Longford Operation Transformation star vows to continue to fly cardiovascular disease flag

The Granard native shed well over a stone since being chosen as one of four team leaders to take part in the flagship RTÉ show.

Over the course of the last eight weeks, Thomas has turned his life around by adopting a more health conscious approach and in so doing improving his own cardiovascular health.

That mindset was taken after the 50-year-old businessman suffered a heart attack five years ago.

“I was on with Joe Finnegan the other week and the weight side of things was put to me, but it has never been about that,” he said.

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“I want to get the message out there that cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer in the country.

“If by doing that and it gets two people off the sofa to get themselves checked then it will be a job well done.”

A pizza maker by day, Thomas' transformation has seen the north Longford man go from upholding a relatively sedentary lifestyle to completing his first five kilometre run just over a week ago.

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And with more middle distance challenges very much in the pipeline, Thomas has set his sights on continuing to fly the OT flag as early as this Saturday.

“We are doing a 5km run in the parkrun in Longford which is being run in association with Kiernan Steel,” he said, adding the event was being held to raise vital funds for two local charities.

“Four of the five OT leaders will also be there so it should be a great day.”

Thomas, meanwhile, took time to heap praise on the unwavering level of support which had been shown to him over the past eight weeks.