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Mother Carol, 45, and daughter Katey, 21, come from Liverpool and are determined to shed the pounds. Carol wants to lose weight for herself primarily, and then for Katey, to inspire her. She feels like she’s let her daughter down. Katey has been overweight for as long as she can remember. Her weight gain was triggered by bullying at school. She used to have footprints on her skirt when she came home from people kicking her.

Michaela, 38, and 44-year-old Maria are best friends from Essex and both weighed over 15-stone before signing up for The Biggest Loser. They both want to lose weight to feel healthier and enjoy a fuller life. Managing director Michaela says: “I want to be able to buy a lot nicer clothes. I want to be able to buy all the modern things. We have to go to the outsize shops and they tend to be really frumpy. I have to go to America to get my clothes. There’s just nothing here."

The thirty-somethings have joined forces to slim down Eunice, who weighs in at 23-stone, is too heavy to have children which she desperately wants to do. Miriam is doing this for her own self-confidence but primarily to help her sister. Eunice says: "I’ve been refused fertility treatment on the NHS unless I drop five stone. But I want to lose more than half my body weight ultimately but my target at the moment is five stone."

The petrol station cashiers have a massive reason to lose weight. Lisa Marie, 22, has been told by her doctor that she needs to shift a large proportion of her 25-stone bulk or she could die within a year. And her mum Raz is determined to inspire her. I’ve always said that I needed a boot camp. I’m fed up, it’s now or never. Lisa Marie says: "I want to go on holiday and not be worried about asking for an extension to the seat belt for the plane."

Father and son David and Jamie want to lose weight so they can be better carers for David's wife, who suffers from a respiratory disease. Jamie has piled on 10-stone in the last four years and now weighs in at almost 30-stone. He says: "I want to lose the weight and build up my self confidence.  If I did lose the weight one of the things I want to do is marry my other half who I’ve been with for four-and-a-half years."

Mobile DJ Kevin and HGV driver Mark were strangers until they met on the show, but now they get on like a house on fire. Mark hopes losing weight while Kevin is desperate to slim down for his son. He says: "My son’s autistic and he’s 11 years old. The main reasons I want to do this is I want to be around for a long time for my son and I don’t know how long I’m going to have to care for him."

The married couple hail from York but currently work in Spain. Rick is a stage hypnotist but hasn't been able to use his powers to lose weight - he's 21-stone. They have been married for ten years and Michelle wants children but Rick has a low sperm count. He knows his weight is the cause. Doctors have told them they need to lose at least 10 per cent of their body weight to conceive.

Jennifer wants to inspire her daughter and doesn’t want her to have the battle with her weight that she’s had. Sadie says: "“I don’t want to die fat. I want to get healthy quickly and I figure if I don’t do it now while I’m 21, it will be a lot harder. I’ve never been a healthy size. Since I was five I’ve been putting on weight.”