Samuel Brereton, 27, from Australia, has managed to channel his grief into something positive by taking on healthier lifestyle habits and losing over half his body weight.
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Sam tragically lost his mother to suicide in 2014 after she had been battling depression for many years. Sam's mum became depressed following the death of his grandmother in 2007 when Sam was still a teen and it was at this point that his weight began to spiral out of control.
At his heaviest, Sam weighed nearly 29 stone and it was only after his mother's death that he discovered how worried she had been about his health. Scouring her things, Sam found no suicide note but he did find pages of writing in which she worried about Sam's health.
Sam says: 'Knowing that my mother may or may not have killed herself because of me, made it click that my weight was a heartbreaking concern and must have made her life a misery due to the constant worry.'
In 2015, Sam began his journey to a healthier lifestyle. He swapped fast food for home-cooked meals with plenty of fruit and veg and stopped drinking sugary fizzy drinks in favour of water. He also went from doing no exercise whatsoever to walking 10,000 steps a day without fail and eventually joining a gym - working out with a personal trainer.
At his lightest, Sam weighed just 10 stone but he has since put in work with his personal trainer to rebuild muscle and get back up to a healthy weight - 12 stone - less than half of his previous bodyweight.
Sam feels better than ever both physically and mentally and says he'd never go back to his old lifestyle.
He told Unilad: 'I didn’t have anything to lose other than the weight. I just thought of Mum, and I didn’t need anything else to inspire me.'
