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8th October 2014
10:47am BST

As well as being approached for one-night stands, the blonde mother of two says she felt used by men who were only interested in dating her to impress their friends:
“If you did meet people online and then go out for a drink with them away from the websites, they'd take you out to where their mates were and they'd just want you to stand there.”
Paula also felt like her date’s friend’s girlfriends were threatened by her looks and would often give her disapproving looks:
“Some of them I'd talk to a couple of times online and then they'd take me out in front of their friends and their male friends would look me up and down and give me the approving look.
“Then their female friends would grab hold of their men and give you the female equivalent of the snarl and you'd think to yourself, 'I'm really not after your man!' It got frustrating, it got disheartening and I gave up.”
Paula eventually reconnected with an ex-boyfriend after using the dating sites, who she went on to marry.
Paula hopes by sharing her story that she’ll encourage other women to realise that difficulty in finding love is not down to weight:
“I've never won awards or used my beauty to get anywhere. My best friend is a size 20, but she doesn't care in the slightest - we're like little and large - and but she gets more attention than I do because she has so much confidence.”
Paula on her wedding day with husband Mark.
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