'I was hospitalised with anorexia but got top grade GCSEs and want to be a baker' Lancashire's Lily, 16

A Lancashire teenager who was hospitalised with an eating disorder has revealed how she fought to receive top GCSE grades so she can pursue her dream of becoming a baker.

Lily Simpson, who picked up her results at Penwortham Girls High School yesterday, said it “would take a few hours to really accept” her excellent eight-and-nine level grades.

Alongside maths, English, and science, Lily also secured top grades in geography, German, and history but said it was her GCSE in food technology which really took the cake.

“My real passion is baking,” she said. “It was my favourite subject in school. For my non-exam assessment, I ended up doing little quiches and a really big cake. I’m a baker, not a cooker!”

Like many students, 16-year-old Lily’s glowing results came from months of intensive revision but it wasn’t long ago that she had been uncertain as to whether she would take them at all.

“In Year Nine, I started to get really mentally unwell,” she said. “That sort of spiralled and ended up becoming an eating disorder, right up to the point where I had to get hospitalised.

“At that point, we were having loads of talks like, ‘Are you going to finish your GCSEs? Are you going to take them at all?’.

“I was so ashamed of it. I was terrified of people knowing about it, because of that stigma around eating disorders. It was, and still is, a very sensitive topic for us because it was all so difficult.”

More than 3.5m people are estimated to be living with an eating disorder in the UK, according to charity Beat.

That’s more than the combined populations of Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Belfast, and equates to roughly one in 20 people.

Patients suffering from anorexia nervosa, bulimia, or binge eating disorder are typically referred to eating disorder specialists via their GP, where they will receive cognitive behavioural therapy and, in some cases, medication for anxiety or depression.

It is only in severe cases that patients are referred for hospital treatment, which may include ‘refeeding’ treatment to bring patients to a healthy weight.

While healthcare professionals encourage those struggling with eating disorders to reach out for support, some patients and charities have warned that underfunding in the NHS is leading to patients receiving inadequate support – or being denied treatment outright.

“The hospital was difficult,” she said. “It’s very hard for a place that is trying to deal with physical elements of the body to also treat someone with a mental disorder.

“In a weird way, they wouldn’t know how to balance the physical aspects of my own illness with the mental aspect. It felt like they didn’t understand I couldn’t ‘just have’ my breakfast. Eating disorders I still feel aren’t very understood within the NHS.

“When you’re in the deepest point of your illness already, you can’t advocate for yourself. I was so sick I couldn’t have a conversation without people at my side fighting for me.

“I do find that a lot of eating disorder patients have to try to improve a system that should already be there to take care of them.”

In all, Lily spent an entire month in hospital for anorexia, and a further two months away from school - nearly half a school year.

“My family were amazing,” she said. “They all came down from different places in the country to support me because they were scattered everywhere.

“The school were also alright with it, and they were also understanding. They said they were prepared to help me with whatever I needed to to help me finish my GCSEs.

“[What got me through it] was a very boring combination of therapy, medication, and sitting in my sadness for a long time. In terms of getting my results, that came from directing the pain that I had into something that was useful to me.

“Instead of sitting in my bedroom, in my head, I would get up and I would work. My big thing is keeping myself busy, because the minute I’m not, I start coming back into it.

“I kept revising and revising and revising, and I think that’s kind of what contributed to such good grades. In a sense, I’m thankful, in a weird way.”

Now, with her certificate in hand, Lily is now looking ahead to the next steps of her education – a patisserie course at Wigan and Leigh College.

“I’m not really sure [what I’ll do after]. I think a lot of people just choose what they’re interested in and see where it takes them,” she said. “I’m going on that same kind of path. I don’t know where I’m going to go with it, but if I do what I enjoy, I’m sure I’ll get a job that I enjoy.

“I’ve always loved food, which is ironic for someone with an eating disorder. But I love the creative element of it. I love creating things – not eating it so much – but it’s what I love doing. It’s my creative outlet.

“I lost interest in food for so long, and then I slowly rediscovered it in doing little bit of baking. I had a lot of rules in my head about food, so I would always find ways to work around it, and that sort of helped my discovery of and creativity in food in general. I just love it.

“There are going to be so many teenage girls and teenage boys who are in the same situation that I was,” she said. “[I hope] if they hear a story like this they can go, ‘here’s someone who has done this, so I know I can do it too. I can become something great’.”