Two York sisters are shadows of their former selves after they shed 15 stone between them.

Karen Gatenby and Nicola Fiddeman knew the time had come to fight the flab when they booked a holiday to Florida.

"I thought, my God, what if I don't fit into the aeroplane," said mother-of-three Karen, from Woodlea Avenue, Acomb.

She is keeping mum about just how heavy she was - but admits she has already slimmed down from a size 30 to a size 14 - and still has two stone to go.

Now she is all ready to pack her swimsuit and head off to the sun later this year.

With her will be her svelte size-10 sister, Nicola, from Marston Crescent, Acomb, who shed five stone in her own bid to shape up for the beach.

"It's turned my whole life right way up," said Karen, 35. "I feel I can start living and not watching."

Her children were able to put their arms right round her and hug her properly last Christmas for the first time in years.

She and Nicola shed the stones through a Slimming World club, run by Marjorie Child at Acomb Methodist Church.

"The first month was the hardest," said Nicola, 32. "We are eating more healthily now."

But Nicola warned their new svelte shapes may not last.

She said: "When we go to Florida, we will be eating what we want, so we will put weight back on. We will be back at Slimming World when we get back!

"But it is a lovely feeling being thinner, I must admit."

Both women are keeping mum about exactly what they weighed and how light they are now.

But Nicola admits she has had to buy a whole new wardrobe as her dress size shrank from 18 to 10.

Her old clothes didn't go to waste, though. She was able to pass many of her larger clothes on to her sister.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.