Farmer’s wife Helen is fit for the farm after 5st weight loss
· Helen Dinsdale, 37, has lost 5st 7½lbs (35kg) with Slimming World
· Before losing weight, Helen struggled to exercise and avoided helping her husband with work on the farm
· Since losing weight, Helen has discovered a love for exercising and can run 10 miles without stopping.
A North Yorkshire mum and farmer’s wife has lost 5st 7½lbs (35kg) with Slimming World and is volunteering for the physical farm jobs she once avoided.
Before joining Slimming World, mother-of-two Helen Dinsdale had been overweight for as long as she could remember. When she was younger, she had a paper round and got excited to spend her earnings on a pack of muffins, that she planned to eat on the way home before anyone could find out. However, one day when she returned to the shop, the manager told her that her mum had asked them not to sell her anything. She says: “My mum was desperately trying to help. It was quite embarrassing though, as my friends were with me when the manager had to refuse serving me.”
Helen, who lives with her husband Mark, son Douglas, 10, and six-year-old daughter, Ruby, had yo-yoed with her weight throughout her adult life and put weight on after both of her pregnancies. She says: “I joined Slimming World to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle. I never really liked seeing pictures of myself and I found it tricky to find clothes that I liked when out shopping.
“After having my second child, I was making excuses not to help my husband, who’s a farmer, with tasks like rounding up the sheep, as I knew I just wouldn’t have the energy for it. I’d tell him our baby was asleep or that I was already busy when really, I was avoiding getting out of breath and in pain.”
Helen joined the Leyburn Slimming World group in 2018 and hasn’t looked back. She says: “I’d been a Slimming World member in my early 20s, but I didn’t take it seriously and didn’t make the lifestyle changes needed to succeed. This time however, I joined the group that my mum and sister were attending and had a completely different mindset; I was determined and ready to give it my all. Everyone at group, including the Consultant welcomed me straight away and have supported me ever since.”
Helen has since lost 5st 7½lbs (35kg) by following Slimming World’s healthy eating plan and can still eat meals that the whole family likes, such as spaghetti Bolognese and fish and chips.
Helen’s also increased her fitness levels. She says: “Slimming World helped me discover exercise that was suitable for me and that I enjoy. I loved that it fit around my family life too. I now swim laps while my children have their own lessons. I also go to jazz fit sessions regularly and when I’m helping my husband feed the cows and round up the sheep, he’ll be on his quad bike while I run around after them.
“I caught the running bug during lockdown after completing a 5km running challenge. Now, I can run 10 miles without stopping.
I’ve taken part in Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life for the past few years. It’s a great event to do with your friends and family while also helping raise awareness of the important work Cancer Research UK does to support those touched by cancer.
“Last year’s Race for Life was especially meaningful. Just three days before, my mum was diagnosed with Myeloma – a type of blood cancer. I ran with her name on my back – it was emotional, and it gave me the strength to complete the race.”
After successfully losing weight with Slimming World, Helen trained to become a Consultant in 2021 to help people achieve their own weight loss goals. She now runs the Slimming World group in Leyburn every Wednesday.
Slimming World’s physical activity support programme helps members to find an exercise and fits their lifestyle. Slimming World is an official sponsor for Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life 2025 and has been working with the charity for more than a decade, helping to raise more than £25m in fundraising.
Inspired by Helen’s story? Sign up for your local 2026 Race for Life and help fund life-saving cancer research. To find out more, visit raceforlife.org
Slimming World, founded by Margaret Miles-Bramwell OBE in Derbyshire in 1969, is the UK and Ireland’s leading weight loss organisation. Each week, more people choose to attend a Slimming World group than any other weight loss programme. Our tried, tested and trusted evidence-based approach has helped millions of people to lose weight and keep it off long-term. We support 700,000 people weekly through our community weight-loss groups, run by 3,500 highly trained self-employed Consultants, and digital service.
Our founding principles make us unique:
• Our support system is built on a deep understanding of the guilt and stigma people living with overweight and obesity experience. We always treat people with genuine care, empathy, respect and understanding. When members join Slimming World, they become part of a community, in group and online, and each week we inspire and motivate people to make positive mindset changes and develop new, lasting healthy habits around food and activity using effective, sustainable behaviour change techniques.
• Our healthy eating plan, Food Optimising, liberates members through our concept of Free Food. Members fill up on foods that are naturally lower in energy density (calories per gram) and are highly satisfying while limiting foods that are highest in fat and sugar and are less satisfying. They can lose weight without ever feeling hungry or deprived, all without weighing, measuring or counting everything they eat.
• Our physical activity support programme, Body Magic, helps members overcome any barriers they face regarding exercise. Members choose when and how to start, setting their own pace and finding activities they enjoy until regular physical activity becomes an unmissable part of their daily routine.
We proudly work with the NHS, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, The Royal College of Midwives, Diabetes UK and others to help shape the future of weight management in the UK and Ireland. We also support Cancer Research UK, Alzheimer’s Research UK and the Irish Cancer Society through fundraising.
We developed and launched our Slimming World Free Food range, available exclusively in Iceland, The Food Warehouse and Dunnes Stores in Ireland, and introduced our Slimming World Kitchen recipe box service. These help members to continue making healthy choices, even when they’re short on time.
For more information about Slimming World’s approach, visit slimmingworld.co.uk or slimmingworld.ie and for more information about Slimming World Kitchen, visit slimmingworldkitchen.co.uk
Follow Slimming World on social media: TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
For media enquiries, visit our newsroom or email public.relations@slimmingworld.co.uk
About Cancer Research UK
· Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research, influence and information.
· Cancer Research UK’s pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.
· Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last 50 years.
· Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK wants to accelerate progress and see 3 in 4 people surviving their cancer by 2034.
· Cancer Research UK supports research into the prevention and treatment of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.
· Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK is working towards a world where people can live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer.
For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook
About Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life
· Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life, in partnership with Standard Life, is an inspiring series of 3k, 5k, 10k, Pretty Muddy and Pretty Muddy Kids events which raise millions of pounds every year to help beat cancer by funding life-saving research.
· Money raised through Race for Life events funds world-class research to help beat 200 types of cancer. including bowel cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, testicular cancer, brain cancer, children’s cancers and leukaemia.
· Find out more and sign up at raceforlife.org