Former Hartlepool woman Marion Shirran, 41, is now running a hugely successful business on the Costa del Sol in Spain with her husband and co-director Martin, 56.

For the last five years, they have helped run the Elite Clinic in Fuengirola where clients can tackle everything from depression to smoking.

It handles people suffering from panic attacks, fear of flying, addictions and phobias.

Its success is down to the methods it uses which includes hypnotism and cognative behaviour therapy. Clients come from all over the world including Britain.

Now, though, the clinic has branched out to offer an extra service.
Patients wanting to tackle their weight issues can have a gastric mind band fitted.

Marion describes it as a cheaper £750 alternative to actually having an operation which could cost ten times that amount.

It involves a series of six two-hour sessions where the client is hypnotised into believing they have had the operation to have a band fitted. Some come away from the sessions losing 2.5lbs a week. "It is one of our success stories," said Marion, whose parents Edith and Walter Elliott still live in Hartlepool.

"We have had quite a number of people who are losing weight steadily."

The process starts with the client being told how the gastric band works. They are shown a video of the operation and what the patient goes through when they have one.

"We imagine them going for their operation, going into theatre and having the band fitted. It is all in their mind, " said Marion, who was born in Hartlepool and went to Kingsley Primary and Brierton Schools.

She returned to Hartlepool after studying at Lancaster University and became a languages teacher at Brierton.

But she admitted "wanted to do something different" and left the town eight years ago to set up the Spanish business with her husband.

Marion added: "Everyone is talking about gastric bands at the moment. Everyone wants to lose weight and a band is one of the ways to do it. A lot of people are considering the operation, but it is quite a nasty operation to put yourself through.

"This is more pleasant and it costs less money."