Teen to help run anorexia group to give others 'hope'

A teenager who overcame "crippling" anorexia is helping run a support group to show others "they can come out the other side".

Pat Ayres MBE, 80, founded the Cirencester Eating Disorders Support Group in 2003 after helping her own daughter through the illness, but is now stepping back.

Ayla and her mother Sarah are taking up the reins because they just "couldn't imagine it not being there for other people".

The eighteen year old said she wanted to help with the running of the group because young people "in the depths of their illness need someone who will get it".

Her illness emerged during lockdown when she was "bombarded" daily on social media with new diets to try.

Ayla said she when she returned to school after lockdown she was always looking for new ways to restrict food.

She became so unwell she spent several months in hospital and missed more than a year of education.

Anorexia has one of the highest mortality rates of any mental illness.

Sarah said she felt helpless as she watched her daughter's condition deteriorate.

"It felt like a bomb had gone off in our lives," she said.

"But to go along to the group and see people who had been through it and come out the other side just gave us that hope."

Sarah said she wanted to take on running the group because "'it was just such a valuable resource when we were struggling."

She added: "I couldn't imagine it not being there for other people."

"It is quite scary to open up to someone because they are going to try and stop you but honestly that is what you need. You need help," Ayla said.

"When you have an eating disorder you feel like you are going insane. So when I went to the group, I was like 'it's not just me'."

Ms Ayres daughter was diagnosed with anorexia 30 years ago "when it wasn't really talked about".

She eventually ended up in in-patent care in London, and Mrs Ayres travelled to London every week to go to support group for parents.

There was nothing of its kind locally, so she founded her own group because "I wanted to do something because I just remember how lonely we felt".

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