"Getting on the Love Your Liver unit and changing my mind and my health was the best thing I could have done."

I’ve been overweight for many years and weighed 26 stone at my heaviest. I tried losing weight, but it never came to anything which I regret. Intermittent fasting is too rigid for me, and while Slimming World is really good, I would go for naughty food when I was down. It wasn’t doing me any good, so knew I had to sort out my headspace.

I have other health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes and fibromyalgia, and my husband is my carer but he’s got arthritis, and I didn’t want to be so bad that he had to do everything for me.

When I saw the Love Your Liver unit in Southend High Street I wanted to know what it was all about as I’m a very inquisitive person. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have found out just how bad my liver was and carried on as I had been.

I use a mobility scooter and asked if there was somewhere I could sit in the unit and they said yes. I filled in the At-Risk Checker and then had the FibroScan which Kirsty, the nurse, carried out for me. It was very quick and easy and my score was 30.2. Kirsty explained what that meant and gave me a letter to take to my GP.

The GP referred me to a gastroenterologist which took six months and for an ultrasound which took four. In the meantime, I was back Slimming World and my diabetic nurse had put me on Mounjaro so I was three-and-a-half stone lighter by the time I had the scan. It showed I had an enlarged liver and spleen, but the results were better than they had been at the unit. My blood tests were better too.

The gastroenterologist arranged for another blood test in six months’ time to see how I’m doing and will see me again then.

I now go to the gym two or three times a week and really enjoy it, but pace myself a bit because of the fibromyalgia. I’m carrying on with the Slimming World too and can get into smaller clothes now and everyone’s been saying that I look so good. I’ve also had counselling and getting my liver sorted will help bring my anxiety down.

I’ve now lost four stone and hope to weigh 14 stone in a year’s time. Getting on the Love Your Liver unit and changing my mind and my health was the best thing I could have done.

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