Brave Kate's life is back in full swing
Moving to Sheffield saved university student Kate Cooper's life. As a teenager she desperately struggled with bulimia and self harm but re-locating to Sheffield has proved the perfect tonic. She told her uplifting story to Jane Cartledge
AS a teenager Kate Cooper never imagined settling in Sheffield, a city far removed from the quiet Norfolk village where she grew up.
In fact, in her darkest days when she limited herself to 500 calories a day and made herself sick a dozen times, Kate struggled to imagine any future at all.
Throughout her teenage years Kate, now 21, was in the grip of an eating disorder which threatened to destroy her.
But as we sit in Starbucks there's little sign of that frail teenager. Instead I find a confident, chatty and thoroughly happy young woman determined to get the most out of life.
Kate is proof that recovery is possible and to the estimated 1.1million people in Britain with an eating disorder she's simply an inspiration.
"I grew up in a quiet village where my family still live," explained Kate, who lives in Crookes, Sheffield, and is preparing to start the final year of her degree course.
"It's totally different to Sheffield and when it's dark it's dark!
"My childhood was really very normal but when I went to high school things started to change. Everyone is a bit insecure when they start a new school but it started to build up. I had gone from being really happy and popular in middle school to being unhappy about my appearance.
"I joined a gym and I started going quite a lot and the puppy fat fell off. I got quite a lot of comments and I was fitting into really small clothes. Then when I stopped exercising and the weight went back on I started counting calories.
"At first I limited myself to 1,500 calories a day. I used to check the labels of everything I ate. I used to try and save my calories for the evening meal when we'd sit down together as a family but it was hard.
"I'd eat half a banana and throw the other half away. Basically I starved myself."
Kate couldn't keep her hunger at bay and one day after school she raided the kitchen cupboards, gorged on food, then made herself sick.
"I knew about eating disorders because I'd read about them in teenage magazines. I knew what I was doing wasn't right but I wasn't ready to do anything about it."
Kate's bulimia escalated in the run up to her GCSEs and she cut her calorie intake to 1,000 per day, then further to just 500.
"I'd limit myself and some days I'd stick to it but other days I binged and then I'd have to purge myself to get rid of it.
"When I was sitting my GCSE's I was making myself sick up to 12 times a day. I didn't feel stressed about my exams... I just wanted to be thinner."
Although Kate was never skeleton thin, she easily slipped into a size 8 clothes and people started to notice her gaunt appearance.
Her friends wrote to her mum expressing their concern but, although she was later referred to a psychiatrist, her eating disorder continued.
Kate felt she lacked any control and started self harming as a means of punishing herself.
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"Some people self harm because it's a way of release when they can't cry," explains Kate, a biblical studies undergraduate at Sheffield University.
"For me it was about punishing myself when I felt completely disgusting or when I'd upset someone.
"It sounds ridiculous now and looking back it seems like I'm talking about a completely different person.
"Back then people tried to make me deal with it but I didn't want that. I felt kind of good about having some kind of identity. Being bulimic meant I had a label and it made me feel special. It was part of my identity."
Throughout her A-levels and gap year, Kate's problems continued and it was only when she started her degree course in Sheffield that she realised it was sink or swim.
"It slowly started to dawn on me that I had to change and I started to see myself differently."
Kate, who had attended church throughout her childhood, joined Hope City Church, off Bernard Road, near Sheffield's Park Hill. It was then she finally turned her back on the eating disorder which had controlled almost every aspect of her life.
"I'm not going to lie and say I haven't had moments," explains Kate.
"But I've put weight on and in the past that would have been abhorrent. I feel confident now and can go for days without thinking about food and I don't self harm anymore."
So what's changed for Kate?
"I believe I have a value as a person. I'm designed and made the way I am and I'm not like anyone else. I wanted to be thin like the models in magazines but now I've come to realise I want to be like me, not them.
"I've got my own qualities. I could spend a whole lifetime trying to be like someone else. Now I want to make my own life as significant as it can be. It's been about realising everyone has their life and the choice to do something with it."
Kate has received enormous support and friendship from Hope City Church where she's involved with a student group and writes for the church website.
"My friends in Sheffield are like my family and I'm incredibly happy that I came here."
n Hope City Church is at www.yourelookingmega.co.uk, email:info@yourelookingmega.co.uk or phone 0114 213 2070.
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Weather for Sheffield
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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