ANNIKA Price lost so much weight while her husband was away in Afghanistan that he didn’t recognise her on his return.

The mum-of-two from Didcot lost seven-and-a-half stone in six months.

Her husband, Staff Sergeant Jamie Price, was on a tour of duty in Afghanistan at the time, and when she went to meet him when he arrived back, he walked past her.

Mrs Price, 28, who is 5ft 3in tall, said: “I look completely different.

“When we went to pick him up he didn’t recognise me, he did a double-take.”

Mrs Price, who works as a pharmacist in Didcot, said her secret was the Cambridge Weight Plan.

At her peak weight of 17 stone in February last year, she said she was “disgusting”.

“I say to my husband now, ‘I can’t believe you married me’.”

With Sgt Price spending a lot of time away from home, she said she would feed her children healthy meals, but then comfort eat herself late at night.

She said: “I just piled on the pounds.”

She tried various diets, but nothing seemed to work until she started the Cambridge plan.

Since she had lost weight, she said, she has more energy to play with her boys, three-year-old Bobby and Charlie, six, who goes to Manor School in Didcot.

She said: “It has made so much difference, being able to walk into a high street store and pick a pair of trousers off the peg rather than having to order specially online.

“I have so much more energy now, I can take my kids out and play with them.”

Originally from Essex, Mrs Price said one of her favourite things about Oxfordshire was being able to go on long county walks, which she is now able to do more.

The Cambridge diet involves eating three Cambridge-certified snacks each day – a milk shake or a cereal bar – until the target weight is reached.

Since she reached her new weight of nine-and-a-half stone, Mrs Price has started eating some of the food she likes again, but hasn’t put on any pounds.

She has so much faith in the method, she has now signed up to run a class herself.

Mrs Price will be holding free, one-to-one drop-in sessions in the All Saints Community Hall in Roman Place starting on Thursday.