Model admits to history of bulimia

Lucy Clarkson, 28, moved from Rotherham to London when she was just 16 years old after being spotted by fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.

During a talk at Wickersley School Miss Clarkson, who is now an anti-size zero campaigner, told pupils that she spent up to £60 a day on food and then made herself sick.

She compared her eating disorder to drug addiction and said: “It’s going cold turkey, like a heroin user or alcoholic and now I always say I have been clean for two years.

“The turning point was being so depressed and not working. It got to the point where I couldn’t model because of the way I looked.

“I was exposed to eating disorders when I moved to London at 16. One girl with anorexia lived on tissue paper and melon.”

Miss Clarkson, who has now been signed up to model for Kelloggs Special K cereal, said a combination of family, her fiance Michael Parnes and NHS eating disorder clinic Vincent Square finally turned around her life.

She was put on anti depressants and medication to stop her being sick because her stomach acid could no longer break down foods.

“Mentally I think it will always be with me but physically it has gone”, she said.