We've told Lorna's story of her battle with anorexia.

Now, we report back on how she's getting on, of her successes, and of the complications that can happen when you're recovering from this illness.

Every year millions of teenagers suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and obesity. My friend Lorna was one of those people.

From her early teens Lorna believed she was fat, problems at home and bullying at school didn’t help and so she resorted to anorexia.

Lorna didn’t realise she had anorexia, she believed she was just limiting her food intake, and with all of the problems around her this was something she could control and so it continued.

Everyone at school desperately tried to get Lorna to eat, we even tried force feeding her, buying food she liked and getting teachers involved.

Unfortunately nothing worked and two years later the doctors finally recognised she had a serious condition.

Lorna was taken to see the doctors and dietitian to weigh her regularly to monitor her weight to make sure she was putting on weight.

This was when Lorna was taken in to a clinic specially designed for people with eating disorders. Here she received medical attention to encourage her to start eating again.

Lorna was encouraged to eat small regular meals to introduce her into the habit of eating again. The staff provided information about food and eating a balanced diet to have a healthy body.

This lasted a year and Lorna’s eating did improve. When she came back to school she would eat but not infront of too many people, so we would eat in the head of years office a lot until she felt she was ready to eat in the dining hall.

Now Lorna eats regularly and although she still has her bad days she is starting to put weight on and look better for it.

Unfortunately her eating disorder has caused problems in other areas. As Lorna stopped eating her body weight fell so much that her periods stopped. Although this is serious, Lorna has been lucky because in some cases people have gone so far under weight that their organs have been damaged.

However Lorna’s anorexia may have caused one of the most heart breaking consequences. It could mean she will have fertility problems later in life, meaning she might have difficulties having children.

Also, Lorna is on medication that she will probably have to stay on and this could cause problems for a child, for example it could develop downs syndrome.

This is a chromosomal abnormality whereby the child has an extra chromosome, which causes them to be mentally disabled.

Lorna also missed a lot of school while she was in the clinic even though she was given some education from the James Brindley School, which specialises in educating children in hospital.

Through this scheme Lorna was given Science, Maths, English, Geography and German lessons, however she did have to drop German and Technology when she returned to school.

Unfortunately Lorna developed epilepsy through her anorexia which meant she missed a lot of school because she had to leave lessons because she was having a seizure.

Doctors aren’t certain the anorexia caused her epilepsy but it was only after she returned to school that she had serious frequent seizures.

These seizures meant that Lorna missed a lot of lessons because she had to be taken down to the medical room everyday and in most cases she was taken to hospital.

Lorna is currently taking medication to control her epilepsy, it is this medication which could cause her fertility problems. Although Lorna’s anorexia has caused her many problems, she is getting better.

Her eating has improved and she has been out of the clinic almost a year and is coping with her A levels. Now that she is taking medication her epilepsy is under control and because her condition was noticed in time she was able to receive medical attention.

Remember, this condition kills 1 in 10 sufferers, therefore if you know someone with anorexia you need to get outside advice. Try to support them and encourage them to talk about what’s wrong and why they are doing this.

If they do receive help in time they can be helped and lead a normal life but if its left too long it can cause fertility problems, organ failure and in the most extreme cases death.

Luckily Lorna was helped in time and although it has caused her problems she is once again leading a normal life.

Continued....