Gina Wharton was only 25 years-old when she was given the devastating news that her left leg had to be amputated.

The operation left her so depressed that she began comfort eating – and within three years had ballooned from a size 10 to a size 20.

Even when she discovered disability sports and became a three-times British record holder for seated javelin, discus and shot put, Gina couldn't shake off the weight gain. It became, she says, “my biggest demon”.

Today, however, she has shed six stones and wants to tell her story to inspire others and help them get their lives back on track.

It’s fair to say that most overweight people don’t have the same obstacles to losing weight experienced by Gina, who is 38 and lives in Denby Dale. But her view is that if she can change her life then anything is possible with the right encouragement.

Now happily married with an infant daughter and employed as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation worker, she says: “I wouldn’t change anything. I love my life.”

It wasn’t always so.

Gina lost her leg after suffering a deep vein thrombosis. At the time she was an active young woman and never discovered why she’d been struck down with the condition. “It was just one of those things,” she explained. “My leg started swelling up and there were complications. It was an awful time and I had to pick myself up and learn to walk again.” But it took three years of depression, overeating and lack of motivation, until she finally took the plunge and asked for a prosthetic leg.

It was during one of her regular physiotherapy sessions that Gina was thrown a lifeline by a therapist who suggested she become involved in sport for the disabled. “I went to a day for disability sports at the Birmingham NEC and was talent spotted for field events,” she said. “I’d never done them (javelin, shot put and discus) before but I was sent on a fast-track programme and then trained at Loughborough University.”

Pictured at the new Resorts World at the NEC, Birmingham, are up to date photographs of the work in progress; a view from the bar

Gina proved to have an aptitude and was hoping that she’d be able to compete in the 2012 London Paralympics until funding cuts dashed her dreams. But she didn’t let that get her down and decided to take up wheelchair basketball for a club in Oldham – she is originally from nearby Rochdale – and then found herself drawn into wheelchair rugby, becoming the first woman to represent England in the wheelchair rugby league world cup.

It was through disability sports that she met her husband Andrew, a fellow wheelchair athlete and regional support worker for people who have had spinal cord injuries. They are, she says, extraordinarily content with their lives. “Something so devastating happened to both of us and we have ended up so happy,” she added.

However, throughout the years of sporting success and despite meeting the love of her life Gina was still living with the consequences of comfort eating. She said: “I couldn’t walk very far without getting out of breath and my back hurting; and my doctor tested me for diabetes because I had symptoms of excessive hunger and feeling tired all the time. I had turned to comfort eating because it was easier to eat than have to deal with my emotions, but my main issue now was how being overweight was affecting me physically.”

Like many before her Gina turned to a slimming club, adopted a healthy eating plan, lost a lot of weight and then gained some of it back. She tried another group, lost more weight, and then moved to Huddersfield where she became pregnant with her daughter Harper, now 10 months old.

Living feature on the Wharton family of Gilthwaite Crescent, Denby Dale. Gina and Andy with their baby girl

She explains: “I didn’t think much about my weight because I was so happy being pregnant and I’d already lost nearly four stones. Then after giving birth to my beautiful daughter just before Christmas last year I joined a Slimming World group and have lost another two stones. She is now down to 10 1/2 stones (67kgs).

“The health impacts have been huge,” she says. “I have the freedom to be able to do more and have more energy.”

Gina says she will continue to attend the slimming class but in the meantime is about to launch her own for Slimming World at the Derby and Joan Club in Skelmanthorpe, which will meet on Monday evenings. The first meeting is on October 31.

“I know I have the right empathy and I can motivate people who have been in the same position as myself,” she says. “I knew I was eating excessively but when you are so down in the dumps you don’t care because it’s the only thing that makes you feel good. I ate a lot of cakes and chocolates. It’s soul destroying because you have this horrible guilt. You hate yourself. I wouldn’t look in a full length mirror.

“The problem today is that food is so readily available. You get into a rut. People say they haven’t got time to cook but in the time it takes to get a take-away delivered they could have gone into the kitchen and cooked for themselves.”

But, as she has learned, there is a way out of the rut. “I am still on my weight loss journey.... it’s a lifestyle change, not a diet,” she adds.