A diabetic mother "embarrassed and ashamed" by her weight shed nearly 12 stone - even while battling the threat of homelessness.

Louvaine Hunt, from Watford, weighed 30st4lbs at her heaviest - but was determined to make a positive change.

The 38-year-old joined Weight Watchers in May 2016, but three months later in August, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

Then just one week after being in hospital her family were evicted from their home and placed in temporary accommodation 25 miles away.

The mother-of-five still had to take her children to school every day in Watford and did not move back to Watford until October.

But despite the challenges, and feeling "devastated" at her weight, she ploughed on.

She said: “So many emotions went through me. Mostly shame and embarrassment as I finally saw what I had been denying to myself for a long time.

"This whole period left me feeling very down. I didn’t share my problems with anyone at my Weight Watchers group but

"I tried to attend when I could and whenever I did Louise, my instructor, would welcome me back and her helpers and their encouragement kept me going.

“I weighed in after Christmas expecting to have gained but I hadn’t.

"Around that time I had an routine diabetes eye examination during which I was told that I have a coiled blood vessel in one of my eyes and that if my blood pressure or blood sugar levels aren’t well controlled it could burst and I would go blind.

"This really shook me into reality and I knew then that I had to take back the control.”

She snapped into action and signed up for Cancer Research's Race for Life and her confidence grew with every morning run.

By April she had joined a netball group and in the summer she joined a gym, going to Zumba classes three times a week.

She credits her success to her husband and family. 

"They lifted me up on the bad days and lifted me even higher on the good ones," she said. "Without them, I might have given up.

"I actually feel like the me that I was before I joined was a completely different person."