A 26-YEAR-OLD Lyneham woman has undergone a dramatic change in her life after losing more than eight stone, following a hard truth from her grandad.

Wendy Gransbury weighed 17 stone 10 ounces in 2013 and relied on crutches to walk but decided to change her life after her grandad, Jim, confronted her.

“We were at a family get-together that my family tend to do and he took me to one side and said ‘you’ve gained a hell of a lot of weight’ and he was concerned for my health,” said Miss Gransbury.

“I was heartbroken. He was my hero and so to hear it from him was hard.

“I’d heard it from doctors that my health was in danger but to hear it from someone I looked up to so much, it was hard love but it did open my eyes.”

Miss Gransbury decided to join the Royal Wootton Bassett Slimming World group and over the next year lost more than three stone. But her world was turned upside down with the death of her grandad.

“He had a stroke and from Christmas 2013 until March 2014 he was bed-bound and dying,” said Miss Gransbury, who works as a civil servant.

“I cared for my nan, who had Alzheimer’s, and so I stopped going to the group for almost a year and a half but I decided to go back when I was going through photos of my grandad.

“I was just looking through memories and remembering the good stuff about him and I knew he would want me to carry on.”

After re-joining the group in June 2015, Miss Gransbury lost almost five stone and currently weighs just over nine.

As well as still attending the Royal Wootton Bassett group, she also holds her own Slimming World classes in Lyneham at St Michael's Church Hall, every Thursday at 5.30pm and 7.30pm.

“It’s nice to be able to help people get the feeling that I got,” she said.

“Putting it on is really easy but losing it is hard.

“What I would say to people is, don’t give up on yourself, one of the hardest things to do is believe that you can do something like that.

“You’re not doing it for anyone else, you’re doing it for yourself.”