A mum from Ingol has set up a running club to encourage other parents to exercise with their children after shedding 4st and four dress sizes.
Kirsty Quigley, from Ingol, dropped from a size 16 to a size eight last year after seeing pictures of herself at a family meal.
Now she wants to help others on their fitness and weight loss journeys after a friend said she would like to exercise with her son.
Kirsty said: “We were on a work do and my friend said she’d like to do it. The next day I thought, ‘you’re not getting out of it now!’ and invited a few others along.”
The first week a few friends met up with their children and ran around Preston Dock, and the second week more came along.
Kirsty said: “We are all mixed abilities and ages – some people walk most of the way, others run, some go round once, some do two laps. The important thing is we are all there, encouraging each other and doing it.
“It doesn’t matter if you can’t run at all – you never will if you don’t try.
“A lot of parents I have spoken to say they want to do things that are active with their kids, and the kids really enjoy it.”
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Kirsty, who has three boys aged 10, seven and four, started running again in September.
She said: “I was quite fit when I was younger, I even ran the London Marathon in 2006, but after I had the boys I let myself go a bit. My weight crept up until I was a size 16.
“I got to the point I was tired of hearing my own voice in my head going on about it, and I decided I had to do something.
“I joined a gym and did a class a week, and increased it to two, but after a few months the weight wasn’t coming off, so I joined Slimming World.
“As my weight dropped I was finding I was enjoying fitness more and more, and one night my friend, who I went walking with, suggested we tried a run.
“I didn’t think I could do it, but I went out on my own and ran 5k straight off!
“Now I run 12k every Sunday and the group runs together on a Friday night. I’d just say to anyone who wants to try to come along. It is free and it gets you out with the kids.”
The group meets every Friday on the Dock path, outside Baffito’s at 7pm, to set off at 8pm.