I am fundraising 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.

After spending my teenage and early adult years in and out of hospital with anorexia i am determined to make a change. This illness is one that i would wish upon nobody and destroys your life to the point i didn’t want to wake up the next day. The distressing scenes i have witnessed in these hospitals will stay with me for life and people should be able to get the help they need before it gets to that point. I am slowly starting to learn who Isla is again however losing those precious years of my childhood could have been prevented. I am doing this for all the incredible survivors i have met in these hospitals and my family who have been there for me through thick and thin even when they were told that their daughter had days to live. Too many lives are being lost to eating disorders everyday and this is anything but okay, something has to be done to increase early prevention and stop patients getting themselves into a life or death situation.

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.