Ellen's not the woman she was (From Redhill And Reigate Life)

Ellen's not the woman she was

2:59pm Tuesday 15th April 2008

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A WOMAN from Redhill has gone down ten dress sizes after completing a charity diet in memory of her friend.

Ellen Maden, 32, began her "sponsored shrink" eight months ago to raise money for Cancer Research and finished with £2,600, twice her target.

Her friend Jes Symes died from a rare form of the disease.

She dropped from 17st 5.5lb to 11st 11lb, from a size 24 to a size 14 and was sponsored by people she had never met through her website shrinking4jes.com following an article in Life last year.

Ellen, who lost the weight by starting swimming and roller blading, said: "Losing the weight was hard but not as hard overall as I thought it would be.

"I adjusted reasonably quickly to the new eating plan and found hunger was not as constant a companion as I thought it would be.

"But there were periods that were tough, December being the most notable, and emotionally it was hard to change my habit of turning to food when things were rough.

"I'm still feeling very sad about losing Jes and my finish day was very emotional as it would have been his 49th birthday but I am delighted to be able to give such a significant sum in his name to Cancer Research UK."

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