A woman shed half her bodyweight after she was too big to ride a rollercoaster – called Colossus.

Kirsty Mewett, 23, tried to force her 22 stone figure into the ride but the safety harness was not long enough to reach around her massive frame.

She was mortified when staff at Thorpe Park told her she was too large to ride and was forced to walk past the queue to wait while her friends had fun.

Determined Kirsty pledged to lose the bulk and shed 11 stone by ditching her daily takeaways and hitting the gym five times a week.

Admin assistant Kirsty, of Lewes, said: “As soon as I walked up on to the ride the staff were just staring at me and I didn’t know why.

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“I sat down and they came over to try to do up the harness a few times but it just would not fit. I think they were just trying for the sake of it.

“My fat was just bulging round the sides of the ride.

“They said ‘I’m sorry but you are just not going to fit’.

“I was so embarrassed. I was so ashamed that people could see me being turned away.

“There was only one rollercoaster that day I could fit into – and that was only because they had extra large seats.

“I look back at photos and I can hardly believe that it is me.”

Kirsty stared piling on the pounds after she had to terminate a pregnancy aged 16 and she ate to deal with her emotions.

She would skip breakfast but scoff sausage rolls on the way to college, eat a mountain of chips for lunch and have a takeaway for dinner every night – snacking on crisps and chocolate all day.

Her figure ballooned and she became ashamed to look in a full-length mirror and hated being photographed.

“But once I decided to lose the weight that was that – I went cold turkey,” she said.

“I cut out all crisps and chocolate and fizzy drinks. I started going on the Wii Fit and just doing running – or should I say waddling to begin with – I lost a stone-and-a-half in two months.”

Exactly a year after her theme park humiliation, and having lost seven stone, Kirsty met her partner Tom Plant, 28.

Last summer, just as she was slipping into a svelte size ten, she found out she was pregnant and in February she gave birth to their son Alfie.

She said: “I’m still battling with that last stone to get back down to 11 stone again, but I’ve got a little one to run after now so I’m going to just enjoy him and I’ll lose it again eventually.

“I can’t believe how much my life has changed.

“I will never have trouble going back to a theme park again – and soon I’ll be able to take Alfie on the rides.”