It was the year after my mother died, aged just 65, that I decided to change my life and take control of my health.

Mum was the first woman in our family to live past the age of 50.

But she, like my grandmother and great-grandmother, had still succumbed to cancer far too young.

And I, at just 48 years old, was also well on my way to an early grave.

I weighed 97kg – down from 110kg two years before – had recently developed type 2 diabetes, gone through early menopause at just 35, and was regularly left wiped out by the stress and responsibility of managing a multi-national business, running a household, and catering to the needs of my two children, dog, cat, tortoise and rapidly disintegrating marriage.

My life was stable, but deep down I was still struggling with demons from my past.

I’ve always been terrified of failure, and my failure to look after my health had begun to bleed into every corner of my life. I looked in the mirror and hated what I saw.

I was born premature, when my mum was just 18.

After we were thrown out of my grandparents’ house when I was four, I spent the rest of my childhood in a series of squats, couch-surfing with friends of my mother’s, or in different flats in particularly rough estates.

Constantly changing schools and largely raising my younger brother Neil – born when I was nine – I didn’t learn to read or write until I was almost 15.

I got my first job at 14, which finally pushed me to learn to read and write, cleaning and unpacking boxes in a chemist shop.

From there, I became a beauty counter girl with Clinique and eventually was promoted to counter manager for Estee Lauder before being director of sales for Aveda.

Since then, I’ve run amazing brands like Urban Spa Retreat at Harrods and Harvey Nichols, worked as an adviser to Marks & Spencer beauty concept and even served as global chief executive of Aromatherapy Associates.

But ironically, despite my nearly three decades in the beauty and healthcare industry, my own health was suffering.

And I knew that, unlike the women in my family before me, I had to take responsibility for it.

My greatest fear as a child growing up in isolation and uncertainty was starving to death.

So as an adult, my comfort became food – I would flee to the snack cupboard when I was stressed, overwhelmed or sad, often at 2am due to my poor sleep quality.

I never had much of a sweet tooth – my vice was crisps, cheese, Twiglets, and fizzy drinks to name a few.

It didn’t help, either, that my then-husband was a professional chef.

And over the years, I could see the effects of my comfort eating manifested in my body – now a dress-size 20, though I was loathe to admit it – my thinning hair, translucent skin, food sweats, high blood pressure and off-the-scale blood sugar.

So, two years after the death of my mother, I decided to take my first step into a different kind of lifestyle.

I had been working with a nutritionist to change, bit by bit, my diet, and exercising more.

But, I wanted to do something more extreme – to jumpstart my journey towards breaking the generational legacy begun by my great-grandmother.

So I booked myself into a fasting clinic and, for nearly two weeks, ate nothing at all.

It might sound like an extreme measure, but here’s why I would recommend it to anyone looking to turn their life around.

The first thing is that it’s surprisingly enjoyable.

The clinic I attend is called Buchinger Wilhelmi and it’s the German Alps. A ten-day fasting retreat costs around £2,300 per person.

Of course, the first three days are agonising. Your body feels as if it is screaming at you, food, food, food!

To get through it, I have to keep moving, or I won’t be able to sleep at night, so I take myself off to the gym and walk for hours on the treadmill.

But after that third day, your body enters a sort of trance-like state of acceptance. You stop craving food and just feel content.

It’s what the scientists call autophagy – the stage where your cells break down and begin to recycle their own components.

The phenomenon was discovered by Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ushumi, who was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work.

It’s essential for our immune function, and goes on in the body 24/7. But fasting helps to speed the process up.

Not just is there more autophagy, but, when the body has to do without food for a longer period, fat burning is activated, resulting in a ketogenic state, which in turn prevents inflammatory processes and oxidative stress in the body.

By day four, I’m able to read, think clear-headedly, and even take work calls – not foggy-brained at all.

And you’re not without food the whole time.

Every morning, you’re given a tea made of apple skins and hot water – with a piece of lemon and a spoonful of honey on the side.

You visit the nurse every morning to take your blood pressure and get weighed – you tend to lose between 200g and one kilogram every day – and then your day begins.

Luckily, there are plenty of activities at Buchinger Wilhelmi to take your mind off food.

They run hikes or flower picking walks every day, as well as yoga sessions, guided meditation and even talking therapies with psychoanalysts based at the clinic.

And there’s lots of water available at all times, and mineral salts to replace those lost in your body.

In the evening, you’re given a soup, and can eat it in your room, or in the communal areas, where there’s usually a pianist or harpist playing and a health-related talk going on.

My first visit was definitely the toughest – I spent a lot of time dreaming about food and my Instagram feed has never been so full of images of delicious dishes.

But once I got home, I was full of a sense of immense achievement and quite literally glowing.

Plus, the dress that I was going to wear to my 50th birthday party the next week was now very loose.

So I decided to go again the next year. And the next, and the next. I’ve now been every year for a decade.

However, you don’t necessarily need to go to an expensive mountain fasting retreat to experience the same turnaround.

Once a month, I conduct my own fast at home – drinking only hot water and lemon for a day, before gradually introducing liquids like smoothies, broths and soup the following day.

Now, ten years later, I look younger than I did at 40.

My skin glows, I’ve lost almost half of my bodyweight – I weigh around 69kg and wear a dress size 12 – and have sent my diabetes into remission.

It’s a habit that’s changed my mental health as well as my physical appearance, truly improved my quality of life – and, I believe, spared me my mother’s fate.

Because when I, too, was diagnosed with womb cancer two years ago, it was found so early that it hadn’t spread to anywhere else in my body. I’ll never know for sure, but I believe my weight loss and improved health slowed its spread.

Now, I’m cancer free – and able to continue working in an industry I love and able to spend quality time with my very grown-up children Ava, 24, and Josh, 34.

But, more importantly, I feel like a different person.

I’ve not gone back to my poor eating habits – and know a lot more now about eating well, whether that’s saying no to that glass of wine or giving up sugary cakes and biscuits.

I now try not to eat anything ultra-processed, sticking instead to whole foods, and lift weights two to three times a week.

I no longer go to bed on a full stomach, trying to walk for 10-15 minutes every evening after dinner.

Now, as a single woman, maintaining my health and wellbeing for my family and friends is a priority.

I want to be a good health role model to my children.

So I’ve said goodbye to boozy holidays on far-off beaches or food tours of bustling cities.

Instead, I plan on spending any fortnight of free time on a health retreat – fasting, meditating and walking.

Now that I’ve learnt to listen to my body – I don’t see myself ever tuning it out.