A primary school teacher from Staffordshire is less than half the woman she used to be.

Mother-of-two Rachel Joint shed an amazing 10 stones in just 16 months to become a yummy mummy.

The 39-year old from Lichfield weighed in at 18st 7lb in April 2009. Now 5ft 2in Rachel, who used to wear a size 26, is 8st 7lb and a size 8 to 10 and says she has got her life back.

Rachel, who works at a Lichfield school,said: “I’ve spent my whole life trying to lose weight but this is the very first time in my life I’m not fat, and I feel years younger.”

She said she had been overweight for as long as she could remember. But it was after undergoing an operation after an ectopic pregnancy, when she was unable to exercise, Rachel lost all control of her weight.

“As I got bigger, I felt too self-conscious to exercise and that made me unhappy and so I ate more and so it went on,” added Rachel.

After a while Rachel began to notice the effects of being overweight. She said: “I started getting heart palpitations down my right side and numb legs, it frightened me.”

Rachel can now play and keep up with her two adopted children Megan and Joseph and, after losing 21in from her waist, her nine-year-old daughter can now put her arms around her.

Rachel’s weight caused fertility issues. But she says she and her husband Mark, 46, an administrator at a children’s centre, have ended up with two beautiful children, Megan and Joseph, 11.

She says of her publicity pictures: “I look and think ‘It can’t be me.”