A carer who drank 10 cans of Irn-Bru every day after losing her home and her job has lost 5.5st after switching to the sugar-free version of the drink.

Shannon Palmer, from Bradford, was devastated when her childhood home burned down. To make matters worse, she lost her job the next day.

The 26-year-old spiralled into a deep depression and turned to takeaways and Irn-Bru to cope, drinking 10 cans of the fizzy stuff every day.

In summer 2017, Shannon became unhappy with her size and her unhealthy lifestyle. She wasn’t happy with her body and didn’t want to wear a bikini on holiday. That’s when she knew she had to turn her life around.

After her holiday, Shannon joined Slimming World and lost 5.5st in a year thanks to switching to sugar-free soft drinks and making her entire diet much healthier.

The house fire that triggered Shannon’s mental health struggles was caused by a tumble dryer ­explosion.

‘I was heartbroken, we lost everything. My mum nearly died in the fire and I was made ­redundant at work the next day – after working there for four years,’ she recalls.

Shannon started documenting her weight loss journey on Instagram and has amassed almost 30,000 followers.

Her Irn-Bru addiction was pretty serious, to the point where she would feel physical symptoms if she didn’t have one.

‘If I don’t have one I’ll start feeling funny and get a little angry. It’s about moderation,’ she explains. Which is why she chose to go sugar-free instead of ditching her favourite drink cold-turkey.

She added: ‘I get lots of messages from people who want to know how I turned it around. And I want to say there’s a healthy and realistic way for any girl to feel confident, and they don’t need to starve themselves.’

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