THREE years ago an overweight Hampshire woman couldn't bear to look at herself in the mirror.

Now she has shrunk in size and started running slimming classes at West Wellow near Romsey.

Hannah Powell-Wright is now just over ten stone - having shed more than five stone since January 2012.

Explaining that she was a size 22 at the time and weighed 15st 7lbs and had struggled with her weight at school, 31-year-old Hannah said: “I was always the fat one, the one being picked on, the one pushed out of showers and laughed at, the one called Mr Blobby. I tried to take the role of joker, the funny one, the one that put on a front so that no-one knew how I felt.”

Hannah added:“I struggled for years with my weight but it got worse when I went to University where I became one of the lads, drinking pints and eating takeaways to fit in.”

Hannah pointed out that as she piled more weight on, she became very unhappy and depressed.

She met her now soldier-husband Frankie in October 2009 and Hannah said that while they were courting both of them piled the weight on.

But January 2012 became the turning point for depressed Hannah. She was sat on the sofa eating a pizza when she decided to do something about her weight.

“I had got to the point that I had to push myself off the sofa, had removed all mirrors in the house, I wouldn’t even undress in front of my boyfriend.”

Not long after, Hannah bumped into her then neighbour, Slimming World consultant Paul Glass who spurred her on to lose weight.

Hannah explained that she did not want to be fat anymore and 28-year-old Frankie whom she married in April last year (2014), paid for the first six weeks of her weight loss sessions.

“We swapped pies, pizza and takeaways for healthy home cooked food. I loved cooking again, it was so easy to follow and cooking from scratch meant I knew exactly what I was eating. We both had a busy work life, yet it was just so easy to follow. Spaghetti bolognese and chicken curry became a firm favourite in our house, and we made our own burgers too," added Hannah. Her husband was posted to Afghanistan while Hannah was on her weight loss plan.

“He hadn’t seen me for nine months. I wanted to do something to show him how far I had got and something for me to be proud of.

"Once at target, I booked a boudoir photo shoot. The last time Frankie had seen me I hadn’t wanted to undress in front of him and now I was going to be stood in my underwear having my photos taken,” said Hannah, who is now a slim size 10-12, adding: " I felt liberated and confident for the first time in years. Frankie has always been so supportive and there for me regardless. To send him the photos I had taken was saying; this is who I am now, it was the most wonderful thing I had done.”

Hannah's Slimming World classes are at Wellow Village Hall on Thursday evenings at 7.30pm and also 5.30pm from 15th October.