Emma Duffy, 24, from Chesterfield, is so gripped by anorexia she relies on liquid nutrition to survive. Her mother Beverley today released harrowing images of her daughter to highlight the horrific effect the disease can have. Emma has battled the condition for 16 years - and now relies on liquid nutrition through a tube. Her problems began when was just eight when she overheard a dance teacher saying one of the other girls would never make it as a dancer because she was too overweight. Her mother Beverley said: 'She told me that her and a friend heard the comment about another pupil and instantly started watching what they ate. But watching what they eat, for Emma, soon turned into an illness, which completely ruled her life. It's heartbreaking, the whole situation.'
A mother has described how her daughter is so gripped by anorexia that she has not eaten food for a year.
Beverley Duffy's 24-year-old daughter Emma has battled the condition for 16 years - and now relies on liquid nutrition through a tube.
She has today released harrowing images of her daughter to highlight the horrific effect the disease can have.
Emma began to suffer from the condition after a teacher called her classmate fat when she was just eight years old.
Her mother says her problems began when she was just eight and she overheard a dance teacher saying one of the other girls would never make it as a dancer because she was too overweight.
Her family claim the throwaway comment marked as the start of a long battle against anorexia.
But Mrs Duffy says she knew nothing of her daughter's eating disorder until she was 18, when she finally confessed.
She said: 'I think she must have been so sick of me blaming myself for her illness that she wanted to let me know it wasn't my fault.
'But any mother would blame themselves if their daughter ended up like Emma - it's only natural.
'She told me that her and a friend heard the comment about another pupil and instantly started watching what they ate.
'But watching what they eat, for Emma, soon turned into an illness, which completely ruled her life.
'It's heartbreaking, the whole situation.'
She added: 'People have said to me "I wouldn't let my child be anorexic, I'd make them eat" and all the rest of it.
'But what they don't realise is that you can watch them eat - and Emma did used to eat - but you can't watch them when they throw it all up again.
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Battle: Emma's mother said she knew nothing about her daughter's (pictured) eating disorder until she was 18
Harrowing images released by Emma's family show her being tube fed, such is the deterioration in her condition. She has not eaten food for over a year
Emma three years ago before signs of her eating disorder. Her mother says she also suffers from a personality disorder and has tried to commit suicide nine times
'Emma was very good at convincing us she was eating properly.'
The former student from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, has been repeatedly sectioned under the Mental Health Act as she suffers from borderline personality disorder, her mother said.
Mrs Duffy added: 'We have hope, and believe that she will get better. But even now we don't know the full story.
'It's like a million piece jigsaw, and we have only filled the first line in. It's a mental illness. It's not just about eating.
'She is a different Emma sometimes. It's in her eyes. She is violent, she will attack us. She once accused me of trying to murder her and rang the police.'
Despite suffering from bullimia for ten years following the throwaway remark, Emma's weight wasn't low enough to cause doctors concern.
Her sister Amy, 20, said: 'But she had been passing out, not feeling well and her hair was falling out.
Shock: Images of Emma from November, which partly show the dangerous level to which she has lost weight
Emma aged eight, when she overheard a comment about her weight that triggered her 16-year battle with anorexia
'That's when she wrote a letter to my mum saying she had been making herself sick, and that was why all those things had been happening.'
Emma, a former nursing student, spent her gap year in an orphanage in Ghana and changing the children's eating progamme from a diet of gruel to eggs and vegetables.
Her mother said: 'She had been giving her food to the children. She kept all this from us though. She said she was having a good time. Had I known I would have been straight out there.
'When she came home, we were waiting for her at the airport in London. But she was so skinny I walked straight past her. I didn't recognise her.
Emma volunteering in Ghana in 2009 when she was barely eating and right, in the grip of the eating disorder
Emma's hopes of a recovery were dashed when she was refused an NHS place at The Retreat in York
'It is heartbreaking when you don't even recognise your own daughter. I thought my world had ended. She was skin and bone. Her face had caved in and her eyes were sunken.'
A year later, Emma was forced to drop out of her nursing course at Teesside University due to poor attendance, leading to a suicide attempt in October 2013 which saw her sectioned to Roseberry Park Hospital in Middlesborough, where she has been ever since.
Mrs Duffy said: 'They don't know what to do with her.
'The average stay on that ward is 21 days. It is a holding place really. She has been there for six months.
'She needs to go somewhere where they can treat her eating disorder and her personality disorder.'
Her family have revealed that Miss Duffy's hopes of a recovery were dashed last month when she was refused an NHS place at The Retreat in York, North Yorkshire - one of the only units in the UK which treats eating disorders and personality disorders together.
Emma aged 18 with her family, when she confessed to her mother she had bulimia
Her sister Amy added: 'Emma said "what is the point when no one is going to help me?" - and it's difficult to disagree. It's like they are trying to keep her alive, but not saving her.'
Mrs Duffy said: 'In my opinion, the panel of judges on the board just looked at Emma's notes and thought "she's not actually as thin as some anorexic people" and refused her.
'But Emma is naturally a big girl, her healthy weight is about 12 stone and now she is probably half that.
'And when you hear about all the boob jobs and wasteful prescriptions people are getting on the NHS, it just doesn't seem right.'
Emma with her sister, Amy, who is trying to raise £1m so her sister can have private treatment
She added that she has never known Emma's weight as she always refused to tell her.
'Staff at her current hospital have to restrain her to weigh her - but I think she's about six stone.'
Following the refusal, the family are now bidding to raise the £1m required to pay for a private bed at The Retreat.
Mrs Duffy said: 'The treatment costs £333,000 a year. But the average time for success is two years, so we are hoping to raise enough for three years of treatment.'
