The 1 thing I am most proud of in my life is recovering from my eating disorder. 

I was a happy go lucky child who loved nothing more than painting random cardboard boxes, writing stories and designing the cover on word art, and baking cakes!

Then when I was 12, I became consumed by numbers, how many calories, the number on the scale, how many sit ups on my bedroom floor.

I withdrew from my friendship groups at school, my family, I had lost my colour in every sense. 

This was of course, before the times of TikTok and social media as we know it today. 

I remember trawling YouTube for any videos about gaining weight healthily, I was terrified of the foods people were telling me to eat and I wanted to do it in a healthy way - but all I could find for women was weight loss videos. 

Ironically, social media was one of the biggest mindset changes I had around recovery. 

As I went through school, things got a little better, but it was still there, always. That voice in my head. The calculations whirring around and around. 

At uni, things got a bit worse again. 

In 2020, the lockdown forced me to fix the voice inside my head. I set up a page to share my journey in recovery, sharing recipes and fun workout ideas.

And funnily enough - growing the account led to my career in social media marketing.

I have the strength now to keep away from it, to turn it off, unfollow, click away, but for someone struggling, that is practically impossible, and the algorithms play on that. 

I have always been so grateful and inspired by the work that BEAT do - so in August I will be doing something I never could have dreamed of when I was sick. 

I will be running a half marathon for BEAT, the UK's eating disorder charity. Beat supports anyone with an eating disorder, their friends and family, as well as professionals working with or worried about an individual in their care.

These serious mental illnesses include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. 1.25 million people in the UK have a diagnosed eating disorder. They affect people of all ages and backgrounds, and up to one in four sufferers are male. Eating disorders cost the UK's economy £16.8 billion each year.