A woman from Weymouth who struggled with her weight after being diagnosed with breast cancer is now helping other people lose weight.
Anne-Marie Jarvis, 45, was diagnosed with hereditary breast cancer eight years ago. Her mother passed away from breast cancer and out of her seven children, including Anne-Marie, five of them were passed on the hereditary breast cancer gene.
Anne Marie said: "I had lost my mum to breast cancer and it was a shock at the time when I was diagnosed with it.
"I have had many operations and I am still living with it. I will always have it because it is incurable.
"When I was first diagnosed I could never have imagined I would still be here eight years later.
"I left work because I wanted to be at home with my boys and I couldn't go back to work because I wasn't sure when my tumour was going to come back and I was in and out of hospital."
Anne Marie is now back at work as a Slimming World consultant, where her hours can be flexibly arranged around her needs.
"I have been doing it for a few weeks now and I absolutely love it. It's nice to be wanted in the work place again and be something other than just a cancer patient.
"After my diagnosis I found comfort in food and slowly my weight crept on through the years without me really noticing. I lost my confidence and had withdrawn from my usual happy self.
"I joined Slimming World in January 2018 and got my confidence back. I decided I wanted to help others achieve their dreams too, so I applied to be a Slimming World consultant.
"I feel like I can help these people because I have been in that position myself. It's obviously different when you have cancer, but those feelings of being depressed and down and having a lack of confidence is similar to how it feels for some people when they have put on a lot of weight.
"It's so rewarding to see them after a few weeks of getting on the scales. It can be scary at first but it's so nice to watch their confidence grow."
Anne-Marie's group meets on Thursdays at St Paul's church hall on Abbotsbury Road, Weymouth between 9.30am-11.30am. For more information contact Anne-Marie on 07754582219.
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