SHOPPING trips were always a waste of time for Craig Dobson. Weighing in at 19 stone, the Teesside teenager could never find any trendy clothes to fit him. His mother, Shirley Dobson, said shopping trips with her son were a nightmare. "If he went shopping for clothes he always came back with nothing. He wanted the fashionable things that teenagers wear but he couldn't get them on," she said.

Shirley, a mother-of-three from Hemlington, Middlesbrough, became increasingly worried about her eldest son last June, he rarely went out and was withdrawn. "He was very self-conscious, he had no confidence and it was all because of his weight."

Worst of all, Shirley, knew that she was probably responsible for much of her own, and her son's, excess pounds.

"I had passed my eating habits on to Craig, which didn't make me feel too good," says Shirley, who weighed in at 23-and-a-half stone and admitted she was way too heavy.

The 39-year-old had been thinking about enrolling in a slimming club for some time, but the idea that she might be able to help Craig shed pounds, tipped the balance.

So last June she plucked up courage to join the local branch of Slimming World in Hemlington and to her amazement, Craig agreed to go along with her.

"I did it for him more than anything else, I was worried about him and I thought we could help each other," says Shirley.

Last summer, Craig had just finished college and apart from a part-time job at a local supermarket, had little idea about the future. He had thought about applying for a nursing course at Teesside University but felt that his weight would count against him.

"My mum was worried I was going to sit around the house all day and put on even more weight," recalls Craig. "I was eating really unhealthily at that time. I was even having chocolate bars for breakfast," he says.

"She joined a slimming club and asked me if I wanted to go with her. I took a lot of persuading. I just went with her thinking that nothing would come of it. It was just to keep her happy."

But within a month of following the Slimming World programme on healthy eating, the pounds began to drop off both of them.

"It was pretty amazing," says Craig, who says he already felt better.

While it was hard to change, he soon took to the Slimming World regime, which teaches you that you can eat as much as you like of fruit, vegetables, fish, meat and pasta. "Naughty" foods like chocolate, biscuits and cakes are all allowed, but only as very occasional treats.

As Craig and his mum got used to the new way of eating, the weight continued to fall off both of them. "You change the way you eat. You can still have chocolate and things like that now and again, but you just eat them in moderation. You could eat a bowl full of fruit any time you want," he says. "Not having as much chocolate was hard at first, but it doesn't bother me now. I can take it or leave it."

Now, more than a year since the Dobsons started their healthy eating campaign, Shirley and her son can hardly believe the change. Between the two of them they have shed an amazing 15 stones in weight.

Craig's waist measurement used to be 44 inches, now it is down to 34 inches.

His mother has done even better, with her weight falling from a hefty 23-and-a-half stone to 14 stone. While she is delighted with her new svelte shape, Shirley is more excited about the change in her son.

"Craig is completely different. He never used to go out. He just stayed in his bedroom. Now he is down the town, out shopping and out at night clubs." He has a full-time job as a promotions co-ordinator at the Co-operative supermarket in Hemlington and is due to start a nurse training course at Teesside University next month - something he thought beyond him.

"Being a nurse is a very active job and I couldn't have kept up with it," says Craig, who now enjoys walking, swimming and is also planning to join a local gym. "When you are overweight you don't go out much, you think people are looking at you for the wrong reason," he says. "Before I lost weight I used to get really out of breath at work, but I'm much better now."

Shirley is convinced the weight loss made him decide to become a nurse. "He is now very out-going. I know he would not have gone into nursing if he hadn't lost weight. His whole life has changed. It is a new healthier Craig and I think it's wonderful."

More than anything else Shirley says it is healthy eating that is the key. "Don't eat the junk, eat plenty of fruit and veg," she says.

While the Dobson family did it on their own, Shirley is impressed by the recently launched "Get Off The Couch" campaign.

Run by the private medical group BUPA, the campaign highlights the harm that poor diet and lack of exercise is doing to the next generation and provides help and advice to the parents of teenagers, and teenagers themselves, on how to switch to a more healthy life-style.

BUPA's getoffthecouch.co.uk is a teenage health and fitness website set up to inspire inactive teenagers and their families to get moving.

"BUPA is trying to show that parents can help their kids and I have helped him. We keep each other on the straight and narrow," says Shirley.