Dieting all the way to death's door

Millie Furse two years ago. At the lowest point of her descent into anorexia. Photo / Supplied

Millie Furse's difficulties with food had hold of her before she knew it.

She liked to eat healthy food, but she never ate at school.

"At first, I was cutting out junk food. Then the school holidays came and I was just eating fruit."

She got down to half a grapefruit a day and lost 10kg in two weeks.

"The less food I ate, the better I felt about myself. It was the only thing I could control. It's just like an addiction," Millie said.

"All my friends were like, 'Something's wrong with you; you're so skinny'. I never expected it to happen. It came on so slowly, then it happened really suddenly."

Millie has anorexia. She ended up in hospital in 2008 for a series of admissions lasting eight weeks.

She was referred to the Auckland Regional Eating Disorders Service in Green Lane, but had to wait three months to be seen.

Because she was so unwell, the state-funded service sent Millie, then aged 16, to Sydney for treatment.

That was the only option. But now a Sydney-style programme is about to start in Auckland, giving the upper North Island its own adult residential anorexia treatment facility

When Millie's illness was at its worst, her mother, Michelle, though her daughter was going to die.

"I didn't think she was going to make it," she said yesterday. "She was so sick. I think she wouldn't have [lived] if we had stayed here."

Millie had to be admitted to a general hospital in Sydney for acute treatment - her pulse and blood pressure were low - before she could begin the residential programme, followed by a day programme.

She was in Australia, with her mother, for four and a half months.

In the depths of anorexia, Millie shrank to 33.7kg. Her hair fell out.

Now aged 18 - with new, curly, shoulder-length hair - she weighs 56kg. Her ideal weight is 62kg.

She eats six meals a day, declares she likes food and has resumed her job at a KFC restaurant.

She is confident she is making progress, although she is less certain she will ever be cured.

Her mother disagrees, telling her at their home in Manukau City yesterday: "I think you can be cured. Remember what you were like this time last year; you've come a long way."

Although she was helped greatly by the Sydney programme, Millie struggled with the separation from life in New Zealand and felt lonely.

Returning to Auckland and becoming an outpatient of the regional service was also disruptive, forcing her to establish new relationships and routines.

"Everything I had worked for had gone and I had to start from scratch."

Millie and her mother think opening a Sydney-style programme in Auckland is a great idea. They just wish it had happened two years ago.