Jeff Stelling’s heartbreaking admission about his daughter’s anorexia battle will save lives – Lynn Crilly

TV presenter Jeff Stelling knows better than most about the battles many parents are privately fighting each and every day.

And he deserves huge praise for going public about the topic.

Back in 2023, he spoke out on TV show Soccer Saturday, hitting out at the government’s ‘lack of awareness and funding’ on the issue, labelling it as a ‘national disgrace’.

Then, just a few weeks ago, he spoke about the topic further in an interview where he opened up on how a friend was struggling with an eating disorder.

‘Years and years ago, I thought, “How can that be an illness? I was one of these ill-informed people that felt it was just all about vanity and it wasn’t a mental health issue. But, obviously, it’s a massive mental health issue. And there is something inside them telling them that’s where they need to be. That putting on weight is a fate worse than death. And I mean that quite literally.”

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Jeff’s right, and as we approach Eating Disorder Awareness Week his words will help people more than probably he realises. Having supported my own daughter Samantha, for two decades, with her own battle with an eating disorder, I’ve seen first-hand the failures which exist within our care system. Anyone looking at us 20 years ago would have assumed from the outside that we

were a perfectly ‘normal’ family. My husband Kevin and I, and our beautiful twin daughters Charlotte and Samantha, were happy and most of the time life was good.

Until our picture-perfect world fell apart when, at the age of 13, Samantha was diagnosed with the early stages of Anorexia Nervosa and OCD.

We were equally and naively unaware of the conditions or the precise help and treatment needed for our lovely daughter as we watched her spiral so quickly out of control.

We believed that if we entrusted Samantha’s health to the ‘system’ she would get better. Little did we know we were starting the biggest learning curve that would lead us to where we are now.

Every day, within my work I revisit the pain and suffering that living with a loved one

with an eating disorder can inflict on both the sufferer and their loved ones.

It rips families apart, and pushes them to their limits, no one is exempt.

Now, 20 years later eating disorders are still woefully misunderstood, with the carers constantly treading water, with little or no support to keep them afloat. Although the role they play in their loved one’s recovery is not only vital but essential to a positive outcome.

And I’ve seen the impact this has not just on the sufferer, but on their friends and their family as well.

Unless you have actually cared for and supported a loved one through an eating disorder, however, many people try, they will never understand the magnitude that comes with this.

Thankfully my family made it out the other side fairly intact and still together.

But many do not, as eating disorders destroy the lives of all involved.

That’s why we need people like Jeff Stelling, brave people, to stand up and be a voice for sufferers and their families.