HAY-ON-WYE’S ‘woman of action’ during the town’s recent major commemoration weekend is a shadow of her former self.

In fact, Helen Furnell claims her ‘former self’ would have been incapable of helping to run the busy programme of events marking the First World War centenary in Hay.

That’s because Helen, partner of Kelvyn Jenkins who masterminded the two-day special, is nearly nine stones lighter than the ‘old Helen’.

Kelvyn, who spent two years organising Hay’s memorable weekend, suffered a prolapsed disc shortly before the bands, the horses, re-enactors and spectators started gathering in town.

While he praised his team of supporters who ensured the show went on, Helen shouldered much of the responsibility on his behalf.

“The old Helen would not have coped!” she says, explaining how she lost almost half her bodyweight thanks to a Slimming World regime she began in 2013. “I weighed 20 stone 10 pounds.”

The tipping point came when she faced up to the fact that only a size 26 dress would do for a big military dinner.

“It was horrendous!” she says.

“Everything was getting more painful, I had trouble with a knee so walking was difficult.”

A former training manager for a company helping people to attain their potential, her success on the Slimming World food plan made her an ideal consultant.

“Everything’s different now, I enjoy food more because I am in control of it, and I have lots more energy” she explains. Helen runs Slimming World sessions in Kington, Hay and Talgarth. “I truly believe in it and I’ve always had an interest in people achieving their potential.”

Kelvyn raised £10,000 in two years to stage Hay’s commemorative weekend in August. “The Sunday before he really screamed when he got out of bed with a prolapsed disc,” says Helen.

“I was looking after him, running up and down stairs and we might as well have had a revolving door with people coming in and out. He was absolutely devastated, but managed to be brought by car to see events in the square.

“I already had the job of stewarding, and being a Suffragette,” she continues. “Lots of people rallied round, there was lots of team work. But I had to be him over the weekend.”

Helen will be back in action when Kelvyn carries out his promise to play the Last Post at every war memorial in the area during Remembrance Sunday week. “I shall be his driver,” she says.