A mother has credited reconnecting with a childhood sweetheart during a dark period of her life with helping her to pull off her weight loss achievement.

Julie Mutlow, 58 from Cheney Manor and Mark Harris, 57, from Liden, dated when they were both 14 and going to Dorcan School, but after four-or-so months they drifted apart and both ended up getting married years later to different people.

Mark said that one-day last year he wanted to see how Julie was doing, so looked her up on Facebook. He decided to send her a message and since then the pair have developed a strong friendship.

“I never forgot her,” he said.

At the time that Mark messaged Julie recalled that she was suffering from depression partly because of her weight, and partly because of the breakdown of her marriage.

She said: “I was taken aback by his message, I’m quite a private person but I messaged him back ‘Welcome to Facebook’.

“I was in a dark place at the time, I’d struggled a lot to lose weight and had always failed. Covid came along and I was putting weight on, I was eating for comfort, and it got to the point where I had a blood test from my doctor and he told me I was pre-diabetic.“

Oxford Mail:

The two spoke every day online and eventually, with the support of Mark, Julie says she was able to rebuild her confidence through Mark’s encouragement and friendship and he provided the spark she needed to make positive changes.

Julie, who is from Swindon, joined Slimming World and has now lost a total of 7-and-a-half stone.

“I’m truly grateful to Mark for his encouragement and friendship, I was down and depressed about things but he said to keep going.

“I’m a lot more confident now and it’s nice to go and buy clothes that are smaller

“Now when I get bad nights and I give him a call, talk most nights, but he came along just at the right time. A few months before, I was so down with my life and with my weight, I remember saying to myself, there has to be something better.”

Mark said that he had also benefitted from reconnecting with Julie as he was lonely and now has someone to talk to.

“I didn’t have anyone to talk to and now I do. Julie is someone I’m able to go in-depth with it and she really listens.

"Talking to Julie has given me a breath of fresh air, we’ve helped each other.”