Obese woman was so fat she nearly killed her daughter in a head-on car crash – and now she’s transformed her life after losing 11 STONE
Jeannette Hunnisett, 45, weighed a massive 23.5-stone when she fell asleep at the wall and nearly killed her daughter and brother
A MUM shed a whopping 11 stone after she nearly killed her five-year-old daughter in a head-on crash because she was too fat to stay awake.
Jeannette Hunnisett, 45, weighed a massive 23.5-stone when fell asleep while driving her brother Jamie Hunnisett and daughter Daisy in February last year, causing her car to veer into the path of oncoming traffic.
Heroically, her brother managed to grab the wheel and steer the car out of harms way before Jeannette woke up.
The near miss, which happened as the family travelled home from visiting Daisy’s grandparents, was a turning point in the mother’s life that she said had previously been spent “laying around” untroubled by the health risks of her spiralling obesity.
Her hefty weight caused the Hackbridge mother to develop sleep apnoea, a condition that causes the walls of the throat to relax and narrow while sleeping, disrupts sufferers’ slumber.
The condition has been linked to obesity because people who are overweight have excess fat in the back of their throat.
Jeannette blamed the sleep apnoea, which caused her to be constantly tired, for her falling asleep at the wheel.
She said losing 11 stone - the average weight of a British woman - allowed her to be a better mother to her now six-year-old daughter.
She added: “It took almost killing my daughter, my brother and myself to finally wake up and smell the coffee.
“Before then, I had been overweight all my life and had numerous health problems as a result. I just really didn’t care.
“I have lived the life that people are living now – laying about and not caring about the serious health risks of being overweight – and it might seem like a chore, to get up and lose weight, but it was so worth it.
“[Before I lost weight] my daughter would say, ‘Mum, I’m thirsty’, and [even] the thought of getting off the sofa to get her a drink was exhausting.
“Things that just didn’t happen before, like taking her to the local park, now happen all the time. We do things together now because I am capable of them.”
After ditching almost half her body weight, Jeannette no longer has Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol or sleep apnoea.
Jeannette swapped the chocolate and sofa for the Slimming World weight loss club and has not looked back.
She said the changes she has made to her lifestyle aren’t huge, but come down to eating in moderation and walking more and now she has got her whole family involved.