Big losers: Parents lost 21 stone to stop their children from being bullied

When Kerrie Kew’s husband decided to lose weight she threatened to divorce him - unless she lost weight first.
They weighed nearly a massive 50 stone between them - and Mrs Kew didn’t want her husband to be slim and fit unless she was too.
So they both booked in for a gastric bypass operation - six months apart - and have now lost a staggering 21 stone.

Impressive diet: Kerrie Kew threatened to divorce her husband, Paul, if he lost weight before she did

It has not only saved their marriage, but has stopped their children being bullied at school because their parents were so fat.
Mrs Kew, 41, said: ‘There was no way I was going to allow Paul to lose weight and for me to remain overweight. I didn’t want him to look great and leave me behind as the fat wife.
‘So I said to him that he could lose weight as long as I lost it first. If he went ahead and lost the weight then I would divorce him.

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It was a serious threat. If he hadn’t agreed, then I would have left him immediately there and then.
‘I was worried that if he was slim and I wasn’t, then he would leave me for a slimmer woman. I knew that I had to take action before he did.’
The couple, who live in Hazelmere, Buckinghamshire, with their two children Harrison, ten, and Hannah, six, were so overweight that they couldn’t ride a bike, go swimming, or play with their children.
Mr Kew, 41, weighed a massive 26 stone 4, and Mrs Kew weighed in at a hefty 22 stone 4.

Before surgery: Paul and Kerrie on a beach holiday before they had gastric bypass operations

Mrs Kew, a personal assistant at a building manufacturers, said: ‘We tried to take the children for a bike ride one morning and I was so enormous that I got wedged between the saddle and the handlebars and couldn’t move.
‘Neither Paul or I could get up the stairs without feeling out of breath and I couldn’t even get dressed in a morning by myself. Paul had to help me.
‘And Paul couldn’t drive the car easily, as his stomach always got wedged behind the steering wheel.
‘The children got teased at school because they had such fat parents.
'It was heartbreaking when we would pick them up after school and they would be crying.’
The couple had both trained as chefs and started to pile on the weight after they met.
Mrs Kew said: ‘We would eat homemade pies and lasagnes and cook new recipes for each other. We just ate massive meals, which piled on the weight.’

Motivator: Kerrie and Paul's children were being bullied at school because they were overweight

It was when their children started getting teased at school that the couple decided that they needed to take action.
They had tried several diets before but nothing had worked, so they discussed having a gastric bypass operation.
But there was one condition. Mrs Kew refused to let her husband go first and lose weight before her. If he did, she told she would divorce him straight away.
She said: ‘I was determined that Paul wasn’t going to lose the weight before me. I wanted to do it first.
‘There was no way I was going to risk him losing the weight and me not being able to.’
The couple underwent their gastric bypass operations. Mrs Kew had hers first, in July 2009, followed by Mr Kew six months later in February last year.

Ladies first: Kerrie had her gastric bypass six months before Paul did

Mrs Kew had been warned there was a one in 100 chance of dying during the operation and she wrote a heartbreaking letter to her children in case anything happened to her.
She said: ‘I knew there was a risk. But I knew that if I didn’t have the operation I wouldn’t live long enough to see them grow up anyway.
‘I knew I had to have it and it was a risk I had to take.’
Mr Kew was by his wife’s side when she had her operation. Afterwards she was only allowed liquids and after six weeks she had lost more than two stone.
She said: ‘Thankfully the operation was a success and the weight began to fall off me. Paul helped prepare mashed up food for me to eat and I started to feel much healthier.’
Then Mr Kew underwent his operation too, and the weight began to fall off him aswell.
Within 12 months of her operation Mrs Kew had lost a staggering 11 stone, and three months ago, Mr Kew hit his target weight loss of ten stone too.
Now Mrs Kew weighs a slim 11 stone 4, and Mr Kew weighs 15 stone ten.
She has dropped a staggering nine dress sizes, from a size 32 to a slim size 14, and Mr Kew’s chest size has gone from 58 inches down to 44.
Mrs Kew said: ‘We both feel absolutely fantastic. Now we can take the children to the park and join in their games - and best of all they aren’t teased at school. We can go and stand at the school gates and they are proud to be seen with us.
‘We exercise regularly and we don’t get out of breath running up the stairs. We’ve replaced our lasagnes and fish and chips with low fat chicken, rice and vegetables, and we are determined not to put the weight back on.
‘And our marriage has been saved too as I now don’t have to divorce my husband for being slimmer than me.’