'my son said i was too fat to be seen with him': brutal remarks spur 17st mother into losing seven s

A mother dropped seven stone after her son told her she was 'too fat' to be seen out with him.

Lee-Ann Dixon, 36, from Alvechurch, Worcestershire, was so shocked by her then-11-year-old son's words that she immediately resolved to lose weight.

The mother of three joined and gym and started eating healthily - and she enjoyed working out so much that she's turned it into a new career. She is now a qualified fitness instructor.

She even set up the Alvechurch Road Runners club and completed a half-marathon in Birmingham. Next, she is competing in the Women’s Running 10k Race in Sutton Park on May 3.

Back in 2010, it was a very different story. Then, Spencer Dixon told his mother he didn't want to be seen with her when she offered to take him to a friend's party.

'He said, "I can’t be seen with you - everyone thinks you’re fat,"' says Ms Dixon, who weighed 17st 5lb at the time.

'He confessed he had been taunted at school for having a fat mum.

'I was devastated. It made me aware that [my weight] wasn’t just impacting on me, it was impacting on my family as well.

When I look back I’m actually glad it stopped when it did.'

Ms Dixon said her son's honest confession shamed her into changing her lifestyle and swapping large portions chocolate and sandwiches for healthy snacks and running.

She has three children and a husband, Ian, and says she piled on the pounds during her pregnancies with Spencer, now 15, Millie, 13, and Rosie, ten.

'I was really active at school,' she says. 'I played netball for the county and did long jump.

'But things changed when I went to work in the accounts department on an office.

'I stopped being active and ate a lot during shifts.

'Then I started gaining weight when I got pregnant with Spencer it gradually got worse.'

When Mrs Dixon was a size 22, overweight for her 5ft 5 frame, a typical day's worth of food would include two bowls of cereal for breakfast, two sandwiches and a big bar of chocolate for lunch, then a large home-cooked meal in the evening.

'I was a comfort eater,' admits Ms Dixon, who is now a svelte size ten and weights a healthy ten and a half stone.

'I would snack on cakes and chocolate if I felt low. I was depressed and accepted I was going to be a size 22 forever.'

After her son's brutally honest remarks, she started running and joined fitness club, Slimming World in January 2010.

'When Spencer said he was being taunted at school and was embarrassed to be seen out with me it forced me to look at myself and make changes for the better,' she says.

'I started running and found it gave me extra impetus and my weight loss really began to accelerate.'

Of the women's only race next month, she said: 'I’m really excited. So far 14 members from the running club are doing this event, and we are all really looking forward to it.

'Running is my life - there’s no going back now.

'Losing the weight has changed my life, and Spencer is now happy to be seen with me and has a mum he can be proud of.'

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