The mother of a teenage anorexia sufferer has given valuable insight to mental health students.

Trainee mental health nurses at the University of Huddersfield came face-to-face with the devastating effects of disorders such as anorexia or bulimia thanks to a session with Newsome mum Cherie Hinchliffe.

Cherie, 41, set up the support group Families of Eating Disorder Sufferers (FEDS) following a long struggle with her own daughter Hayley.

Hayley, 15, who suffers with anorexia, came close to death and spent five months in The Priory in Cheshire on mental health grounds.

Cherie said: “As a parent/carer you are expected to provide 24-hour care for a loved one who is suffering from such a life-threatening mental illness as an eating disorder with no formal training or advice.

“You stumble through each day wondering if you made the right decision, if your actions have made your child worse or better.”

Fiona Trotter, the university’s senior lecturer for mental health, said she was using Cherie and Hayley’s issues as a powerful teaching aid.

She said: “She provided a long and comprehensive history of her daughter’s journey into eating disorders, which I used with the students.

“This was then supplemented by Cherie speaking in person to the students about her experiences of being a parent of a child with an eating disorder.

“The students were absolutely astounded by the level of care she had to give for her daughter.”

Recent figures have shown a 16% rise in the number of hospital admissions for eating disorders.

Fiona added: “The rise could be due in part to raised awareness of the issue, but the social and cultural pressures to achieve a ‘perfect’ body image continue to have a powerful effect.

“Adolescents with eating disorders are sometimes admitted to general wards, which shows that this is a subject area which should be taught across the field of nursing and not just specifically mental health.”

An interview with Cherie can be viewed at:

www.hud.ac.uk/news/research news/eatingdisordersonthecurriculum forstudentnurses.php

The FEDS website is at:

http://fedskirklees.org