A 19-year-old who nearly died in her battle against anorexia is writing an account of her experiences.

Stacey Fox, of Allerton, Bradford, developed the disorder at 17, when a stomach infection stopped her from being able to eat.

"I couldn't physically eat for a few months, and then by the time doctors found it, I had got so used to not eating that I just carried on," she said.

In the space of six months, the former Beckfoot Grammar pupil had dropped from nine stone to five stone by eating only tiny amounts of food and putting herself through gruelling exercise regimes.

By the time she was admitted to Bradford Royal Infirmary, Stacey's liver had almost stopped working and her drowned kidneys were struggling to recover from her drinking eight litres of water a day.

In hospital she was fed through a tube as well as eating tiny amounts because her stomach had become too small to hold enough food to keep her alive.

After six weeks she was discharged from BRI, but on returning home Stacey said the weight began dropping off again.

She said: "So I did what was probably the hardest thing in my life and I went into an eating disorders clinic."

Stacey was treated at three different clinics, one in Leeds, one in Manchester and another in London, for a total period of eight months.

All three were either NHS clinics or paid for out of PCT funding.

During that time Stacey said she was put on exercise and eating routines, as well as being given therapy.

"After that eight months I was still underweight but I knew in my head at this point that I was strong enough to come home and put it on at home," she said.

"I was warned that 90 per cent of people that try to do that fail. Luckily for me I'm extremely stubborn and I managed after two months to put on a stone more and get back to eight stone, where I have remained for the last ten months."

Stacey said that despite her health having improved dramatically, there were still times when she was tempted to skip a meal or put herself through a strenuous exercise routine.

She said: "You have got to remind yourself every day why you fought it and why it's worth staying well because the illness is so entrenched in you that even after you have been well for a few years the temptation is still there."

She said there had been frightening times during her illness when she had almost died, and had refused food even though she wanted to live.

"I damaged my body so much my heart nearly gave out. It scares you senseless when you are exercising and you can feel your heart giving up on you, yet you don't stop," she said.

"There was one point in hospital where my blood sugar levels had dropped to two and I still refused to eat even though I was told if I didn't eat I would be brain damaged.

"They had to hold me down and inject me with glucose because if they didn't I probably wouldn't be here today.

"That's how gripping the disease is."

Stacey, who plans to start a child-care course at Shipley College next year, is writing her experience of the disease down in the hope she might get it published.

She said: "Even if it just helps one person. I want to get it down and tell the world what I have been through.

"I'm just hoping by writing down what I have been through hopefully people in my position can relate to it."

e-mail: rebecca.wright@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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