After years of heartbreak, failed diets, endless medical knockbacks and six devastating miscarriages, Maranda Bothwell had given up hope of becoming a mum. But five years, 80 kilos and one life-changing operation later, she’s now raising the precious rainbow baby she fought so hard for.
Growing up in Greymouth with Fijian-Chinese heritage, Maranda, 37, always loved food and family, but she also faced a lifelong weight battle. Diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome as a teen, she struggled first with the kilos creeping on, then fertility problems later in life. By her early thirties, she had spiralled to 160kg.
“I’d been chubby, but by then, I was severely obese,” she says. “I’d tried everything – diets, the gym, fasting and supplements – but nothing worked. I got depressed and was binge-eating.…
