It seemed that boys didn't get eating disorders. So when my son suddenly started losing weight rapidly, it was very confusing. So the first time we went to the GP, the GP had never met him because he was such a healthy boy and so basically just said, oh, don't mummy's fuss. You look like a really fit, healthy young man to me. So before he developed anorexia, he was the eldest of six kids. Well, five at the time. He was really sporty. He was precise, slightly perfectionist, good at maths, passion for sport and running. So if you'd met him with his mates at school, you would have said he was the least likely boy to ever have a mental health issue. And then so it was such a shock, not just to us. It was a shock to the school. It was a shock to all the his friends, their families. The families were bizarrely worried that maybe he had some infectious disease that he might give to their sons. And at that time, he was still eating plenty. But what we didn't know was that he was doing all this extra exercise and that was leading to this weight loss. Now, several weeks after that, the GP did start to take it seriously because he was becoming very unwell with this rapid weight loss-- so a kilo a week for 12 weeks was his progression. But then thought it was something physical, so he was tested for anything to do with the gut-- so a blockage, Crohn's disease, IBS. Then all the cancers he was tested for. And of course, it was such a relief because all of these tests came back negative. But we were like, well, but what is wrong with him. So we always say as mums, don't you have the benefit of hindsight? So with hindsight, maybe we would have done things a little bit differently. But because he'd had this growth spurt and he was really, really determined that he was going to be really fit and healthy for-- he wanted to be football captain the following year. He wanted to win the school cross country run. So the first thing that happened was he persuaded me that he would have an exercise bike in his bedroom. And we thought, fine, great. He's got his TV so he can be doing his exercise, watching his TV, or maybe watching something for his studies or sometimes he would do that. And so we were aware that he was going on the exercise bike quite a lot, but we didn't think that was a problem. But he did start to lose weight. Where we started to realise it had become a problem was when it was becoming so repetitive and so compulsive. So as well as the exercise bike and as well as going to swim training at school-- so he was a swimmer as well-- so as well as going to swim training and as well as going for extra long runs, he would be constantly moving. So he would wake up in the morning and he would do about five-- well, probably exactly 500 press ups, 500 sit ups. And then he'd come down the stairs and trying not to let us see, but obviously we would see him doing some of it. He'd do 500 pull ups on the stairs and that would be before breakfast. So as his illness progressed, we went from being a really kind of happy, busy, passionate family about life. So every weekend was full of lots of trips out and his football and parties and all that sort of thing. And very quickly we became very isolated and very insular as the illness progressed. Well, to start with, as I say, he was eating exactly the same as all of his mates-- so it wasn't a problem. So it was a curiosity that he was losing weight. And then of course, people at school started to notice. His friends started to notice. The wider family started to notice. My lovely mum would always say the wrong thing and do the wrong thing because of the generational stuff. So yeah, it became very quickly it became apparent that he was really, really unwell. One of the things I did was I rang the school to say, I'm really worried about Joe. Have you noticed anything? And at that time they said, yes. He's become the talk of the staffroom and I just wish they'd rung me earlier. I wish as soon as they were worried that they would have thought, let's ring the parents and see what they're noticing. But anyway, once we had had that conversation, we could then work together. But the force of the eating disorder was so powerful then that we weren't able to arrest it. And then what we didn't know was he'd stopped eating lunch at school. So that's often a warning sign for young people. But schools are busy places. Schools don't always notice if someone has stopped eating lunch at school. And then when he would come home, he would often say, I'm bored and that would be the indication. So to start with, we thought he just found us boring because he was a teenager and he's our eldest, so maybe that's what teenagers do. But he would come home and say, I'm bored and disappear to his bedroom. And that's when we would start to hear the bumping and the crashing where he was doing not only the push ups and sit ups and press ups. He was doing star jumps and burpees and all of these other things as well and it was relentless. So then he would come downstairs looking quite red in the face. He might eat up a quarter of a fishfinger, five peas, and three chips and then go back up and start again. So that was towards the end of the pre-diagnosis phase, I guess. But then when he got diagnosed, he was admitted to hospital very quickly because he was so poorly. When somebody is being starved, their metabolism slows down, like going on a crash diet. But then when they start eating again, it takes so much energy to rebuild all of that tissue in your body. So when he went back to school and started playing football, he needed to eat about 4,500 calories a day-- and that was a real challenge. And that went on for about probably nine months, that he needed to eat so much more. Now, he's still very active. He's very sporty. He works at a football club in London. He does a lot of-- he plays football, does a lot of running, cycling, that sort of thing. And he now responds to his appetite. So he's completely got that appetite back. And he probably eats more than most other people because he's so active. But it's just intuitive now.