Woman who survived horrific assault and 92kg weight gain gets the proposal of her dreams
A New Zealand woman, who overcame a brutal gang rape and a 92 kilogram weight gain, has received a fairytale proposal from her boyfriend of three years.
The moment, which two of their closest friends captured, was later shared to Simone Anderson's 285,000 online fans. The soon-to-be-newlyweds started their day with a scenic helicopter ride over Queenstown, where they landed on top of The Remarkables mountain range to enjoy the view, and a glass of champagne.
They then continued their flight, landing at the Hills property - Sir Michael Hill's exclusive golf course, to which they had been personally been invited - before Trent went down on one knee, and proposed in front of Lake Hayes.
"The love of my life proposed to me in the most beautiful place on earth. It was just over three years ago I met a man that I knew one day would be my husband (even if he didn't then)," the lifestyle influencer and Journey to Health author wrote.
"We have experienced and achieved so much in these past few years and I cannot wait to build our lives together. Thank you for making me feel like the luckiest girl alive - I can't believe I get to call you my fiancée!
My actual dream. I can't explain how this day felt, I wish I could re-live it over and over again."
It was the quintessential "happily every after" moment for Simone, who has overcome more adversity in the last few years than most people face in a lifetime.
The 27-year-old Aukland native began putting on 10 to 15 kilograms each year from the age of 14, and several years after finishing high school she tipped the scales at 169 kilograms.
"I went from being a bit overweight to being seriously obese. By the end of high school I was somewhere between 120kg and 130kg, so for a 17-year-old, let's be honest, I was huge," Simone asserted.
She decided to lose the weight via a gastric sleeve surgery in August of 2014, and lost an eye-watering 92 kilograms in the ensuing months. However, just one year into her health journey, she was the victim of a harrowing gang rape.
"I was out on a Wednesday night with a couple of friends at a bar in town. By about 3am, I was feeling quite drunk and ready to head home, but I didn't know where my friends had gone," Simone said, before detailing how she was approached by a group of guys who told her about an after party.
"The guys took me to a house and walked me inside, and that's when I realised what was going to happen," she continued. "For two hours, those five men gang-raped me. I did everything I could to stop them, but I had so little control over my body that it was hopeless."
It took months of support from friends and family to move on from the traumatic ordeal, and to focus on herself again.
However, Simone's dedication to sharing her story, as well as her health and fitness regimen, has earned her more than half a million followers on social media, and boy is she an inspiration to them.