ONCE crippled with arthritis and weighing in at 22-stone Skipton woman Jane Timmins has started a new lease of life as a fitness instructor.

Less than five years ago Jane was told by doctors that she would be in a wheelchair within six-months and her husband was arranging a second marriage blessing while she could still walk down the aisle.

The blessing went ahead as planned at Holy Trinity Church, with Jane's dream of being given away by her father for the first time coming true.

But it wasn't the only dream she had, and Jane immediately set about phoning round several gyms in Craven, finding the most sympthetic ear at One Step Ahead in Skipton.

Within minutes of arriving at the Swadford Street gym, owner Amanda Quintana had Jane gently taking her first unaided steps on a treadmill.

Since then plain old "exercise" has been the secret of Jane's remarkable rise from the brink of a life spent in a wheelchair.

Only last week she was finally diagnosed with osteo-arthritis but, at a trim 14-stone, she is planning to go back to Craven College in September to further her fitness expertise for her aerobics and body pump classes.

She said: "In the early days no-one was more concerned about me than my husband Martin, who was worried I would put myself through more pain through exercise.

"Once the gym had to call for him because no-one could release my grip from one of the machines. My arthritis was that bad.

"I had gone through two hip osteotomy operations, where surgeons had to saw through my bones to realign the angle of my hips.

"But since then the gym has been my saviour and Amanda was the only one who said, 'come and see me' when I asked for advice on where to start. She has become a great friend to me.

"I would urge anyone who feels there is nothing that can be done for their weight problems to look at what I have done and do it themselves."

Picture by Stephen Garnett. 35/91263/21a

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