"When I went home, I would lock myself in my room and cry for hours…"

She had a hard time, but with her stubbornness, perseverance and patience, she managed to fight her biggest enemy, the one who was the reason for her being bullied so much, obesity.  

Rafaela Apostolou reports on ant1iwo:
"I was born on 10/9/1999 in Larnaca. When I was 13 years old, I started gaining weight, with the result that at 16 I weighed 110 kilos. I felt very bad and started to close more and more to myself. 
In the first year of high school I faced so much bullying that in the end I hated my own life. At school I never ate or took food with me because I did not want to hear my classmates say to me: "lose weight", "he eats the tank…" and call me a pig. When I was very hungry and could not bear it, I hid so that they would not see me eating and make fun of me. 

 At school, I always took enough money with me to watch all the kids who made fun of me. They told me that if I bought them a cheese pie, a juice or a sandwich, they would stop making fun of me. I was so hurt and so naive that I believed them. Unfortunately, it was only for a while, then they continued the same and worse. 
I remember one time, a girl locked me in a cage with trash cans and said, "We'll take you out when you lose weight." The others just stared, no one did anything. I told her to stop but she called me "tank". When he took me out, along with other children, they stood in front of me and with various movements, described me and my weight. This was the worst I had ever experienced and that was when I started thinking that I had to do something to escape…
Even my fitness teacher had told me: “Come to the gym to lose any weight. What happened to you;". When I went home, I would lock myself in my room and cry for hours and never tell my parents what I was going through. 
About three years ago, I decided I had to do something, find a solution. I did not want to suffer anymore, I had to deal with obesity.  
An aunt of mine suggested me a dietitian. I went to him and with his help, I managed to lose 53 kilos. With will and perseverance I managed to achieve my goal while at the same time some who did not believe that I would lose weight, told me that they were waiting for me to fail… 
This hurt me a lot. They created fears for me, but they made me more stubborn and helped me reach my goal. My mother was always by my side and supported me. Every time I "fell", she "lifted" me and stronger I managed to continue. Within 5 months I lost 20 kilos. Then I started going to the gym. It basically took me a year and a half to lose all 53 kilos. 

My life today…

I deal with everything related to fitness and nutrition and I want to study nutrition to help my fellow human beings with obesity. 
The message I want to send to the world that suffers from obesity or feels bad with its appearance…
Try to lose weight but with proper-healthy diet and exercise and not with diets that promise fast weight loss. It takes a lot of patience, willpower and stubbornness. Sure there will be times when they will bend, get tired but have to endure because in the end they will be proud of the result. Remember my friends that the persistent always wins.     

As for people who bully…

I hope one day they stop and understand that every person is special, unique. We need to talk, tell our parents or a relative or friend, let them know what we are going through because only then will our problem be solved. 
My biggest mistake was that I did not tell my parents to help me and I suffered in silence. As long as you are afraid and silent, you will suffer… ".