Last updated 04:34, Wednesday, 05 March 2008

Roxanne

CARLISLE soap star Roxanne Pallett has told how a thyroid condition made her weight yo-yo.

The screen siren’s weight plummeted from a size 10 to a six – despite eating five meals a day.

After she was found unconscious and hardly able to move, she took medical advice and was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism.

She has now spoken out about her illness to help raise awareness of the condition.

Roxanne, who plays Jo Stiles in ITV’s Emmerdale, explained that her problems began with her not feeling her usual self and becoming hyperactive.

She said her heart thumped constantly and she could not sleep.

Roxanne’s GP prescribed medication to calm her heart and regulate her thyroid but this took months to stabilise the condition and she put on all the weight she had lost and more.

She told a national paper that she suffered “hurtful” jibes about being “fat”.

The soap star said she became self-conscious after her Emmerdale costumes stopped fitting her and she was asked to wear lingerie for sexy scenes. Roxanne, whose character recently married on-screen lover Andy, said: “It took nearly two years, but eventually my metabolism stabilised and I finally feel normal again. I still have to take a tablet every day to maintain my thyroid and get a blood test every three months.

Two years later Roxanne’s condition has stabled and her weight is said to be back to a healthy eight stone.