As Slimming World enters its 50th year, two consultants from Richmond and Twickenham are celebrating half a century of success for the organisation by meeting TV personality and presenter Rylan Clark-Neal.

Rylan, who shot to fame after appearing on The X-Factor, co-hosted the annual Slimming World Awards with the organisation’s founder and chair Margaret Miles-Bramwell OBE. Margaret opened her first Slimming World group in 1969 and over the last 50 years the business has grown to become the UK's leading group-based weight-management organisation, today supporting nearly one million people.

Maria McCracken, who runs a Slimming World group in Ashford and Shepperton was delighted to get a chance to meet Rylan and said meeting the TV host was a wonderful way to round off a great year, as well as a brilliant way to lead into 2019, she said: “I couldn’t be prouder of the members of the Richmond and Twickenham groups. Not only have they lost fantastic amounts of weight throughout 2018 – with many of them hitting their target weights – they’ve also improved their health, boosted their confidence and are heading into 2019 with new healthy habits that will stay with them for life.

“Watching people change before my eyes and start being able to do things that they didn’t think possible before losing weight absolutely amazes me. Every week I feel privileged to play even a small part in supporting people towards these achievements and to celebrate with them, so I felt especially honoured to represent our groups at the Slimming World Awards. Rylan was blown away by the difference Slimming World makes to people’s lives too.”

Zillah Curtis runs a group in Feltham and Whitton said: “2018 has been a brilliant year for Slimming World. We’ve launched our Slim for Life plan to give even more support to our target members, and won awards for both our magazine and food range. We’re hoping our Golden Year will be even more successful and we have a string of exciting activities planned to celebrate our 50th birthday in style, including the launch of brand-new websites and apps, golden events and special publications.

Rylan said he was thrilled to meet Maria and Zillah at the event. He said: “I met so many people who had lost incredible amounts of weight and made a huge difference to their lives. While the stories I heard were obviously very personal, the one thing they all had in common was how much support they received from their Slimming World family and how so many of them were achieving their dreams. Every one of them spoke passionately about how they couldn’t have made those changes to eat more healthily and become more active without the support of their Consultant and group every week, so people like Maria and Zillah are clearly worth their weight in gold.”