24-stone woman loses half her body weight to achieve lifetime ambition of going skydiving

By
Lucy Laing

Last updated at 3:57 PM on 4th February 2012

Emma Doggett’s ambition was to jump out of a plane in a skydive – but at 24 stone, she was told she was too fat to jump.

So she went on a diet to lose the weight and last week fulfilled her ambition by doing a skydive, weighing 12 stone.

Miss Doggett, 34, an advisor for a youth advice charity, said: ‘I’ve always wanted to do a skydive, but when I looked into it I was told that I was too fat to jump.

After being told she was too fat to skydive Emma Doggett (pictured below) lost 12 stone so she could fulfill her ambition on jumping from a plane

After being told she was too fat to skydive Emma Doggett (pictured below) lost 12 stone so she could fulfill her ambition on jumping from a plane

‘I was told the weight limit for a tandem sky dive was 14 stone – so I was more than ten stone too heavy.

‘It did seem like a lot of weight to lose, but I was determined to do it. Not everyone wants to jump out of a plane, but I really did and I was prepared to do anything to achieve it.’

Miss Doggett, who lives in Norfolk, decided to take action at the end of 2006, and she started on the liquid-only Cambridge Diet. She had struggled with her weight all her life, and decided that she wanted to do something to change it.

She said: ‘I didn’t want to be 30 and fat anymore. I’ve always been big, ever since I was a child. I’ve always been bigger than all my friends. Whilst they shopped in trendy teenage shops, I always had to get my clothes from the women’s sections as that was the only clothes that would fit me.’

By the time Miss Doggett was 19 she weighed 19 stone, and at the age of 24 she was rushed into hospital to stop her having a stroke as her blood pressure was so high.

For breakfast she would eat two bread rolls filled with fried eggs and bacon, then a couple of MacDonalds takeaways followed by a chinese takeaway. On Sunday she would eat two roast dinners, one for lunch and the other for tea.

She said: ‘In a single day I would eat about five big meals, and I’d easily snack my way through seven bags of salt and vinegar crisps, chocolate and sausage rolls. And I’d drink two litres of full fat coke each day too.

Emma Doggett

Emma Doggett

She’s half the woman she used to be: Emma Doggett has gone from 24 stone to her current weight of 12 stone

‘I just lived on takeaways too, especially Chinese. But I was so overweight that I couldn’t walk more than a few steps without getting breathless.

At the end of 2006, Miss Doggett started on her diet. By the end of 2007 she had lost 12 stone, then she had an operation in March 2008 to remove the excess skin left after her diet, which weighed a stone.

She had a further operation in March 2009 to trim away further excess skin, and then she was finally happy with her new slimmer figure.

She said: ‘I had thought that I would never be able to lose the weight, but it was surprisingly easy.

‘After I lost the weight I felt absolutely fantastic – I just looked like a completely different person. My best friend had asked me to be a bridesmaid when I first started losing weight, and I’d had a size 28 bridesmaid dress that had been bought for me.

Before the diet Emma Doggett would regularly eat two roast dinners on a Sunday, one for lunch and one for dinner

Before the diet Emma Doggett would regularly eat two roast dinners on a Sunday, one for lunch and one for dinner

‘As I kept losing the weight, the dress had to keep being taken in. In the end so much material had been cut away from the dress that I had to have a new one fitted in a size 14 for the wedding day. No-one could believe how much weight I’d lost.’

Eight weeks ago, Miss Doggett finally fulfilled her lifelong ambition – to jump out of a plane on a skydive.

She said: ‘It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but I’ve never been able to do it because of my weight.

‘I was so excited when I finally sat in the plane and it took off into the skies. Jumping out of the plane and seeing the ground so far beneath me was the most amazing exhilarating feeling in the world.

‘When I weighed 24 stone I never thought I’d ever be able to jump out of a plane. But losing 12 stone has finally allowed me to do it,  and it was worth the wait.’

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