AN INSPIRING medical secretary cured herself of diabetes by losing a third of her body weight on a strict diet.

Nita Tomkins, 57 of Great Yarmouth, dropped from 15st 3.5lbs to 10st 3.5lbs in nine months.

She had reached her lowest ebb in January when her doctor told her she had developed severe diabetes due to her weight and would need insulin injections to control it.

“I really did not want to die with diabetes,” said Mrs Tomkins. “I broke down and cried like a baby.

“When the doctor told me I had to go onto insulin injections I thought my world had come to an end and that was the motivation I needed to change.”

She had first been diagnosed with type two diabetes in 2003 due to her weight, which had slowly increased due to inactivity after a series of hernia operations.

But her diabetes gradually worsened and in January she was told of the full impact on her health, including the need for insulin injections.

Her blood pressure had increased and her blood sugar levels were not stable due to her weight.

So Mrs Tomkins started attending Slimming World classes and slimmed from a size 22 dress size to a perfect 10.

“I didn’t realise how much the weight had crept on until the end of last year,” she said. “I asked for a gastric band operation at one point but was refused as my body mass index (BMI) wasn’t high enough.

“I remember on January 4 I saw my doctor and the same day a leaflet for Slimming World came through my door.

“I started going to classes and I haven’t missed a week.”

She said losing the weight was easy once she had the willpower, and having been told how her weight was damaging her health she was determined.

She is keeping the weight off by exercising on a treadmill and playing on her Nintendo Wii games console.

And her husband Kez, a 45-year-old book printer, has been providing moral support and has lost six stone himself by dieting.

Mrs Tomkins has just been honoured with the Woman of the Year award from her Slimming World class in Great Yarmouth, and she placed fourth in all of the East of England in the running for the national Woman of the Year awards.

For information about Slimming World classes in Great Yarmouth, call David Dagnall on 07887 920767.