LOCAL woman Felicity Seviour, will be taking part in a Tough Mudder challenge to raise money for the eating disorder charity, Beat.
She will be taking on the gruelling Tough Mudder challenge to raise money for the charity and raise awareness for an illness that she has first hand-experience dealing with.
Felicity was 19 when she was diagnosed with anorexia. It took almost eight months for her to get a diagnosis and a further three months to begin treatment.
Felicity explained, “It took far too long for me to get the help I needed because apparently my weight wasn’t low enough to be a serious problem. I find it ridiculous and frustrating that you have to wait until things are so bad until you get medical help. This cannot continue.
“Eating disorders are an alarmingly common mental illness and millions of men and women around the world are affected. Not only the sufferers, but their family and friends too.
“Perhaps the most frightening thing is that they have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, meaning more men and women die from eating disorders than any other mental illness.
“As someone who has experienced anorexia first hand, I feel that these illnesses need more funding and people need to increase their awareness, whilst reducing the stigma surrounding them.
“Eating disorders are not limited to anorexia and bulimia. Binge eating disorder, orthorexia (an obsession with eating ‘clean’) and EDNOS ‘eating disorder not otherwise specified’ (recently renamed OSFED ‘other specified feeding and eating disorder’) are also life threatening and mentally debilitating illnesses that need treatment.
“I have always enjoyed sports, but was unable to do them for some time due to my illness. However, now that I have physically recovered, I want to turn my passion for sports into something positive and help the many other men and women that need help, as well as giving back to a charity that has helped me.”
Tough Mudder is a team-oriented 10-12 mile obstacle course designed to test physical strength and mental grit.
Felicity continued, “I’ve taken part in Tough Mudder before, but I really shouldn’t have done because I was still ill. But now I’m fit and healthy and really looking forward to it.”
“I would say to anyone who is going through a similar thing, speak to someone. Tell a family member or a friend or a teacher because the sooner you can get help the better. There is a lot of help out there, especially through charities like Beat. Don’t let it get out of control.”
You can sponsor Felicity by visiting her fundraising page, https://www.just giving.com/felicity- seviour/
