Diagnosis motivates inspirational Barrhead slimmer to shed 10.5 stone

Sarah Fox, who previously tipped the scales at 25.5 stone, her dad Peter, 73, and her young son Corey, 9, all have hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), which causes weakness and stiffness in the leg muscles with symptoms gradually worsening over time.

It's difficult to know exactly how many people have HSP because it's often misdiagnosed - like it was for Peter for many years.

Sarah Fox (Image: Newsquest)

Sarah told the Barrhead News: “My dad started having problems walking when he was 40 and they diagnosed him with cerebral palsy.

“We kind of took that with a pinch of salt because you don’t really develop cerebral palsy in your 40s, so they didn’t really know exactly what was wrong.”

Indeed, it wasn’t until Corey, who has complex needs, was born that genetic tests revealed the truth.

The diagnosis eventually became “the kick up the backside” the 32-year-old mum-of-two needed to “get her act together” to shift the weight before it was too late.

“It clicked that when I’m about 40, I’m probably going to have the same problems as my dad and I’m going to be on a downward spiral from then on to losing my mobility completely,” said Sarah who also has an 11-year-old daughter Orla.

“My dad is very skinny and, when he falls, he is a tonne of weight to pick up, so I thought if I’m 26 stone it’s going to be very hard for people to care for me when I can’t walk.

“I wanted to lose the weight before I got to the stage where I couldn’t lose the weight.”

A self-confessed “emotional eater” who loves pizza, macaroni, crisps and chocolate, Sarah says she was “always overeating” and “had a very unhealthy relationship with food”.

She has spent her life battling with her size, which previously led her to trying different diets and cutting out her favourite foods, but “restricting herself” simply never worked.

Working out at the gym has been a big part of Sarah's transformation (Image: Sourced)

A more successful attempt at transformation, however, started in earnest during lockdown as she began watching what she was eating and doing at home work-out videos.

She later joined Slimming World (SW) which gave her the head start she needed as she learned about better ways of cooking and portion control.

It meant that Sarah, who is the most successful slimmer in the five-year history of classes run by Sarah McElroy in Barrhead, could still enjoy the food she liked.

SW was, however, just one aspect of a journey which the mum calls the “hardest thing I have ever done” and has seen her become an avid gym goer and recruit the help of a personal trainer.

She hopes her improved fitness will help slow down the progression of symptoms of HSP.

“The condition can wear away at your muscles and cause weakness so I’m at the gym every day now to build my strength because in my head stronger muscles are going to take longer to deteriorate aren’t they?" Sarah, who lives in Lugton, explained.

“The stronger I am hopefully the slower the progression will be. I’m hoping so anyway.

“For the past six months, I’ve been working hard with my personal trainer to get the most out of my workouts and to make sure I’m eating the right things.

“I've needed to do weight training as well to make sure that my muscles, my legs especially, are getting nice and strong."

Sarah's husband James, Orla, Sarah and Corey (Image: Sourced)

“It’s a weird feeling. I don’t see much difference when I look in the mirror. I’m still me because it’s been such a gradual change," she added.

“It’s not until I look at pictures of me before and after that I realise that’s me, I’ve done it."

Sarah is not sure how much more she wants to lose, but she says she has "maybe got a wee bit more to do.”

There can be no denying, however, that the results so far have been transformative to her life.

“If I can do it, anyone can do it," she added. "Hard work really does pay off.

"When I was more than 25 stone I thought I was doing a great job in caring for my son but there were certain positions I couldn’t get into while doing his physiotherapy.

“He can’t walk, he uses a wheelchair full-time and he needs help with personal care so I was very active, but it’s not until I compare it to what I can do now that I realise how much of a struggle it was for me.

“I thought I was managing okay but it's only now I realise what I was missing out on."