by Joe Walker

A Canterbury student has been crowned Slimming World’s Young Slimmer of the Year after shedding almost half her bodyweight.

Kelly Meager, 21, scooped the national title after dropping seven dress sizes and 10st 9lbs in just 21 months.

The beaming brunette is now unrecognisable from the 23-and-a-half stone teenager she was less than two years ago.

But 6ft Kelly - now a slim size 12 – says it was coming to Canterbury’s University for Creative Arts that sparked her drastic weight loss.

She said: “I wore a size 26 and had dangerously high blood pressure and high cholesterol. You’re supposed to have the time of your life at university but I just hid in my room and lived off takeaways.”

Kelly was given a glimmer of hope after a pal suggested joining the local Slimming World club in Canterbury.

She said: “Everyone was so friendly and supportive. I lost six-and-a-half pounds in my first week, a stone in a month and the weight just kept coming off.”

Fine art student Kelly, who’s just completed her second year, quit her diet of takeaways and started cooking, making pasta dishes and stir fries with lots of fresh vegetables.

She added: “If someone had told me 21 months ago that I’d be 10-and-a-half stone lighter I’d never have believed them. I feel like a totally new person.

"It’s mind-blowing to think that I’ve lost more than the weight of my 20-year-old sister.”

Read more reaction in this week's Kentish Gazette.