"The school weighed when I was 11 years old triggered a eating disorder that nearly killed me"

A woman almost killed by anorexia recounted how an 11-year-old weight check in clbad had triggered her.

Becky Pates, 21, went to the hospital after her weight dropped from 4 to 8 pounds and her bones "hit her skin."

She said: "As a 11-year-old girl slightly chubby, it's the first time I thought about my weight as I walked on the scale and that terrified me.

"What started with" healthy eating "started to get out of hand. From bubbly and popular, I became a nervous and fragile girl.

St Neots distributor Cambs has been on a healthy weight for four years now.

She pronounced after the figures reveal a record number of 2,196 admissions to the hospital for eating disorders among 10 to 24 year olds in 2017.

Some 91% were girls – and 1,326 were between 13 and 17 years old.

Becky said, "I was lucky with an emergency admission, but for many people, this is not the case. There must be more awareness. "

Children are weighed at the reception and in sixth grade as part of the National Child Measurement Program. The NHS uses data to plan better services and badess levels of obesity.

But Becky reiterated how fearful the prospect was and she apologized after her mother, Terry, wrote a letter to the school: "The kids compared their weights after asking why they did not. had not done. I became obsessed with what I called "healthy eating".

After fainting at home in 2014, at the age of 16, she opened to parents Terry, 53, and Bruce, 59.

Becky was diagnosed with anorexia and referred for a monthly weigh-in at St Neots Hospital – but the weight still decreased.

Four months later, she went to the addenbrookes hospital's food addiction department after hitting the 4th kilo.

She said, "I had to use a wheelchair. My bones went through my skin. "

Along with the treatment, a letter from father Bruce begging her to be treated allowed her recovery. She said, "I could not bear how much my family was upset.

"My parents were amazing, especially my father who became my rock."

In six months, her weight has increased and she was released in 2016.

But her illness has delayed her growth and she has persistent health problems and a risk of osteoporosis.

She says. "This disease has stolen for years but it will not take anymore."

Becky hopes that expressing herself will encourage the NHS to remove checks from the school setting.

Dr. Alison Tedstone of Public Health England said, "We have great sympathy for anyone with an eating disorder."

Beat offers support for eating disorders. Visit beateatingdisorders.org.uk