Inspirational Dublin teen gives best possible response to cyber bullies
Dublin teenager Conor Doyle has a powerful story to share about a painful incident of cyber bullying that pushed him into massive change for the better.
Doyle, who was 16 at the time, was attending a disco and posed for a group shot with his mates after a photographer from the venue asked them to.
Unbeknownst to Conor a complete stranger downloaded the picture from the venue’s page, cropped it, added a really hurtful caption which commented on his weight and uploaded it to an embarrassing nightclub pictures-themed Facebook page.
The teenager - who was then around 17 stone - started to receive text messages about the picture before he even got home from the disco as it started to go viral.
Speaking to Newstalk Conor said, “You can’t really be fine (when you get those messages) and anyone that says that they’re fine is lying.
“I’d consider myself relatively strong mentally, but that hurt. It was hard to deal with.”
Unbowed by the incident, Conor decided the time was right to tackle his weight.
Doyle turned to the W82Go programme and has put in a lot of hard work to get towards his goal.
The results have been fantastic!
Conor, 17, credits healthier alternatives to snacking and enjoying exercise with his amazing weight loss.
The teenager has shed an impressive three and a half stone and is now kindly offering to help others also struggling with their weight.
“When you’re overweight you always feel a little insecure,” said Conor.
“But, when you lose a little bit of weight your confidence skyrockets - and it should - because it’s an achievement.
“It just meant that I could talk to my mam and dad about this, whereas before when I was overweight I was not comfortable talking about my weight – because it was embarrassing for me.”
A year to the day after the offensive caption was posted Conor added a shot to his own Facebook page showing how much weight he had lost and the response was overwhelmingly positive.
Conor believes he still has a bit to go in his programme, but his story will hopefully help others that have faced cyber bullying.
Well done Conor and keep up the good work!
Hat Tip: Newstalk
