Cabbage Tree Island’s biggest loser a winner

GP Sarah Cooper with Cabbage Tree Island’s biggest loser, Rany Ferguson. Rany lost 18.8 kilos over three months.

GP Sarah Cooper had a great idea. Well, someone somewhere in America had the idea first, but Dr Cooper saw an opportunity to adapt it to the Cabbage Tree Island community.

She decided to run a weight loss competition on the island through Jali Health Post coinciding with the TV show The Biggest Loser and enlisted the support of Ballina Community Health.

The competition attracted 33 contestants initially, with 17 making it to the end of the three months. At the outset, each contestant received a show bag with pedometer, tape measure, hat, pens, and information about portion size, meal plans and building up an exercise program.

There was a weekly cooking demonstration with a dietician and exercise class and a fortnightly relaxation class. The fortnightly weigh in and raffle included incentives and prizes such as fruit boxes, swim and gym passes, and sporting equipment.

The overall winner of the $500 prize money was 23 year old Rany Ferguson with a weight loss of 18.9 kilos. The runner up prize went to Willie Simpson, a man in his mid-30s who lost 14.5 kilos.

One woman told Dr Cooper at the beginning of the competition it was the best thing to happen on the island. Since then members of the community have started walking groups and are also talking about developing a walking track for the island.

Rany told Dr Cooper she feels great and will keep going. An added bonus is that her parents are also losing weight because Rany is cooking at home. Dr Cooper says they are very proud of their daughter. She says Rany felt really supported by the community and that the competition helped bring the community together.

“The [health] flow ons from it are huge. It raises community awareness. We organised a bus on Fridays to go to the Ballina gym and off their own bat, five to eight women took up water aerobics.”

There will be another competition to encourage those who are slowly beginning to lose weight to keep up the momentum and to get more people in the community interested in losing weight.

Dr Cooper, who has an interest in Aboriginal health and has previously worked in Redfern and the Northern Territory, has been doing a clinic at Cabbage Tree Island for almost four years.