15407/2/GAZETTE & HERALD: A CHIPPENHAM grandmother who has spent years battling her weight has ventured outside her front door for the first time in 13 years after losing nine stone.

At 23 stone and a size 32, Shirley Kennedy spent a few months last year confined to her bedroom before a wake up call from doctors made her realise her life was in danger.

Mrs Kennedy, 54, said: "I just lay in bed waiting to die. I didn't think there was a life out there for me."

Now Mrs Kennedy is doing everyday things such as shopping and walking and said she feels better than ever.

She said: "Everybody's amazed and my family are so proud of me. I didn't think I'd see the light of day again."

Mrs Kennedy, who lives with her husband David in Woodlands Road, said she'd always been overweight.

"Over the years I put on more and more weight," she said. "I was eating all the wrong stuff like curries and crisps. I'd been on so many diets starting on Monday morning and finishing the same night. I had no willpower.

"As time went on I just stayed in my bedroom because I thought it would be easier. I could get down the stairs but my legs were so big I couldn't get back up again.

"I had to sit on the edge of the bed and my husband would have to pull me up to have a shower. He did everything for me. I just gave up."

Mrs Kennedy began to experience heart problems last summer and was admitted to the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

"When the ambulance arrived it had to park right next to the front door to get me in," she said. "It was awful."

Doctors diagnosed her with diabetes and said the heart problems she were experiencing were down to her size.

They advised her to have a stomach stapling operation to help her lose a drastic amount of weight, but Mrs Kennedy said she could not go through with it.

"I really didn't want to have the operation but made up my mind to do something myself," she said. "It really scared me and I knew I had to do it this time or I would die."

Mrs Kennedy came home from hospital in August and has since been on a strict low fat diet. She eats cereal for breakfast, soup for lunch and chicken or fish with vegetables in the evening.

"I've lost nine stone in about six months," she said.

"I gradually started walking again, then I went out in the car with my husband to get used to being outside. Now I'm dancing around the house. I never dreamt of doing anything like that before.

"The first time I bought clothes in size 26 it felt amazing I hadn't been that size for years. Now I'm down to a size 18 and weigh 14 stone."

Mrs Kennedy said she wanted to let other obese people know that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

"Anything can be achieved if you put your mind to it," she said. "If I can lose that much weight, anyone can."