KILLER CURVES; Becky shed 5st to clinch title.(Features)

Byline: KIRSTIE McCRUM

BECKY Rush has lost five stone, gained a boyfriend and won a national slimming title.

And when she picks up her four-year-old niece Josie for a cuddle, she realises she's lost more than her niece weighs.

Although she can celebrate her size now, the 5ft 7in 31-year-old from Chepstow admits that she has struggled with weight throughout her life.

"I've always had three slim sisters and a slim mother and I've always been overweight," she said. "I think it got worse when I went to uni. It wasn't going out drinking because we were in London so it was too expensive - it was eating pasta and things because it's so quick and cheap."

After her first degree in make-up and technical effects for film and theatre, Becky moved back to Wales and attended the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff to train in speech and language therapy.

It was three years ago, while she was doing this second degree course, that she realised it was time to make a change. Weighing 16st and wearing a dress size 22-24, she decided it was time to get in shape for good. "My friend Jane and her mum heard about Curves - they suggested I go with them, so I did," she recalls.

Becky had been going to the gym for two weeks when her younger sister Ellie was serious injured in a road accident.

"She was crossing North Road in Cardiff and she thought she could make it but she didn't see a car coming and she got knocked over. She ended up in the University Hospital of Wales for a couple of weeks," she says.

Becky was shaken by what happened, and her first reaction was to eat more.

"It was a stressful time, and I did eat more, but going to the gym then was brilliant, it was really good stress relief," she says.

After a few weeks of exercise, Becky started to follow a weight management plan and slowly she began to lose weight.

"I had been losing the odd pound every so often and then it just stopped. But it was because my metabolism had slowed down and doing the exercise alone wasn't kick starting it again, so the weight management plan really helped," she says.

It was after losing some of her weight that Becky plucked up the courage to join an internet dating site - and found love with her boyfriend Dave.

"Before I lost weight, I definitely wouldn't have had the confidence to do internet dating. I really hate having my picture taken, so having to take one and then put it online for everyone to see was bizarre. I hadn't seen Dave's profile on there but he saw mine and got in contact with me," she says.

Becky and Dave, who is a paramedic, had a memorable first date.

"Dave lives in Bristol, so we met at Aust Services," she recalled. "He said to me, 'What do you want to do' and I said, 'Oh, I don't know but I've always wanted to walk across the Severn Bridge'. So that's what we did!

"We did it again for our first anniversary last week."

This year, Becky has reached 11st 2lb and is a healthy size 12-14. Thanks to her success at the gym, she was inspired to enter the Curvette of the Year competition run by Curves. Much to her surprise, she won an all-inclusive five-star trip to Cuba and a shopping spree in Next.

"I'm so excited, I definitely want to go looking around, I can't do lying on a beach," she added.

Now that she's almost reached her goal, Becky says she's finally able to see the change in herself.

"It's not been until quite recently that I've noticed the weight loss. I still look into the mirror and have a bit of a shock sometimes because in my head I can still see what I used to look like.

"When you meet people that you haven't seen for a long time and they notice, it helps you realise it.

"I am delighted with my weight loss, I'm really pleased that I have done it. It's changed my life completely."

CAPTION(S):

Before - Becky weighed 16st Becky is slimmer - and happier