Darin's Amazing Transformation

I've got Darren McLeod with me today, and SlimPod is 15 years old, um, in November 2024. And, uh, Darren was one of the first people on the program. Um, so Darren was hugely overweight, um, and he was, uh, in the papers, uh, all those years ago because he was taking Portsmouth Health Authority, uh, to court, uh, because you— because they wouldn't give you gastric surgery, would they, Darren?

No, they wouldn't.

And Darren was just really, really unhappy about all that. And, uh, so then I met Darren in London. And, and Darren, tell— explain a little bit about what happened when I met you in London, because we were going to Harley Street.

Just so, we met across a crowded station, um, and we walked out station, and I was about 5 paces behind you, sweating red, trying to keep up with you. You're talking about the virtues of thinking slimmer and what you're going to do and everything else. But then the magic started. The weight came off and we started exercising as well to complement the start of the weight loss.

And you gave up all— well, you just lost the desire for all the junk that you were eating. And it was like a flick—

a switch had flicked in your head because you were getting far more pleasure from the exercise that you'd started doing And who would have thought that exercise and the, um, the feel-good factor from exercise would ever have made that much difference? I know it really did.

And where did that lead?

Um, well, it, it's led to cycling around the country, um, Cuba, running. Um, my first 3 races were the Great South Runner 10 miler, it was the Brighton Half Marathon, and then in April it was the London Marathon. And I just never ever thought thought that any of that would be possible, from the fact that I generally— I definitely wouldn't have had the quality of life I've had, let alone would I still be here.