Weighing in at more than 15 stones, Karen Hitchin, hated being the centre of attention.

So when she was given a size 24 dress to wear, she decided to do something about it – and lost more than five stone.

Now Karen of East Morton, near Keighley, is set to run her second Great North Run in as many years after becoming a slim size ten.

Married Karen, 40, said: “I started at 15st 3lb and I had high blood pressure and I was given clothes in a size 24, when I was a size 20.

“So I just decided that enough was enough, so I joined Weight Watchers and 18 months later, I got to my goal weight of nine stone 12.

“I ran the Great North Run in September last year. A colleague of mine wanted to do it and, at first she pressured me into it but when I did it, I loved it!”

Karen, of Middlefield Court, managed to shed the pounds by cutting out fatty foods such as fish and chips, replacing them with oven-baked fish fingers instead.

She also started playing netball regularly and doing other forms of exercise and soon the weight stared falling off.

She said: “It was fantastic, I just felt like a different person through exercising and eating healthily.”

Karen, who works as a postroom assistant at Bupa in Leeds, is now waiting to hear if she has been successful in her application to run this year’s half marathon in Newcastle and Gateshead in September.

If successful, she will be among 54,000 runners at the live televised event and hopes to raise hundreds of pounds for Alzheimer’s charities.

“I’m hoping to do it again this year,” she said. “But I’m just hanging on and waiting to hear, which should be in the next month. I’ve been training recently and I also play netball as well in a league, so I’ve been keeping quite fit and I’m ready for it.”