When Tom Leonard-White suffered a slipped disc in his back while bending down to get into his car, it turned his world upside down.
The 38-year-old spent three weeks bedridden while he tried to recover - relying on his husband for everything from meals to bathing.
Tom had barely healed when he suffered yet another slipped disc just eight months later. This time, the accounts manager learned his chances of injury were much higher because of his weight.
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Tom, who tipped the scales at 20st 12lbs at the time and fit into size XXL tops, said: "It was utterly mortifying and my husband had to literally do everything for me.
"Then I recovered for it to happen again eight months later and it was even worse. I should have been hospitalised really but I refused to go because I would have to have been recovered from the house and I couldn't walk.
"My physiotherapist was very straight with me and told me it was being made much worse by my weight."
Tom, from the High Lane area of Stockport, had always struggled with his weight. He had experimented with various fad diets over the years but nothing seemed to help him slim down.
"Over the years I've experimented with every fad diet going," he said. "And while I'd often lose some weight before a holiday or big life event, within a few weeks of being back, I'd put it all back on and more.
"With two house moves, a job redundancy and losing my dad to terminal cancer in a 12-month period, I felt at my lowest. With my weight at the heaviest it had been, I knew something had to change."
Tom decided to sign up to Slimming World online in 2022 and managed to lose two stone. When his weight plateaued, he chose to attend face-to-face group sessions and went on to shed a total of 5st 5lbs.
Instead of ordering four takeaways a week, Tom taught himself how to cook healthy meals and began uploading his creations to his TikTok account @Slim.Kitchen. Incredibly, he now has almost 70,000 followers.
"I have gone from feeling completely embarrassed about myself and thinking of every reason possible to not go to social occasions when invited to feeling genuinely so much happier.
"My mental health has improved immeasurably; not being anxious about being seen by other people is so freeing. So much so that I'm putting myself in front of people as a Slimming World consultant to help pass that feeling on to others."
High Lane lost its Slimming World group in 2023, but after completing intensive training at the Derbyshire based training academy, Tom is set to bring back the much-loved group back to the village from October 25.
High Lane's new Slimming World group will be held at High Lane Conservative club at 9:30am every Friday.