Synopsis:‘There was a time, at age fifteen, when I didn’t think I would be alive to see my eighteenth birthday. I’m now twenty-five and I’ve defied the odds.’
Bronte Cullis was the Melbourne teenager whose battle with anorexia captured the hearts of Australians in a series of stories and documentaries by Ray Martin for the Nine Network.
On television, we watched in awe this girl who refused to eat. Years of tears and family frustrations followed. As Jan, Bronte’s mother, said at the time: ‘Bronte doesn’t have anorexia, our whole family has anorexia.’
Bronte’s parents were desperate. They knew their daughter was about to die unless they did something drastic. They mortgaged the family home, sold what they could and sent Bronte to the Montreux Clinic, an unconventional eating disorder clinic half a world away in Canada.
It was Bronte’s last chance at survival…
Bronte has kept diaries from the day she became sick with anorexia. This is her story.
Genre: Memoir/Health
Rating: @@@@@
Pages: 276
BCID: xxx-5861781
ISBN: 1-74051-307-x
Year: 2004
Format: Paperback
Comments: Those of us who live in Australia will remember Bronte Cullis, the young girl with anorexia whose story we followed on TV, courtesy of Ray Martin. I remember watching with a mixture of horror, sympathy and helplessness as she slowly starved herself before our very eyes. How much worse must it have been for her and her family? I remember staring at her image on television, right before her move to the clinic in Canada, and thinking “This girl is going to die!”.
Somehow, she didn’t. Somehow, she found the strength to endure, fight and come out whole.
This is her story, taken from diaries she wrote at the time, with small explanations where needed. Anorexia is a vastly misunderstood illness that is often mistakenly believed to be the sufferer’s fault. Many people believe they are doing it for attention or to manipulate or punish their parents. In fact sufferer’s are just as much victims of this terrible disease as their families and loved ones.
This is a must read for all young girls and anyone with a daughter, sister or niece.
Warning: This book is very raw and emotional and families who have been through this ordeal may find it difficult to read.
Related articles
- BEAT Eating Disorder Awareness Week (kidzboost.wordpress.com)
- Understanding the genetic basis of Anorexia (montreal.ctvnews.ca)
- Awareness for February 2013 – Eating Disorders in Children and Teens (professorowlsbookcorner.wordpress.com)
- Eating disorders on the rise in Canada, as sufferers wait for treatment (ctvnews.ca)
- My Child is Searching About Anorexia, What Do I Do? (webroot.com)
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