'I hope we can raise the money ourselves before it's too late for her,' said Emma's mother, Beverley
Now the family has set up Saving Emma - a campaign aiming to raise the money needed to send her to the unit, with costs for three years' stay reaching up to £1m.
'We want everybody to know what is going on,' said her mother. 'This won't be the first time it has happened and it wont be the last. Everyone keeps passing her on.
She added: 'She has been so traumatised following this refusal, she's getting weaker and weaker and she needs help.
'I hope we can raise the money ourselves before it's too late for her.'
A spokesman for Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust said: 'We are sorry the family has concerns about their daughter's care and would encourage them to get in touch with us through our patient advice and liaison service to discuss these.
'It wouldn't be appropriate for us to comment on the personal details of an individual's care. The responsibility for funding care placements rests with the commissioners of NHS services.'
To support the Save Emma campaign, go to www.facebook.com/savingemmaduffy or
visit www.gofundme.com/6osnlw.
For more information or support dealing with eating disorders visit the BEAT website.
EATING DISORDER WHICH AFFECTS AROUND 160,000 PEOPLE IN THE UK
Around 1.6million people in Britain suffer from eating disorders and a tenth of those are thought to have anorexia. The rest have bulimia or other disorders.
Its full name anorexia nervosa, it is often cited as the most lethal mental illness - with a larger ratio sufferers dying than those who have depression or psychosis.
Sufferers tend to focus on food but the illness itself stems from low self-esteem and an inability to cope safely with
worries, problems and a lack of control.
Many who have anorexia lower their food intake by skipping meals and cutting down the types and amounts of food they eat; some over-exercise.
Aside from catastrophically severe weight loss, physical symptoms include difficulty sleeping, dizziness, stomach pains, constipation, feeling cold and hair loss.
Periods can stop for women and sufferers grow soft, fine hair all over their bodies in a condition called Lanugo.
Although researchers are given figures by hospitals around Britain, it is thought the real toll of sufferers could be much higher because many are reluctant to seek help.
One symptom is that sufferers shut themselves off from the world and convince themselves that what they are doing is right, even if they are dangerously underweight.
Nine out of ten people with an eating disorder are women - but NHS figures suggest there is a growing number of male sufferers.
Specialists tend to use psychological treatments such as counselling, though the most severe cases have to be treated in hospital to ensure patients regain weight safely.
Emma aged 18 with her family, when she confessed to her mother she had bulimia
Her sister Amy added: 'Emma said "what is the point when no one is going to help me?" - and it's difficult to disagree. It's like they are trying to keep her alive, but not saving her.'
Mrs Duffy said: 'In my opinion, the panel of judges on the board just looked at Emma's notes and thought "she's not actually as thin as some anorexic people" and refused her.
'But Emma is naturally a big girl, her healthy weight is about 12 stone and now she is probably half that.
'And when you hear about all the boob jobs and wasteful prescriptions people are getting on the NHS, it just doesn't seem right.'
Emma with her sister, Amy, who is trying to raise £1m so her sister can have private treatment
She added that she has never known Emma's weight as she always refused to tell her.
'Staff at her current hospital have to restrain her to weigh her - but I think she's about six stone.'
Following the refusal, the family are now bidding to raise the £1m required to pay for a private bed at The Retreat.
Mrs Duffy said: 'The treatment costs £333,000 a year. But the average time for success is two years, so we are hoping to raise enough for three years of treatment.'
'I hope we can raise the money ourselves before it's too late for her,' said Emma's mother, Beverley
Now the family has set up Saving Emma - a campaign aiming to raise the money needed to send her to the unit, with costs for three years' stay reaching up to £1m.
'We want everybody to know what is going on,' said her mother. 'This won't be the first time it has happened and it wont be the last. Everyone keeps passing her on.
She added: 'She has been so traumatised following this refusal, she's getting weaker and weaker and she needs help.
'I hope we can raise the money ourselves before it's too late for her.'
A spokesman for Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust said: 'We are sorry the family has concerns about their daughter's care and would encourage them to get in touch with us through our patient advice and liaison service to discuss these.
'It wouldn't be appropriate for us to comment on the personal details of an individual's care. The responsibility for funding care placements rests with the commissioners of NHS services.'
To support the Save Emma campaign, go to www.facebook.com/savingemmaduffy or
visit www.gofundme.com/6osnlw.
For more information or support dealing with eating disorders visit the BEAT website.
EATING DISORDER WHICH AFFECTS AROUND 160,000 PEOPLE IN THE UK
Around 1.6million people in Britain suffer from eating disorders and a tenth of those are thought to have anorexia. The rest have bulimia or other disorders.
Its full name anorexia nervosa, it is often cited as the most lethal mental illness - with a larger ratio sufferers dying than those who have depression or psychosis.
Sufferers tend to focus on food but the illness itself stems from low self-esteem and an inability to cope safely with
worries, problems and a lack of control.
Many who have anorexia lower their food intake by skipping meals and cutting down the types and amounts of food they eat; some over-exercise.
Aside from catastrophically severe weight loss, physical symptoms include difficulty sleeping, dizziness, stomach pains, constipation, feeling cold and hair loss.
Periods can stop for women and sufferers grow soft, fine hair all over their bodies in a condition called Lanugo.
Although researchers are given figures by hospitals around Britain, it is thought the real toll of sufferers could be much higher because many are reluctant to seek help.
One symptom is that sufferers shut themselves off from the world and convince themselves that what they are doing is right, even if they are dangerously underweight.
Nine out of ten people with an eating disorder are women - but NHS figures suggest there is a growing number of male sufferers.
Specialists tend to use psychological treatments such as counselling, though the most severe cases have to be treated in hospital to ensure patients regain weight safely.
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