WHEN Daisy Kay got out of bed, the first thing she would do was grab her pills and swallow 20.
An hour later, her hand would shake as she poured more into her mouth.
But she was not hooked on street drugs — she was anorexic and addicted to LAXATIVES.
At the height of her problem she downed up to 220 tablets a day and shrank to a tiny 5½st.
Over two years, she took around 110,000 over-the-counter laxatives, spending an incredible £20,000 on her dangerous habit.
A year after hitting crisis point and fighting for her life, she has slowly introduced food back into her diet and is recovering — and wants to warn other girls of the dangers of competing to be thin.
Daisy, now 24 and hoping to become a model, says: “I wanted to be the skinniest I could be, no matter the cost.
“When I first went to the doctors with an eating disorder, I was turned away.
“I was so angry that they didn’t think I was skinny enough to be called anorexic. It made me want to lose more weight.
“I started taking laxatives to flush out anything inside me but it ended up nearly killing me. I want my story to be a warning to other girls.
“Being that skinny wasn’t pretty or healthy and didn’t make me happy. Laxatives are dangerous drugs and I’m lucky to be alive.”
Before her eating disorder, the teenage Daisy weighed 10½st and was a size 12.
She never thought about her weight until she fell victim to bullies at school.
Daisy, of Brighton, who is currently unemployed, says: “All the thin, popular girls started to ignore me.
“They would say rude things to me about my weight and for the first time it made me realise I didn’t fit in.
“I felt ugly and had no self-confidence. The more they bullied me, the more I ate. I wanted to be as thin as the bullies but instead I made myself
bigger.”
Then, desperate to lose weight, miserable Daisy began to starve herself.
She says: “At first I couldn’t control my eating, so I’d binge-eat all my favourite foods then starve myself the next day.
“Within six months I had a routine of binge-eating from 6pm to 10pm twice a week, then I’d eat nothing for a couple of days. Over the next year I ate less and less.
“I would miss breakfast, put my lunch in the bin and exercise as much as possible.”
Her weight began to drop off and she became addicted to the feeling it gave her.
She says: “By 18 I was down to 8st and was really ill. My parents realised I had an eating problem and tried to force me to eat. So I’d eat in front of
them, then starve myself.
“They took me to the doctor. I thought they’d tell me I had an eating disorder and force me to get help but I was shocked when they didn’t. They told me I had some diet issues but just sent me away.”
The diagnosis pushed Daisy’s disorder into deadly new territory.
She says: “I couldn’t believe it. I was furious. I thought someone was going to force me to get help but instead I felt I had failed at getting an eating disorder.
“In my mind, it meant I wasn’t skinny enough. I decided there and then I would prove the doctor wrong and become anorexic.
“I was going to have an eating disorder — and I wouldn’t stop at anything until I did.”
Daisy, by then 19, trawled eating disorder websites and found hundreds of posts talking about using laxatives to lose weight. So she went to her local pharmacy and got some.
She says: “I knew what laxatives did but I didn’t know how they worked. I didn’t care either.
“I took the recommended dosage straight away and it worked — I went to the toilet within minutes.
“But after a few days it wasn’t enough to help me lose weight.”
So she decided to raise the dosage beyond the recommended levels.
She says: “I began taking ten at a time and it began to have the desired effect. I’d spend half the day on the toilet but it made me slimmer.”
Over the next two years, Daisy took more and more laxatives.
She says: “I managed to hide it from everyone. I’d spend hours on the toilet, allow myself a break while I left the house, then spend the evening back on the toilet.
“The weight fell off but I didn’t want even an inch of fat on me.”
Age 21, weighing seven stone, Daisy met James, who is now her husband.
She says: “We fell in love and although he realised I was slim, he had no idea why.
“I hid it very well and when he proposed in 2012, I was so happy. I said yes.
“He didn’t realise for ages but within a year I was down to 5½ stone and he demanded the truth. I told him but it didn’t stop me taking laxatives.
“I was then taking 220 a day. I couldn’t work or leave the house because I spent most of the time on the toilet.”
By this point, Daisy had taken 110,000 tablets and spent more than £20,000.
She would go to different pharmacies so not to raise suspicions.
She says: “I was the master of deception.”
But she could not disguise the effects of her addiction on her body.
She says: “I was pretty much just skin and bones. I felt so ill, my fingernails became brittle, my hair started to turn grey and fall out.
“I got blurry vision and heart palpitations and could barely get out of bed.
Walking up stairs made me out of breath.
“If we drove long distances, we’d have to stop every 20 minutes. A two-hour car journey could take half a day.
“James was terrified — he told me he was worried I would die. But it didn’t stop me.”
Eventually, James forced Daisy to see a doctor.
She says: “The doctor took one look at me and diagnosed me with anorexia. I felt this huge weight had been lifted. I’d done it — and it was finally over.”
But her problems were far from finished. Years of abuse had left Daisy seriously ill.
Her stomach was damaged and her bones were fragile. Doctors said she could die if she did not begin to eat properly.
Daisy says: “It suddenly dawned on me that I had risked my life to be anorexic.
“I desperately wanted to get better. I started holistic therapy and colonic
hydrotherapy, which got my stomach working naturally.
“I ate seeds, which are dense in calories, a lot of fish and potatoes. It took six months to put on a stone and since then it’s been a slow recovery.”
Two years on, Daisy is fully recovered. She cannot believe that she nearly gave up her life to be thin.
She says: “My stomach is still very sensitive and I haven’t taken laxatives for almost two years.
“I know I’m lucky to be alive and hope my story helps stop other girls falling victim to laxative abuse.”
Bowel bleeds from tablets
OVER-the-counter laxatives are almost always for short-term use, writes Sun doctor CAROL COOPER.
They’re stimulants but the gut becomes used to them so stopping the tablets can be difficult.
Abusing laxatives is dangerous because high doses can cause bleeding from the bowel.
They get rid of water, not calories. You lose potassium, essential for nerves and muscles, which causes tiredness and cramps. It can also causes heart palpitations, just as Daisy had.
And chronic diarrhoea can prevent nutrients being absorbed.
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