Women who weighed more than entire family loses 31 stone I knew that I had to change otherwise I'd leave my children motherless. Marie had piled on the pounds after her mum tragically died in her arms from a heart attack. She bulged from a petite nine stone 16-year-old to 50 stone on her 40th birthday after comfort eating to cope with the loss. Her constant scoffing lead to her becoming one of Britain's fattest women - rendering her completely house-bound and suffering from agoraphobia as a result. Marie explained: "I was normal weight up until I was sixteen. But then my mum died, and it hit me really hard. She died of a heart attack in my arms. She was with us one minute and gone the next. From that moment onwards I comfort ate. It was my way of coping with the trauma of it all. It just spiralled from there. My social life diminished as I hid myself away. I was so ashamed, I stayed at home and became agoraphobic. I knew that the sofa wouldn't collapse beneath me unlike chairs in public. I couldn't be embarrassed about my weight if I was locked away at home out of sight. But after her partner Paul, 36 - who she met in an online chat room - proposed, she embarked on a rapid weight loss regime in time for the wedding. In just two years she shed a whopping 31 stone - the same weight as her four children Alice, eight, Emily, 11, Lucy, 12, and Adam, 15, together. Marie said: "Paul proposing to me focused my mind and gave me that incentive to lose weight. I didn't want to look horrendous in my lovely white wedding dress. I used that and my fear of my children growing up motherless to stop eating junk food and turn my life around. Marie instantly went on a crash diet, restricting herself to just 800 calories a day. She binned the two litres of fizzy drinks, endless supplies of multipack crisps, six chocolate bars and two sausage rolls a day and replaced them with salads, white meat and water. After losing 15 stone through the diet, doctors advised her to have a gastric sleeve - cutting her stomach's size by 25 percent - in a bid to prevent her returning to her old ways. With the help of a personal trainer and gruelling fitness regime, the pounds continued to slip off, losing a further 16 stone. And as she walked down the aisle on November 5, 2011, Marie weighed just 21 stone. After continuing to workout she now weighs just 18 and a half stone. A jubilant Marie added: "Every woman wants to look a million dollars on their wedding day, and I was no different. It became an obsession to lose the weight in time. Changing my diet has been the biggest difference. Just not snacking and switching my food types has helped me shed most of my weight. I got a personal trainer and slowly but surely the pounds just fell off. At the wedding I weighed well over half what I did at my worst. Family members who hadn't seen me for a while, were gobsmacked - they barely recognised me. They thought they were at the wrong wedding. It made me feel so proud. I'm loving life again and have started up a group to help other people looking to lose weight. I want to share my experience and help others.