Sunny Photos... Dark Truth

She Seemed To Have It All...but Kate Pomeroy, 31, From Hampton-in arden, Was Hiding A Troubling Secret

- Rachel Tompkins, Hannah Poon

Sitting at my computer, I typed the words into the search bar, then hit return.

Size zero celebrities.

My heart thumped as I waited for the results.

Then there they were. Pages and pages of photos of famous women looking super-skinny.

‘They look like skeletons,’ Mum would harrumph whenever very thin celebs made the papers.

But to me they looked gorgeous.

And everything I want to be, I thought.

It was the year 2000 and, back then, aged just 15, I was obsessed with celebrity culture.

Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan were my favourites.

I’d spend hours admiring their clothes, friendships, their lives. They seemed so glamorous and exciting.

And when they were both pictured looking painfully thin and hanging out together, I felt a pang of envious admiration.

‘They’re so cool,’ I thought.

Nothing like me... Until a few months earlier, I’d been ironing-board straight...but since puberty, I’d started sprouting hips and boobs, gone up to a size-12.

Just 5ft 3in tall, I hated my curvy new body.

So I started cutting down on meals – skipping breakfast and throwing away the healthy lunches Mum packed for me.

Instead, I’d chew on fat-free marshmallows. And the weight began to fall off.

But not enough.

So I became more daring, would hide bits of my dinner under a napkin when Mum wasn’t looking, then later flush it down the loo.

In time, my body began to look more and more like the celebrity bodies I craved.

But rather than feel happy, I felt sick.

My stomach constantly growled with hunger, and I felt miserable and depressed.

I was confused. Nicole and Lindsay seemed so happy...

But by the time I was 18, I was crying constantly and kept snapping at Mum.

At this point, I was wearing size-4 jeans – a US size-zero.