Danuta’s story

I started to get so used to not eating so much that  it stuck. I started throwing away my lunch and going home telling mum I had eaten it, when really the bin did instead. I finally confessed to a connexions member of my school, Jane. She took me to a dietician at St Mary's hospital and I was getting weighed each week. My mum found out because Alison had to tell her as it wasn't going away.

A few years later it got a LOT worse. I was 14 years old when I was first admitted to hospital for panic attacks and the eating disorder. At the time I was bulimic and still not eating much. I was put on a ventilator and taken to ITU in Great Ormond street.

I stayed in there for 3-5 months and came out just before Christmas. I went back to school when the new term started and everybody was happy to see me. The anorexia was still very there but my mum was keeping me alive by forcing food down me and taking me to a family and individual therapist every week.

A year later it took a vigorous turn when I started to develop depression. My two mentors in school were having a session with me one day when I said I wanted to die. That is when I started harming myself and crying all the time, when I couldn't explain why.

I was admitted to an adolescent psychiatric unit, where I had my own room and attended groups which help me emotionally and socially. It helped me SO much and now I have resat year 12 (as I couldn't go to school while I was in the unit and missed all the year) and am doing my A-levels.

My ambition is to be a paediatric nurse and every Friday after 6th form I volunteer at a children’s play centre. They all love me there and I enjoy working with them so much. I really hope I can help somebody like all those professional doctors and nurses helped me