Son's death sparks record weight loss - Auckland stuff.co.nz
A weight loss programme helped Donna Porter lose 23kg and come to terms with the death of her 16-year-old son.
The Northcote resident has a tattoo on her arm in memory of her boy Ryan who died from a sudden super bug infection on March 10.
She likes to think he is watching over her and would be proud of how much weight she has lost.
Porter attends the Community Weight Loss Challenge. The programme offers the person who loses the most weight the chance to win cash.
Porter has won three weight loss challenges and has been attending sessions for the past year.
"When you are dealing with grief it is so important to keep healthy. People say to me that I'm looking great, but inside I'm grieving for my son," she says.
Ryan, who attended Rosmini and Northcote College, came home one day complaining he had the flu.
Within two days he was fighting for his life. A septicaemia infection caused his vital organs to fail and he went into a coma.
He was put on life support and just 18 days later, Porter and her two daughters Lucy, 12, and Kathy, 18, made the horrific decision to turn off his life support, nine days short of Ryan's 17th birthday.
"He had a great sense of humour, he was just like any other teenage boy," Porter says.
"Ryan had some amazing friends who I just didn't know about. It is amazing to learn how much my son touched the lives of other people," she says.
Ryan was taken to Northland by his teenage friends to be buried with his tribe Ngapuhi.
Porter says keeping healthy has helped her "carry on" with two other children to raise. She is weighing in at 107kg at 180cm tall. She hopes to be at her goal weight of 100kg by the end of the year.
Community Weight Loss Challenge is held at The Bays Community Centre every Thursday and at The Training Centre at Northcote Baptist Church every Tuesday. Call Steve on 021 237 2666 or email steve.nock@xtra.co.nz for details.
- North Shore Times
11 Oct, 2011--
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