At the age of 12 I was anorexic, weighing just over 6st (38kg)at 5ft 2in (1.57m).

One day I saw a TV programme about a girl who threw up to stay slim. Starving, I went to the kitchen, got several scones, smothered them with jam and after eating them went to the bathroom and stuck my fingers down my throat. I felt tense, conscious I was doing something forbidden, yet also blasé and numb - typical bulimic emotions to which I later became habituated. I emerged on a clean, guiltless breeze, my parents downstairs suspecting nothing.

Within a month or two of my developing full-blown bulimia, my parents realised what I was doing.

My parents took me to doctors, but I refused to get better.

Eventually, afraid to alienate me further, my parents stopped speaking about it.