Drummer who rolled away the stones

The 23-year-old from Pond Park wants to follow in the footsteps of his parents Jackie and Bobby and complete a marathon next year.

"I am very much a goal person and once I reach one goal I want another and this one is a marathon," he said.

Despite his love for sport when Shane was at school at St Anne's and Rathmore Grammar he couldn't do PE due to a heart problem. The lack of exercise eventually saw his weight gradually spiral out of control and weighed in at 17 stone.

During the day he was eating, he considered, normally. Breakfast was cereal, then there was a sausage roll and a packet of crisps before lunch. Lunch was a sandwich and a packet of crisps and dinner the tradional meat and vegetables. However come 11pm he would drink beer often followed by a kebab or two.

Shane was conscious of his weight and when he was out wore jeans, a tee shirt and a jacket to hide the excess pounds.

As the drummer in Exit he was finding it difficult to get through a whole gig. Then there was photo shoots for magazines and videos and when he saw himself and realised just how big he was he knew he needed to do something about his weight.

His mother persuaded Shane, a clerical officer at Stormont, to try Lighterlife.

"I am a very all or nothing sort of person," he said. "I wanted to lose weight dramatically and keep it off. I was given packages to eat. All the power was out of my hands."

He started Lighterlife in November and lost two stone. However, Christmas and the continental market in Belfast saw him put the weight back on again. Determined to give it another go, he joined Lighterlife again in February and was given shakes and soups to survive and told to drink three litres of water a day.

"I was determined this time," he said. "When you lose the weight it has so many benefits and so far outweighs the food that you crave."

"I tried most diets on the market, but just didn't have the willpower to stick with them with so much food choice available. What made LighterLife different was that it told me exactly what I could and couldn't eat and this made it really straightforward to stick to the programme."

Within 11 weeks of joining Shane had lost five stone and now stands at 12 stone. From a 40 inch waist now he's now 32.

"I have not seen some family members since Christmas and when they see me they just cannot believe how much I have lost," he said. "Now I don't even like kebabs. My girlfriend Gillian said that she never really noticed that I needed to lose weight but she is pleased with the results."

For more information email Jackie Adamson at Lighterlife [email protected].