A woman who lost seven babies in her desperate bid for motherhood, has told how she finally became a mum - after dropping 17 stone.

Michelle Turner, 35, suffered the agony of five miscarriages, an ectopic pregnancy and a still-birth after she ballooned to 30 stone.

She also had the heartbreak of two failed marriages and turned to comfort eating on a huge scale.

But as her weight increased her chances of a successful pregnancy grew slimmer.

Doctors eventually warned Ms Turner, of Crawley, her weight could kill her and she was given a gastric bypass on the NHS.

She lost 17 stone - more than half her bulk - and at a healthy 13-stone she fell pregnant for an eighth time and finally gave birth to daughter Mikayla.

She has just celebrated her little girl's first birthday and because of her gastric band now eats less than her daughter.

She said: "I just can't believe I've finally got a little girl all of my own. It's all I've ever wanted.

"When I was young I didn't want to be a princess or popstar - I just wanted to be a mum.

"I gave up hope so many times and I never thought it was going to have a happy ending.

"I was so depressed and miserable because I just wanted to be a mum, so I just stopped caring and started eating. I was virtually housebound."It was horrible - I was at rock bottom.

“I had lost everything I ever wanted so many times.

"Many of my friends took pity on me and made me godmother to eight of their children to make me feel better.”

She suffered her first miscarriage when she was just 17 and had another two in her early 20s after her marriage to her first husband, a bus driver, in 1999.

Devastated by her loss, she started gorging and became a virtual recluse and her marriage ended two years later.

She remarried in 2005 but then had two further miscarriages with her second husband, a warehouse worker, in 2006 and 2007.

It was then doctors warned Mrs Turner her weight was making it harder to have a successful pregnancy.

She underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2008 and became pregnant for a sixth time but lost that baby to an ectopic pregnancy and split from her second husband shortly after.

A year later she married third husband Carl Turner, 29, and fell pregnant for a seventh time in 2011.

She went to full term but Jasmine was stillborn.