Preston teen shares mental health battle to push for change in support services

A young woman who is recovering from an eating disorder is urging health services to review their criteria for mental illness support.

Grace Roy, 19, from Preston, has been suffering from Anorexia Nervosa since 2022.

While she was in a general Lancashire NHS hospital, she said she: “picked up on sufferer’s habits,” for example head banging which she said made her mental illness more intense.

In 2022, Grace was at her lowest weight and was transferred from a general hospital to a local private one.

During this time, she was given a nasogastric tube and lifesaving treatment in the ICU.

She mentioned that during this time she felt “helpless and weak,” especially when she was restrained by “six big burly men” through her exhausting mealtimes.

Grace said that the staff at the general hospital were “unequipped” with eating disorder treatment, despite being surrounded by professionals.

In their reply to Grace’s story, Royal Preston Hospital, where she was an inpatient, said that they “could not comment on this particular case,” due to the lack of detail.

Grace and her first book, An Unconventional Mind Pic: David Roy

In 2023, when Grace was transferred to a specialised hospital, she was exposed to patients hiding food in their hair and completing forbidden exercises.

Priory Group, the private hospital replied: “Due to confidentiality, we cannot comment publicly on individual patient care.”

During her inpatient experience, to distance herself from her pain and suffering, Grace wrote and illustrated her first fictional book.

Two years later, she has published two books in the hope of “helping people” in need.

In a message to anyone struggling, Grace mentioned the importance of early intervention, perseverance and finding your purpose to start recovery.

She has now “graduated to another stage of recovery,” but emphasised that being pushed to recover in both a general and private hospital, did not help her truly overcome their struggles.

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