Ceri Poulton, 31, ballooned to a size 20 by gorging on chocolate for breakfast and scoffing kebabs, crisps, chips and pizza, sending her weight rocketing to over 15st after leaving secondary school.
She said: “I have always been a big girl. Throughout school I was so overweight that when the boys found out I was playing Juliet in the school play none of them wanted to play Romeo and we had to get a girl to play the role.
“I was 11-years-old, in Year Six and I heard all the boys say ‘no, I’m not doing it. It was pretty embarrassing.
“Secondary school was easier for me. I used my quick wit and humour to gain popularity and my weight didn’t feel like such a big deal anymore.
“I slowly gained weight through the 10 years following until I had my daughter in 2009 when I hit 15st 2.5lb. My daughter’s christening photos sent me into shock.
"One day I had purchased a size 20 dress from Primark because I couldn’t find anything nice in my size. At 5ft 8, I suit being a little bigger but that was beyond crazy.
“I had sunk into a pattern of eating when I was tired, using my daughter as an excuse to not exercise.
“I never exercised. I ate chocolate for breakfast, and I loved kebabs, crisps, chips and pizza – all the bad carbs!
“I wanted to change. My mum was unfit and overweight and as much as I adored her, I wanted something different for my own daughter. I wanted her to be healthy.
After the birth of her daughter and her mum’s terminal cancer diagnosis Ceri decided to turn her life around and embraced a healthy lifestyle.
She lost more than four stone, started to exercise, retrained professionally and landed her dream job at a hospital where she met her ‘soulmate’.
“I never thought anyone would want to marry me but now I’m planning my dream wedding with my perfect partner and I’m so happy", said Ceri.
Her real life Romeo, Lewis, an electrician, strode into her life one day to fix a fan in the office.
“At first I thought he was grumpy but then I noticed that he was very good looking. So I glanced at his name badge and looked him up on Facebook.
“I messaged him and said I thought he was very good looking, and embarrassingly he asked who I was. After a few messages I asked him out on a date and he said he’d think about it!
“Then the next week he messaged me back and said he’d love to go on a date."
Recalling their first date together, Ceri said: "We went to a country pub. We sat by the fire and chatted over a drink, it was amazing. When we were leaving he asked if I’d walk with him to the boot of his car. I wondered if he was going to murder me and stuff me in it! But when he opened it there was a huge bunch of flowers which he gave to me.
“He told my daughter, Jasmine, months before he proposed that he was going to ask me to marry him. We’re so close it was torture for her not to tell me. Every time we passed a place she knew I wanted to get married in she’d say ‘Mummy, there’s something I really want to tell you but I can’t.’
“So I had an inkling that he might be thinking about it. Then we went on holiday together and I was sure he would ask me then. I made sure I looked proper nice every day but nothing happened. When we got home from the airport I was devastated.
“Then weeks later we went to a restaurant in Dartmoor to celebrate our third year anniversary. When we got back we sat in the car for a while just chatting and enjoying the peace
“He asked me to get him something from the glove compartment and there was a ring. He said ‘Ceri Poulton, will you marry me?’
“And I said ‘yes’ immediately before he could change his mind!
“He really is amazing. If I die tomorrow I’ll die happy knowing that my daughter is well cared for."
The couple will tie the knot surrounded by family and friends in a Christmas ceremony in November next year.
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