Brave personal trainer beat her bulimia

Lee Donald has bounced back from the torment of ten years in the grip of eating disorders which destroyed her health (Derek Ironside / Newsline Media)

She runs her own Aberdeen-based personal training business, helping clients shape up and look their best.

But five years ago this month things couldn’t have looked more different.

Back then Lee had spent more than a decade in the grip of an eating disorder that hit her body so hard she says: “I was afraid my heart was going to give out.”

Lee’s problems started at school, especially in her teens.

“It was never about weight for me,” she tells The Sunday Post. “It started with me being sick which gave me a sense of control but before I knew it, it had control of me.

“It was primarily bulimia but I wasn’t eating at times and it showed itself as anorexia.

“I did enjoy the food but very soon I was just eating to be sick. If my mum went out I’d be shoving food in the microwave to eat quickly so I could make myself ill before she got back.”

When she was 18 Lee landed a job as a watersports instructor in the south of France. The late-night lifestyle saw her actually pile on some pounds but by the time she returned the following year her weight had plummeted.

“The bulimia had kicked into overdrive and I was so thin the people didn’t recognise me,” says Lee. “They literally walked straight past me.

“That was typical of my situation. At times I was a ‘normal’ weight, sometimes overweight and at other times seriously underweight.

“The routine was we’d eat breakfast, lunch and dinner all together. I hid what I was doing so well it took them about three months to work out what I was up to.

“But then I was called in by the centre manager who told me he knew I was being sick and I was sent home on ‘safety’ grounds on the next bus.

“I felt it was really harsh and I was gutted to leave what was a dream job.”

Lee suffered similar workplace agonies in her mid-20s when she worked in a sales job. Her behaviour – eating to excess and then making herself ill every day – was so erratic her colleagues thought she was on drugs.

She faced a similar lack of understanding when she worked with kids as a residential care worker.

And her experiences of feeling isolated and abandoned at work are mirrored by many more.

Eating Disorders Awareness Week, which starts tomorrow, is campaigning on better support at work.

“People just need a bit of understanding,” says Lee. “It’s often not a case of one approach working for everyone – some might want to talk, others not – but just feeling understood helps.”

Finally, Lee’s fortunes changed when she started her personal training course in February 2011.

“When I look back, I really don’t know how I managed to function. I was a different person. I lived a world of lies about food. But I was sick of being sick. This thing wasn’t my friend any more.

“I felt it had cheated me out of so many years of my youth.”

Details of the awareness week can be found from eating disorders charity Beat www.b-eat.co.uk

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