For Janet O'Mahoney, Christmas 1997 was a major turning point in her life.

The only thing she could buy with the gift vouchers her mother gave her every year was a size 24 dress.

Dispirited at her ballooning weight, she joined Weight Watchers to try to get into shape.

And last Christmas, she returned from the shops with a smile and size 14 trousers - having lost 77lb.

Housewife Janet joined the Cowley Weight Watchers Club in Oxford last June because at 15st 11lb she felt overweight and had begun to experience pain in her legs.

She is now a trim 10st 6lb and feels a shadow of her former self.

Janet said: "I feel a lot different now. I feel like a new woman.

"I can cycle a lot more and feel a lot healthier in general. I just have to keep my weight down now."

Janet said she piled on the pounds after having five children and looking after a busy family home in Barracks Lane, Cowley, Oxford. The 53-year-old embarked on a Weight Watchers 1, 2, 3 diet, which involves calorie-counting but allows for treats to ward off loss of motivation.

She said she ate a lot of vegetables and fruit and cereals such as branflakes sprinkled with sultanas.

"Luckily I like vegetables so it was not that hard," she joked.

"I also ate a lot of sugar- free jelly when I was hungry which I kept in the fridge for emergencies.

"The first week was a bit hard but then you get into it and it is really good.

"You do not feel you want to cheat."

However, this is not the end of the line for Janet. She is now aiming to lose even more weight in a bid to get down to 10st.

The Cowley club is also celebrating other successes. In the last four weeks, members between them have lost a total of 1,265lb.

Daphne Foulds, 73, of Meadow Lane, Iffley Road, Oxford, lost 80lb and Amy Waterston, 18, of Minster Road, Oxford, lost 56lb.

The club is based at the United Reform Church, opposite the police station in Cowley, and runs on Tuesdays at 9.30am, 5pm and 6.30pm.

Story date: Monday 15 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.