Amateur Park Street runner wins Westminster Lodge award after dramatic weight loss
Bernadette Newby lost four and a half stone and has won Westminster Lodge's 'Most inspirational woman' award - Credit: Archant
The accolade of ‘most inspirational woman’ has been awarded to an amateur runner following her dramatic weight loss.
Bernadette Newby, 45, from Park Street, was chosen as the winner of Westminster Lodge’s award after losing four and a half stone.
The award comes as part of Sport England’s national campaign This Girl Can, which was launched earlier this year to celebrate active women across the nation.
The drive to lose weight came after the birth of her second daughter, “I was unfit, unhealthy and looked awful,” Bernadette said.
She added: “I was always the kid in PE that got picked for a team last or worse than that got forced on a team captain as a leftover!
“I always believed I was bad at sport and never bothered to try, so for the last 43 years of my life I did nothing more than walk the dog.”
She began her weight loss journey in 2013 after she won some personal training sessions in a silent auction.
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Following her sessions she decided to get into running- dropping from a size 18 to a size ten.
She is now set to complete five half marathons this year, including St Albans, and has already conquered one in Hampton Court and Southampton.
Alongside her running, Bernadette has joined the back to netball classes at Westminster Lodge with her daughter where she plays weekly.
“Apart from being fitter and healthier myself, this change has had a real positive impact on my family,” she said.
Bernadette was nominated by her sister and beat a number of entries to the prize of a spa day for herself and her daughter.
She will now be entered into a national competition against 102 other women, where she could win £500.
