STAR slimmer Jo Thomas lost so much weight her entire wardrobe and her wedding ring had to be down-sized.

And to celebrate losing more than four-and-a-half stone, her new ring was blessed in front of 50 friends and family in a ceremony with husband Mike and son Marley, aged three, at their Pontnewydd, Cwmbran, home.

When Jo and Mike were married five years ago, she had all her jewellery melted down to make a wedding band, but after slimming from size 18 to 20 down to 12 to 14, the ring was too big.

"It was made four sizes smaller but it then wasn't the ring I had got married with," said Jo, 30.

Postman Mike, also a proud member of the TA Drum Corp which played at the ceremony on May 29, suggested the ring was blessed by his parents, Harold and Dorothy Thomas, vicars of Pontnewydd's Holy Trinity Church.

Full-time mum Jo was 12 stone five pounds when she was married and 16 stone five pounds at her heaviest, just after her pregnancy.

Jo said: "I was always slimming on and off with no luck. After Marley was born I wanted to play football with him and I knew I couldn't, so this time I was determined."

And so began a 16-month effort with Slimming World, with lots of encouragement from Mike, who bought her a bike for her 30th birthday this year and also fulfilled his promise to buy Jo a Slimming World franchise so she could start her own class - now running in Llanyravon.