Heavyweight panto performer Anne Sergeant felt like one of the ugly sisters when she burst out of her Cinderella costume.

She had piled on so much weight picking at crisps and biscuits that the wardrobe department had to sew additional panels in the back of her costume.

But now, more than 3st lighter, she is preparing to take to the stage as the Good Queen.

Anne, 49, a medical secretary at Worthing General Hospital, said: "I was large. I was playing the part of Cinderella, which is the part of a young girl, so being fat, and having problems with aching knees because I was fat, was hard."

Her mother, Dorothy Williams, 79, who works in the wardrobe department, inserted the panels in the back of the charity shop bridesmaid's dress she wore on stage. I looked awful and I felt awful. I couldn't turn round and I had to keep facing the audience," Anne said.

The following year, in 2002, she took to the stage as Wishy Washy in Aladdin, a part which left her feeling more than washed out when she saw the video of the production.

The mother-of-two, who is a member of the Double Act amateur dramatic group based at St Leonard's and St Philip's Churches in Hove, said: "I just looked awful and knew I had to do something but even then it was seven months before I did anything."

At 5ft 6in, Anne tipped the scales at 13st 9lbs and at her peak was wearing a size 18. Her excess weight was playing havoc with her health.

With husband Peter, the sound and lighting engineer for the drama group, she went to France in the summer of 2002, a holiday which gave her a wake-up call to shed some weight.

Anne said: "I saw myself in our holiday photos and I was wearing a bikini and shorts. The rolls of fat and the size of my legs were dreadful.

"But I was also unfit. My knees ached, my back ached, I was lethargic. When we were in Normandy there were 175 steps up the basilica but I cried off because my knees were so painful."

Anne, from Shoreham, returned from holiday and a friend encouraged her to join Shane Blissett's Slimming World class in Shoreham.

In nine months, she shed 3st 8lb and is now able to slip into her ball gown to play the Good Queen in the drama group's Sleeping Beauty production, which is being performed at St Leonard's Church Hall, Glebe Villas, Hove, on Friday, January 30, and Saturday, January 31.

Anne, who is now a size 12, said: "I feel so much better. I never lacked confidence but now I feel even more confident."

Tickets for the panto cost £4 or £12 for a family ticket. Telephone 01273 591025.