A Cork woman has placed top ten in Slimming World’s Top Target Consultant 2026 awards in the UK this weekend. Lynda Deady from Douglas lost six-and-a-half stone when she attended one of the slimming clubs herself 11 years ago and has maintained the loss for ten years.
She went on to become a consultant herself, and when she went to the UK over the weekend for the competition, she came in the top ten out of 5,500 Slimming World consultants,
Lynda’s journey began when she was in an accident years ago and suffered some back issues. She was due to undergo back surgery to alleviate the problem, but the surgeon told her that she would have to lose weight before having an anaesthetic.
“I knew I was overweight and I had tried everything that was out there to lose weight,” she says.
A while later, Lynda was at her brother’s house and spotted a Slimming World magazine on the counter. As she was flicking through it, she discovered that Slimming World was coming to Cork. This was in 2014 and she joined the Douglas branch, and lost two stones that enabled her to have the back surgery.
She gained almost a stone and a half as she recovered, but when she was able for it, she went back to her Slimming World club and went on to lose six-and-a-half stone. This meant that she reached her target and she has since embraced a healthier and more active way of living.
“I really did fall in love with the food,” says the mum-of-three, adding that she was cooking the family meals in a healthier way, and all of her family ended up becoming trimmer as a result. .
As well as changing her diet, Lynda walks her three dogs for two-and-a-half hours a day and she goes swimming and does Pilates. She says that the weight loss has improved her overall health and her life has been transformed.
“I was 60 last year and have five grandchildren under three, and I was on the ground with them on Sunday with them up on my back,” she says. “I wasn’t able to do that with my own kids when they were small.”
As she was such a success story and rated the programme so highly, Lynda became a Slimming World consultant herself. She runs four weekly classes in Douglas now and says that her weight loss greatly increased her confidence“When I joined my own Slimming World group all those years ago, I would have just sat in the corner and thought, ‘Please don’t speak to me’,” she says. “And I was able to stand up and speak in front of a judging team on Friday in England.”
Lynda gets real satisfaction from seeing her own members achieve their goals and says that there have been many memorable moments and great success stories.
“One girl messaged me to say that she had been turned down for IVF in Ireland,” she says. “She lost four stone and had IVF abroad and she sent me the 12-week scan of her little baby, saying, ‘Lynda, you have no idea how you changed my life’. Another girl lost six stone and had back fusion surgery, and she’s absolutely flying now. It’s not all about looking good, but it’s amazing for me to see people changing their lives.”
Lynda runs four Slimming World classes at Frankfield Community Centre, Douglas, T12 XE20. They take place at 5.30pm and 7pm on Wednesdays and 7am and 9.15 am on Thursdays. New members are always welcome. Contact Lynda on 087 127 2111.
