Stunning April Banbury beamed with delight when she was crowned a beauty queen – but behind the smiles there were years of pain.
Few would have appreciated the anguish and suffering she had endured growing up and how she nearly died from anorexia as a teenager.
Now the bridal design company owner is helping others fight potentially deadly eating disorders. At age 13, April spent a week in hospital after her weight plunged to three-and-a-half stone.
She traces her weight problems to when she was eight. Her parents divorced and she felt rejected.
April would throw her lunch into the bushes on the way to school and only nibble on crackers. At meal times she would sit staring at her plate for hours, until dad Ian, an Olympic cyclist who won a 1976 bronze in Montreal, would lose his patience and send her to bed.
She finally overcame her issues when she was 18. She won Ms Great Britain 2020, a contest for women aged 28 and over.
April, 32, who is 5ft 5in, now weighs a healthy eight-and-a-half stone and visits schools as an ambassador for eating disorder charity SEED (Support and Education for Eating Disorders) to talk to young people about their problems and mental health issues.
“At my lowest point I weighed three-and-a-half stone,” said April, who was raised by Ian and her nan Dorothy.
“There’s a picture of me on a bicycle and I look so gaunt, I was in the worst place possible. Dad took that picture to show how bad it was.
“It was very distressing for Dad and Nan. I ended up in hospital for over a week, I nearly died. That was the wake-up call I needed.”
Dorothy inspired her recovery but it still took April several years to start eating properly.
She said: “Nan sat me down and made me watch a film about a young girl with anorexia who died.
“Nan said she didn’t want that to be me. After hospital I still found it 100% difficult to eat, it took me years to eat.
“I was about 18, it was a long slow process. Anorexia is a mental disorder, a mind over matter thing. You have to train the mind to no longer play tricks and that food is no longer the enemy.
“I’ve had counselling. I had so much therapy well into early adult life, Dad made sure I spoke to the therapist and had regular weight check-ins.
“Even on the road to recovery my body mass index was at a point of looking anorexic. I was eating and eating and not gaining weight, I was trying to recover. My family knew I was but I had a naturally fast metabolism.
“My family made my meals, everything was monitored. My absolute favourite now is a Sunday dinner, I love it, beef or chicken.”
A record number of children and young people with a potentially life-threatening eating disorder are waiting for treatment in England.
In April to June, 207 patients were on stand by for urgent treatment, up from 56 at the same time last year. A further 1,832 patients were waiting for routine treatment, up from 441 a year earlier.
April, who appeared on Channel 5’s The Bachelor and ITV’s The Cabins, has found it is not just children who are fixated with how they look.
She said: “In my day job as a bridal designer, I see so many beautiful women who are always talking about losing weight and looking perfect and it absolutely breaks my heart.”
She posted videos online during lockdown to reach out to those who are struggling. April has had many positive messages since and, after lockdown, was approached by a woman in public, who told her: “You don’t realise the good you’ve done.”
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She said: “For someone to come up to me in the street, someone I had never met before, was amazing. It meant everything. For me to be able to help others who may not have recovered was the icing on the cake.”
SEED chief exec Shelley Perry said of April: “SEED Lancashire and Breathe have thoroughly enjoyed working with someone that has such a passion for helping and supporting anyone suffering with mental health and eating disorders.
“She’s a fantastic public figure that highlights the journey through recovery and helps to guide anyone needing support into the right place. We are grateful for the work that we do together.”
Jenny Cairns, SEED marketing and communication volunteer, added: “April has a good heart and a willingness to help other people.
“She has such a passion for helping people. This is something she’s been wanting to do for a while, she has always had a drive for that. If she’d have had this at school when she was younger, it might have helped her at an earlier stage.”
How to get help: If you are struggling or you are worried about a loved one, contact Samaritans on 116123. For more advice visit nhs.uk/mental-health or www.mind.org.uk/information-support/coronavirus
See more HeadStrong Lives, including a Children's special with child psychiatrist Lopa Winters and Mumfluencer Lorna Cobbett (@mummylovesessie), Samaritans Advice Clinic, and a Men's Mental Health Special with Alastair Campbell and BDD sufferer and War Paint For Men and JAAQ.co.uk founder Danny Gray at facebook.com/dailymirror/videos