A SLIMMER from Kent is a shadow of her former self after shedding more than half her body weight.

Gillian Harvey, from Ashford, has been crowned the Rosemary Conley Diet & Fitness magazine Slimmer of the Year 2008 after she dropped a staggering 12st 7lb.

The 25-year-old mother-of-two used to weigh 24st 12lb and wear a dress size 32 until she joined her local Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Club, and promptly plummeted to a trim 12st 5lb.

Gillian, now a dress size 14, said: “My weight had reached the stage where I was embarrassed to look people in the eye.

“I was approaching my 25th birthday and didn’t want to weigh 25 stone when I got there.”

Gillian’s weight began to pile on when she was at college, and hit 13st 7lb after a car crash at the age of 18 caused her to have a slipped disc and left her unable to exercise.

She also suffers from a twisted spine and sciatica, which requires a cocktail of painkillers every four hours and regular physiotherapy.

After college, Gillian worked as a PA at the Law Society in London and a diet of fat-laden baguettes, chocolate croissants, crisps, triple-decker sandwiches, after-work drinks and microwave pizzas saw her weight shoot up to 20st within a year.

“I wasn’t getting any exercise and I was constantly ravenous. It didn’t matter what I ate, I still wanted more,” she explained.

“The train journey to and from work became a nightmare. If there was only one seat, I knew I couldn’t get into it.

“If I was looking for a seat I could tell people were thinking “please don’t let that fat bird sit down here and squash me!””

During her pregnancy with daughter Isabelle, Gillian gained a further 5st but an embarrassing incident in a midwife’s waiting room gave her the incentive she needed to shed the pounds.

“I was in a packed waiting room and when I sat down in a chair it made a huge cracking sound and fell apart beneath me.

“Everybody looked at me and I had to try to laugh it off, but in reality I was devastated.”

Following her postnatal check up, Gillian joined her local Rosemary Conley Club, run by Caroline Ward, and after two-and-a-half years – and giving birth to son Jensen – she had reached her current weight.

Rosemary Conley CBE presented Gillian with award at the Kensington Roof Gardens, London on Thursday, along with her prizes of £2,000 cash and £500 of vouchers from Debenhams.

The healthy living guru said: “Gillian has succeeded in shedding a staggering amount of weight and now looks amazing. She has a fantastic new figure and is fitter and healthier too."

She added: “Gillian’s weight loss achievement is even more phenomenal because of the chronic back pain she battles with.

“Losing weight has made an enormous difference to her health.”