A CWMBRAN slimmer is looking super svelte after dropping four waist sizes in nine months.

Retail manager Elsie James from Thornhill was reluctantly roped into a slimming club that appeared in the Argus in January, by fellow workers at the town's ASDA store.

"I didn't really want to do it, but they persuaded me," said the 46-year-old. "They didn't have enough people and I joined in to help, and then because it had been in the Argus I had to carry it on."

Now she's three and a half stone lighter and has exchanged her size 18 for a size 10. And the mother-of-three, who has been married for 28 years, says the secret of her slimming success is simple.

"Just counting the calories - that's all I did," she said. "I haven't had chips or anything for a while and instead I've been eating jacket potatoes with tuna, meat with fresh salad, and beans on toast, things like that."

Mrs James stuck doggedly to a healthy diet, but the effect wasn't immediate. She added: "There wasn't much of a change at first, but then it just seemed to fall off. The weight came off fast at first, then slowly, then fast, then slow, but I kept on.

"It's been wonderful, I feel like a completely different person - I've had to clear out everything from my wardrobe and start again!"

ASDA publicity manager Jackie Foster, who also took part in the slimming initiative said staff had wanted to get involved in some of the store's healthy living initiatives.

She added: "We do a lot of work with schools, showing them healthy options, and we wanted to do something ourselves.

"I went down a waist size, but Elsie is the star. She's done brilliantly."