Pensioner Carol Bennett has gone from a frumpy housewife to glamorous granny after dropping five dress sizes.

Grandmother-of-seven Carol, aged 61 decided to fight the flab after ballooning to a size 20 and being horrified by her frame in holiday photographs.

Carol, of Rockingham Close, Bloxwich, joined a slimming club in 2004 as she weighed 13 stones.

Within a year she had dropped to seven stones and 12lbs – and has kept the weight off ever since by ditching chocolate and crisps for proper balanced meals and vegetables.

She is now being celebrated as a gold member in her class group for staying at her target weight for so long.

She said: “My weight had slowly been increasing over the years but when I saw how I looked in holiday photographs it was just disgusting and I knew I had to do something about it.

“I was absolutely huge.”

Her weight loss has delighted husband Brian, 60, who works for the Collier Motor Group. “He said he would love me whatever I looked like but I think he was chuffed to bits I managed to lose all this weight”, Carol said. “I’ve been out and bought a whole new wardrobe.”

Carol still keeps a daily food diary to keep tabs on her svelte frame.

And she puts a lot of her success down to her course leader Beverley Longsden, who runs her WeightWatchers classes on Thursdays at St John’s Methodist Church in Bloxwich.

“Beverley is an inspiration to me”, she said.