hoping gentle walking as well as the diet will help her get to 11-and-a-half stone.To keep herself motivated, she took photos of her weight loss month by month.But she said it's been the support from David, her children Dawn, Kerry, Joanna and Jessica, and Dawn's husband Rupert that has really kept her going.She said: "They are so proud of me. I didn't think it was possible back at the start of 2005 that my life could change so dramatically in 24 months."I am so keen to explain to people who are in the same position today that I was back then that it is possible to do, that they mustn't give up like I so nearly did."It's not easy and you have ups and downs but even when you're at nearly 40 stone there is still hope."See the comment in 'Opinion'

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