Angela needs a name that fits

Aug 14 2009 by Lisa Boyle

SHE was known as Big Ange to her friends.

But since losing more than ten stones, Angela Doyle’s pals will have to come up with a new name.

The Barrhill business woman's extraordinary weight loss was sparked by a cruel flight attendant.

Angela, who was a size 32, explained: “I’d been on holiday to Corfu with my mum. She wanted to sit on row one on the flight.

“As usual I quietly asked for a seatbelt extension, I knew there was no way the planes belt would get round my big belly.

“This young steward who was full of himself and reeking of aftershave announced as loud as he could that I couldn’t sit there because it was near a fire exit. Only people with normal mobility could sit there and I’d have to move.

“I was absolutely humiliated and had to walk up the plane with everyone looking at me.

“I just cried the whole flight. It was horrible.”

Angela continued: “That combined with seeing a photo of myself with a bow and arrow made me want to lose weight.

“For the first time I saw what other people saw.”

But Angela, who lives with husband Fred and 23-year-old son Ross, explains that up until that point she was perfectly happy with her weight.

She said: “Everyone assumes you must be miserable. I wasn’t. I had a happy marriage and I loved my life. I’ve never had confidence issues, even at my hugest.

“I stopped weighing myself at 20st because that’s all the scales would go up to. All I knew was I had a big body and a huge personality.

“My husband and my son loved me the way I was and never put any pressure on me to lose weight.”

Angela, 49, started to put weight on as a teenager.

She said: “Up until I was about 11 I was tall and gangly, but then I stopped growing in height and seemed to go outwards.

“My mum tried to make us eat healthy but I would binge eatin secret. I loved food, and stilldo.

“By the time I was 16 I was 13st.”

Angela, who is the managing director of a euro packaging firm, says she is having a lot of fun with her new look.

She said: “I’m really lucky because I got away with it. Touch wood, I haven’t had any underlying health problems. My heart is in good condition and I feel great.

“It took me two years to get the weight off but it was really tricky, it’s not been an easy journey.

“Now I’m having a lot of fun but I don’t really know how to dress myself at this size.

“I’ll take my son into River Island with me and he’ll say ‘oh no mum, you can’t wear that’.

“I’m hoping someone will offer to give me a makeover – I need it.”