Weight-loss mum who tucked her saggy skin into her wedding gown renews her vows after surgically removing the folds
Aime Laws, 29, was left mortified when she failed to recognise herself in a "fat" photo from a night out with friends and went on to lose weight - eventually going from a size 28 to a 12
A MUM whose dramatic weight loss left her skin so saggy that she had to tuck it into wedding dress when she got married has renewed her vows after having surgery to remove the excess folds.
Aime Laws, 29, was left mortified when she failed to recognise herself in a "fat" photo from a night out and went on to lose weight - eventually going from a size 28 to a 12.
Impressively, by the time she married her now husband Gary Kearley, 35, in Jamaica in March 2015, she was down from 21 to just 11 stone.
But Aime was left with an apron of excess skin, which she had to tuck into her gown on her special day.
However, Aime finally feels body confident after having surgery to remove the folds – and has now renewed her vows in an intimate ceremony.
She said: "When we went to renew our vows it was like I was renewing my body, too. I felt 100 times happier in my body and in bikinis this holiday."
Aime added that while she did use to wear bikinis before losing the weight and excess skin, they were always a size larger so that she could "tuck her belly" in.
"I don't ever want to feel the way I did when I was big again”, she said.
Aime's problems with her weight started following a run of ill health when she was just a teenager.
Diagnosed with the rare blood disease thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) - clotting in small blood vessels which destroys the platelet count – she was placed on a course of steroids, which made her pile on the pounds.
"I should have been dead," said the Aime, who is mum to Coral, 10, and Kyra, four.
"You're supposed to have over 250,000 platelets, which prevent bleeding, and I only had 6,000.
"I was monitored for a year and a half while on steroids, but it made me put on weight."
However, Aime admits she did little to help herself.
A mixture of gorging on fatty takeaways and doing zero exercise meant her weight soared.
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At her heaviest, she would scoff a big bowl of Coco Pops and two rounds of toast for breakfast, a bag of crisps and a sausage roll for lunch and a huge portion of pasta, pizza or sausage and mash for dinner.
And she admits she used to love a big bar of chocolate as a night-time snack.
Then, one morning in the summer of 2009, she was looking through the previous night's photos on Facebook, when she pointed out an "unhappy, fat woman" and asked her friend who it was.
"My friend told me it was me, I couldn't believe it," she said.
"I never used to bother looking in the mirror, which I think gave me body dysmorphia, but I believed I was skinnier than I actually was.
"That photo was the turning point and I knew I had to slim down."
Determined, Aime started walking and running, but her regime was put on hold when she fell pregnant with Kyra in 2011.
She had her daughter the following February, and a year later was finally ready to get serious about losing the weight.
She began to exercise three times a week, incorporating at-home workouts and weightlifting with swimming and running.
In 2014, she even joined a gym.
Her diet also transformed. Breakfast became porridge oats with strawberries, while lunch was prawn salad with rice and dinner was chicken with sweet potato.
Her night time snack is now healthy protein-packed yoghurt.
"I can't remember being fat now," she said.
"Recently, we took the kids to McDonald's and I sat there with my prawn salad and water."
However, after losing 10 stone in just three years, Aime had a lot of loose skin around her middle, and her breasts were drooping.
So, in October 2015 she had an abdominoplasty - surgery to remove excess skin from around the stomach – as well as breast implants, taking her from a 38B to 36DD.
Now feeling confident with her new body, Aime and hubby Gary, an accountant, went back to Jamaica for a simple garden ceremony to renew their vows.
"My boobs don't slide under my armpits anymore," she said.
"We saw friends we'd made there the year before that said I looked great."
Aime said her husband is supportive whatever her size, but he does love her new fit and trim figure.
Now, Aime powerlifts an impressive three times a week with her "brilliant" coach Luke Andrews at Exclusive PT, Dorset.
She can dead lift 115kg, bench press 60kg and is working towards the aim of squatting with 100kg.
"You can have all the surgery in the world but that's not going to make you look toned," she said.
"I want to motivate others to work out."
Read Aime's blog at