Khadijah (aged 12)

November 2005

The doctors advised Khadijah's parent's that their daughter was obese and desperately needed to lose weight.

" We had tried to help her but nothing seemed to work," says Khadijah's mum, Andrea. 

Khadijah was unhappy as she was aware that she had a weight problem, wearing larger pant sizes than most of her schoolmates. She felt ashamed of her body and was often the target of school bullies who taunted her about her size.

After seeing an ad in the local newspaper encouraging local families to join the MEND Programme, Khadijah and her mum decided to give it a go.

The Programme addressed many of the problems Khadijah was facing and helped to increase Andrea's knowledge of how to help her improve her health. "I learnt about my child's personal needs as well as about the consequences of eating fatty, sugary and high GI foods.  I also was shown how to help boost Khadijah's self-esteem," says Andrea.

Kadijah is delighted with the results, “Before I did MEND, I used to be very tired and un-energetic all the time, and unmotivated to do anything about it. Now I really enjoy sports!"  She is also proud that she now attends regular hockey practices on Monday mornings before school, plays tennis twice a week with a friend and  even won an athletics trophy at her the athletics school day!  "These are things I would never have dreamed of doing before joining MEND!"

Khadijah's mum has also realised, " that a diet doesn't mean starving yourself, but rather eating the correct amounts of the correct nutritional foods."  And although Khadijah is growing taller fast, she is maintaining her waist size and her weight has stabilized.

The family has made remarkable changes to their eating habits and Khadijah's weight has finally stabilised. " I just wish that all parents knew that there was a solution like MEND," says Andrea.