The mother of a young woman who died after suffering anorexia and bulimia is putting on her walking shoes to help research into eating disorders.

Margaret Tate says helping to find the causes would be the best way of keeping her daughter Suzy's memory alive.

The former Nab Wood Grammar School student died of heart failure in 1997, aged 21.

Mrs Tate set up the Suzy Tate Memorial Fund to help the Leeds-based Yorkshire Centre for Eating Disorders whose head, Dr Lorenzo Pieri, treated Suzy.

More than £2,000 has so far been raised and on Sunday Mrs Tate and her partner Mick Craven are taking part in Pudsey Rotary Club's 14-mile charity walk from Baildon.

Their entry fees will benefit the club's chosen charities - Hope and Homes for Children and Intermediate Technology - but any sponsorship money they collect will help fund Dr Pieri's research.

Mrs Tate, 52, of Idle, a classroom assistant at Salt Grammar School, said: "Dr Pieri needs money for research into why these things happen to young people.

"What we went through was a nightmare and if I can help stop it happening to other families it would mean such a lot.

"Some people still think of anorexia as silly girls who don't eat. But it goes a lot further than that."

Mrs Tate said the memorial fund had also helped provide a bench, dedicated to Suzy, in the grounds of the centre at Seacroft Hospital, adding: "What happened to Suzy is explained to the patients there and so the bench serves as a reminder to them not to get as bad as she did.'' Anyone wanting to sponsor Mrs Tate should contact her on 01274 613231.

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