Brave Ayr girl feared she would have 'heart attack' as she battled anorexia

Chloe Frame, 20, was left weighing just six stone last year after she became obsessed with food eating less than 500 calories a day.

The student has told how she would eat three chicken nuggets then make herself sick to stay thin whilst she was on holiday in Magaluf with pals last year.

Her dangerously skinny body had friends so concerned that they raised the alarm with her parents as her condition began to deteriorate.

Chloe told the Advertiser that her unhealthy relationship with food was sparked after family issues when she was younger.

She said: “My obsessions with food started when I was 16 and then I started losing the weight when I was 18. Round about March (2018) is when people started noticing it. It went from a diet to eating under 500 calories a day. I would go a day without any food and allow myself to eat one meal at night.

“I was terrified of supermarkets, terrified of restaurants I would end up having a panic attack in there “I was just overwhelmed. I would think about what calories were in a meal. If I had to go to a restaurant nine times out of 10 I would make myself sick. I would even order things online from dieting websites. I tried to find no calorie food, but it’s not a thing.”

“I went on holiday in June last year to Magaluf and that’s when everyone noticed. I lost two stone at that point. I just wasn’t healthy I had lost everything about myself .

Before the holiday Chloe sought help from her GP in Ayr who advised her to go to a local eating disorder clinic based in Irvine - but offering home visits.

But the sick teen was left frustrated by the advice given from the support clinic who she claims kept cancelling appointments and rushing through vital sessions.

She added: “It was over Summer as well so I just kept phoning and phoning, trying to get an appointment. The appointments were meant to be an hour but they were in 20 minutes, all they did was weighed me and gave me a meal plan.

“My mum came down and sat and listened to one of the appointments and she said they spoke to me as if I was a baby.”

Chloe was discharged from the clinic in September: “For someone who’s crying for help and needing attention - having anorexia which is one of the most deadly mental illnesses, they just discharged me just like that. I should have been in hospital. I was so ill.”

She added: “One of the days I was up at the stables and I just had an agony pain in my chest, most people who have anorexia die from a heart attack because your heart is so weak “I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack, that just terrified me. That’s when I tried to get better.

“I had depression I had anxiety. I lost everything about me. My hair was falling out in clumps. I was so weak and exhausted all the time.”

Chloe endured a brutal recovery for three months as she tried to get her body used to food again.

During which time she suffered from severe hunger, and was sick everyday as she was over feeding herself in a desperate bid to get healthy.

An online community page helped her understand what was normal and how to cope with the gruelling rehabilitation.

Her mum paid for a private counsellor spending £400 on sessions over the course of 10 weeks, which helped her deal with her mental health disorder.

Now she wants others to seek help before it’s too late and has offered advice to anyone who is going through the same.

She said: “The first thing you need to do when you know is get help.

“As stupid as you may sound and as stupid as this eating disorder might make you feel, you’re not stupid.

“The fact I went from having a phobias of supermarkets and restaurants, to now just be able to go and sit and eat.

“I never thought that would happen. It’s been really rewarding to get through all this for myself.

“If people ever needed help, they would be more than welcome to come to me.”

Stephen Brown, Director of Health and Social Care, North Ayrshire said: “NHS Ayrshire & Arran cannot comment on individual cases due to patient confidentiality but we would encourage anyone with any concerns about the care or treatment provided to contact us directly. This allows us to investigate and provide feedback.