As as family, we were happy. Our girls (Katie and Emma) enjoyed
school and worked hard and they both enjoyed dancing in their spare time.
We spent most of our time taking them to and from dance rehearsals but we didn't mind, because they enjoyed it so much.

Emma was the joker of the family, always making us laugh with
her witty humor and she adored her sister. They were always singing and dancing together and performing at home for me to watch, life was perfect...two very happy and healthy children.

I noticed Emma had lost weight, she started by announcing she
was 'eating healthily', "no crisps or biscuits that's all". Aged 15 years
old and a dancer I didn't think there was anything wrong with this. But she started to change becoming irritable, angry and rude. Her personality had altered massively and it was like she had split in two. I often said it was like she had been possessed by the devil. I told Emma that we needed to go to the doctors as I felt her obsession was unhealthy. She screamed a lot and cried, begging me not to take her. But I could no longer bear to listen to her sobbing at night in her bedroom, being unable to help her. In the November, the doctor said her BMI was not an anorexic weight and despite my concerns we were advise to return home and be reviewed in 8 weeks. Telling Emma that she was'not thin enough ' to warrant a referral, sent Emma into a downward spiral and just accelerated her weight loss. Before the 8 weeks had passed we returned to the doctor and she was admitted into an eating disorder unit. Now she was 'too thin' for any psychological input. 

What followed was 5 years of hospital admissions, minimal school
attendance, eating disorder inpatient stays for months on end hundreds of miles away from home, suicide attempts and pure hell and misery for everyone involved. Christmas day in resus is not where any parent wishes to be. We were told Emma was at risk of imminent death on many occasions and as a family had accepted that she would die. Emma had arranged her funeral choosing the music that would be played and was unable to change the path that she was on. God knows we tried.

Emma contacted a research trial in London. At the first contact,
she was too poorly to take part but as soon as she was 19 she contacted them again. Emma was accepted onto the trial with a BMI of 14 and received the month’s treatment between Sept-October 2015.

Please see Emma’s blog for further
information about the treatment.

https://findingemmablog.wordpress.com/page/2/

Today we have Emma back, she is currently training to compete as
a power lifter, enjoying university and works part-time. This year we will celebrate Emma's 21st birthday and  next year Katie gets married and we can all look forward to a family celebration without the concerns we had for Emma's health. Katie, her fiance Jonathan and their friends are running the marathon along with myself to raise money to support future research.

We found Emma and we have our family back. :-) but we didn’t do
this alone.We would not be where we are today without the research trial rTMS (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation) at Kings College London. Any money raised will help fund future research.

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/depts/pm/research/eatingdisorders/available-studies/Repetitive-transcranial-magnetic-stimulation-(rTMS)-in-anorexia-nervosa.aspx

Thank you for taking your time to read this.

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