TWO years ago Gabrielle Brownlie’s love of food had spiralled so out of control her life was in danger.

She tipped the scales at 23 stone 11 pounds, had a body mass index of 53.5 and was classed by her doctor as chronically morbidly obese.

It had become a question of life and death – and Gabrielle, who lives in Acomb, York, decided she did not want to die.

“When you’re morbidly obese it basically means you are going to die,” she said. “I realised that if I didn’t do something about my weight I would kill myself.

“It came down to whether I wanted to live or die and I didn’t want to die.

“I desperately didn’t want diabetes and I knew I was at risk of having a heart attack too.

“When my ankles swelled up for 20 days and didn’t go down that totally and utterly freaked me out. I decided I had to do something.”

Gabrielle, 35, considered paying £11,000 to have gastric bypass surgery carried out privately, but eventually resolved to make radical changes to her lifestyle.

She kicked her 20-a-day smoking habit, joined her local Weight Watchers group and used the money she saved on cigarettes to get a personal trainer at Fitness First gym, in Clifton Moor.

Less than two years later, Gabrielle, who is 5ft 8ins tall, has lost a staggering ten stone, dropping from a dress size 28 to 14.

She said: “I used to eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. Having a large Dominos pizza with all the sides and then eating a whole tub of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream wasn’t by any means unusual.

“Now I don’t deprive myself of food because I love eating, but I choose the healthy options. I eat lots of fruit and vegetables.

“I still want to eat a whole cake, but I’m learning to control myself and only eat part of it.”

Gabrielle, who works as an internal auditor at Fitness First, said: “I’m a completely and utterly new person. I now do more things than I ever thought I’d do.

“This year I climbed Mount Snowdon and next year I’m going to do the Jane Tomlinson 10k.

“I went to see my doctor at the end of November and he told me that I wasn’t any level of obesity any more.

“I burst into tears because that was just so huge for me.”

Gabrielle is a member of the Weight Watchers group that meets on Saturday morning at the Holy Redeemer Church in Boroughbridge Road, York. For more information, phone 08457 123000.