A father has literally gone up and down in weight and shed seven stone – after getting stuck in a roller coaster.
Richard Jeferies, 48, tipped the scales at 24 stone but only realised he had a problem after getting wedged in ”Sonic Spinball” at Alton Towers.
The father-of-four was at the theme park with his daughter Isabella, 8. when he struggled to fit into the ride.
Staff had to stamp on the bar to make it lock around Richard which meant he struggled to breathe.
And when the carriage finally came to a stop overweight Richard was left wedged in the seat and had to be heaved out by staff.
He says he was spurred on by the embarrassing experience and immediately launched a fitness regime of eating salads and hitting the gym.
In just over a year he has shed 7st 14lbs and now weighs a much healthier 16st 9lbs.
Richard, of Sheerness, Kent, said: “When we sat in the car the attendant could not get the bar to go down so he was stamping on it.
“I had to decide whether it was more embarrassing to get off or wait while they tried to stamp it on.
“I could barely breathe. It was spinning round and I thought ‘they are going to be taking a corpse off this’.
“I swore I would never go on a ride again. It was those little triggers that made me realise.”
Richard, a theatre volunteer, said on another occasion he was mortified when he heard a little girl in a supermarket car park point at him and say: “look mummy, a fat man”.
He said: ”When I heard the little girl say I was fat I was really hurt. I was too upset to turn round so I just kept walking.
”If someone had said to me I would be eating salad for lunch and going to the gym three times a week I would never have believed them.
“It’s given me a whole new lease of life – I can run and keep up with my children.”
Richard, who lives with his wife Fiona, 45, a full-time mother and four children, had considered weight-loss surgery in the past.
But he joined Weight Watchers and after dramatically changing his diet and exercising, the weight started to drop off.
