North Yorkshire group determined to break stigma around eating disorders
Stats suggest around 1.25 million people in the country are impacted by an eating disorder
A North Yorkshire Mum is urging other parents to learn the signs of an eating disorder.
Latest figures suggest that 1.25 million people in the country are affected by the condition.
Donna Foster runs a charity called Kick rexi out which supports families across Ryedale, Scarborough and Whitby.
"We became a registered charity in November 2023 and we're going from strength to strength. We cover at the moment just a small area in North Yorkshire, which is Ryedale, Scarborough and Whitby. We are all volunteers, so it's the capacity that we can offer at the moment, but we have plans to start spreading our wings soon because we get an awful lot of people phoning up out the area, wanting advice and it's really hard because you'd want to help everybody."
She also has this advice for other parents: "You know your child better than anybody and it wasn't really the weight we noticed with our daughter. It was more her actions and how she was behaving."
"She was very withdrawn and moody to start with you put it down to being a teenager, you find other reasons what it could be, but she was always cold, very, very cold and her skin was pale, really pale looking and her hands and her lips were often blue."
"She'd always been incredibly slim because she's so incredibly fit, so it wasn't really the weight that we noticed as a drastic change to start with. It was her behaviours that really struck arm bells with us.
"You know your child better than anybody. Are they exercising more, or taking up a new regime where they need to go running more or doing star jumps in the bedroom or straight after a meal leaving the table fast to go and do whatever they need to do. Just look for the signs, and if you're worried, please reach out. The earlier you detect them the better the chance of recovery is.
"I think more and more people are learning of the devastating impacts they have on families. It's just getting it out there talking about it. There's no shame in it. It's a mental illness with serious, really serious physical consequences and it's got the highest mortality rate in mental health. It can be tragic, it really can but also you can recover. So there are positive sides to it as well."
You can find out more about the support group here
Or get support from BEAT here