Weight loss surgery was to be Amanda Firth’s last resort.

Dieting had failed and Amanda was feeling low. She’d struggled with her weight since her teenage years but after settling down and having children she, like many women, became complacent.

Gradually the weight crept on. At her biggest, Amanda was wearing size 26 clothing. She admits she was so embarrassed about her size it was severely impacting on her social life.

The prospect of parties or get- togethers filled her with dread, not to mention the toll her weight was taking on her general health.

Frequently feeling breathless and suffering constant backache, Amanda decided enough was enough and with encouragement from her husband Wayne – the man she credits as her “rock” – she went to see her GP.

She tried medication, but didn’t feel comfortable about taking tablets. Weight loss surgery was suggested as an option and Amanda was referred to a consultant.

It is two years since the 42-year-old mother-of-three from Bradford boycotted having a gastric bypass operation, and she says she couldn’t feel better having achieved the weight loss herself through dieting and a whole lot of determination.

Amanda takes great satisfaction out of the fact that she achieved her slender frame by doing it her way instead of opting for the surgeon’s scalpel, and now she’s hoping to inspire others to do the same by becoming a consultant for Slimming World – the organisation which helped her shed the pounds.

“I’ve saved the NHS £6,500 as it was then,” says Amanda, referring to the cost of the operation she was scheduled to undergo in November 2011.

Amanda had suffered with her weight since her late teens. She admits she’d become settled after marrying and having her children, eldest son Joshua, 17, 14-year-old daughter Jessica and five-year-old Alfie. “I’ve suffered with being big ever since I was about 18,” she recalls.

Leading busy lives, takeaways became a staple of the family diet, and while Amanda had tried to lose weight, she’d put it back on. “I did lose a little bit but I couldn’t keep it off and it went back on,” she explains.

Her daily menu would generally consist of a bacon sandwich to start the day and a takeaway tea. Amanda also loved crisps. “I didn’t snack on sweets, but I did like crisps. If I had a bag it wouldn’t be just one it would be two.”

By the time she was referred for surgery, Amanda wasn’t phased by the prospect of the operation, but she admits the closer it came, and the more information she had to digest, her concerns grew.

Conscious of her son’s impending 16th birthday, Amanda began to consider the potential risks. “What frightened me was because it was two weeks before my son’s 16th birthday. I was told I could end up in hospital for a long time, be in and out of hospital, and that it wasn’t an easy fix. I may have mashed food for a long time. I did know all this, I didn’t go in blind, but it highlighted it a lot more when it was coming to the crunch,” says Amanda.

“I thought ‘what am I doing to my body and what are my children going to be thinking?’”

A few days before the operation, Amanda took a call from her consultant’s secretary confirming arrangements for her surgery. “And I said I wouldn’t be coming. I said I was going to save the NHS a lot of money – I am going to do this the right way and for my family.”

Amanda knew she needed to be setting an example; teaching her children to eat healthily instead of resorting to what is often referred to as a quick-fix solution.

Instead of undergoing surgery, Amanda became more calorie conscious and within eight and a half months she’d lost three stone.

Working in a supermarket cafe, Amanda was delivering plates of food to customers on a daily basis, but she was determined not to be tempted.

To keep up the momentum, she enrolled with her local Slimming World and 18 months since her initial weigh-in Amanda has lost a staggering ten stone dropping from a size 26 to a size 12/14.

Amanda knows now she didn’t need the operation, but the prospect of surgery did make her put her situation into perspective and she has proved losing weight can be achieved by following an easy plan.

Now Amanda hopes to encourage others to achieve similar success at her class which runs from 7.30pm on Tuesdays at Bolton Methodist Church in Bradford.

She is also creating a play area during the session for those who are having difficulty finding childcare.

“I am just so passionate about it and I know people will lose weight,” says Amanda.

“And,” she adds, “I know this has put another 20 years on my life. I didn’t feel 42 before, I felt 62. I probably feel about 25 now!”