Operation Transformation returns with five leaders from across the ...

Hosted by Kathryn Thomas, five people from across the country have been selected to lead the challenge and work with experts.

The first leader is Michelle Rogan (36), who grew up in Dublin and now lives in Co Meath with her family.

She told host Kathryn Thomas that she got into a relationship at the age of 16 that took “everything” from her.

"It isolated me from the people that actually mattered. Now, I look back and I’m like, ‘Michelle, what was wrong with you?’

"I left that relationship because I had to,” she said, ending the relationship at the age of 21.

She met her partner David soon after, with the couple soon finding out they were pregnant with daughter Layla and later, son Danny.

Michelle told how her sister Elizabeth died at the age of 39 from a sudden cardiac arrest.

She described her as “the life and soul of the party” and her loss caused worry for her own health, especially when she developed preeclampsia – a serious blood pressure condition which occurs during pregnancy – before the birth of her son Sam.

Michelle is now eager to transform her health and her confidence.

"You lose yourself when you have kids, you lose yourself a little bit,” she said, telling how all she wants is for them to be happy and for her to “be Michelle again.”

Noel O’Connell (57) has joined the team of leaders to “stay healthy” for his family and, especially, his son Ollie, who has Down Syndrome.

He lives in Kildare with his wife Katrina and four sons Daniel (24), Jack (21) Niall (17) and Ollie (10).

Noel’s health has become a concern to him in the last 18 months following a diagnosis of tachycardia (increased heart rate), high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type II diabetes and sleep apnea.

He said it felt “like a snowball” and he is eager to change his lifestyle.

"We’re not bulletproof anymore, we’re not 18 so we have to start looking after ourselves. Everything that I have is reversible.

"He’s going to be with us until the day we die,” he said of his son, Ollie. “So we have to give him the best life that we can possibly give him – and us.”

Next up, viewers were introduced to Mayo woman Edel O’Malley (36), who works at Ashford Castle and shares one-year-old son Daniel with her fiancé Marcin.

She told how she found “the One” when she met Marcin, revealing he did “the thing you don’t do” and proposed while they were attending her best friend’s wedding two years ago.

“The hardest thing about having kids is – it’s easy to love the babies – it’s everything else around it, the scheduling, the new life, the bags leaving the house, everything like that.”

Edel hopes to change her lifestyle, admitting she feels like she is “everywhere and nowhere all at once” and needs to find herself again.

Next leader is Darragh Fitzgerald from Limerick, a passionate rugby player, who hung up his boots last year.

He was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Burkitts.

"I don’t think I had enough time to process it and I don’t think I knew how sick I was,” he said.

Following treatment and uncertainty, he recovered, but his father was diagnosed with cancer of his larynx just months later.

Darragh felt as if he had “delayed” his father’s diagnosis by becoming ill himself.

"There was massive guilt there.”

He shares two children – Rian (8) and Roisín (2) – with his fiancée Yvonne.

Two years ago, he was diagnosed with atrial Fibrillation.

"The guilt comes where Yvonne needed me most, I was getting pampered inside of coronary care,” he said.

"It’s a lot to not process,” said host Kathryn Thomas, urging the OT leader to work on processing what he has gone through.

The final leader revealed during the first episode was Anne Cushen (55), who lives in Wexford with her husband and their two children Sean (23) and Breda (21).

Anne said was prompted to become a leader and change her lifestyle due to her osteoarthritis and her recent hip replacement.

"Going forward, I don’t want to be in a chair, I want to stay mobile,” she said.

She had her foot fused as a teenager, later having a hip replacement at the age of 15.

Anne believed it was “the end of it” until the pain returned last year, undergoing a second hip replacement.

"I just feel at 55 and I see others able to do simple things, it does hurt a little,” he said. “The simple things in life can become an obstacle.

"Sometimes you feel like you’re an older person, but you’re not an old person.”

She acknowledged there will be no “miracle”, but is eager to learn to manage and change her lifestyle to “enjoy” life more.

"Time is too precious, it’s slipping by, so I want to live, not just go through the motions.”

Each week, the five leaders will have their Health Check-In at St James Hall in Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, with the show airing each Wednesday.

Operation Transformation airs Wednesdays 9:35pm on RTÉ One & RTÉ Player