Black Country teaching assistant Jo Webster has shed eight stone – the equivalent of a small woman – in just over a year.

And it’s all for the sake of her daughter Lottie, aged three. Jo, aged 37, can now keep up with Lottie and even does “Zumba” fitness classes at Wordsley Church Hall after slimming down from a huge size 26 to a 12 to 14.

She joined Slimming World 15 months ago — when she tipped the scales at 19.5 stone — because she was feeling “fat and frumpy” and was struggling to run and play with Lottie.

Now Jo, who is 5ft 6in tall, weighs just under 11.5 stone.

“I couldn’t get up off the floor once I managed to get down,” said, Jo, who lives with her husband, Malcolm, an electrician.

“If Lottie ran away from me then I couldn’t run to chase her and I found it extremely hard carrying her up the stairs and had to stop half way to take a breath.

“Now, when my daughter says ‘Mummy why are we running up the stairs?’ my answer is ‘because I can’.”

Jo, of Beale Street, Stourbridge, is now putting her much-reduced weight behind an “obesity challenge”.

She is encouraging others to eat more healthily and slim down by supporting the 12-week “Let’s Beat It Together in Stourbridge” campaign, being launched by Slimming World on Feburary 28.

She attends the Oldswinford Slimming World Group at St Mary’s Church Hall, Rectory Road, which meets every Wednesday at 5.30pm and 7.30pm.

Jo, who works at Mount Pleasant School, Quarry Bank, said: “Losing weight has been such a positive experience and I’ve not had to go hungry either.

“I fill up on loads of pasta, rice and potatoes, fish, meat and vegetables and I still enjoy a drink and continue to have my Chinese takeaway and fish & chips!”