Growing up in Birmingham, I found it difficult to make friends. My parents divorced early on in my childhood and I moved schools a lot, which unsettled me. It’s easy to think that children are adaptable and robust, but the divorce really shook me. I felt like I had no sense of belonging and it was hard to build relationships as a result; I think I was always expecting people to leave.

And then I developed severe anorexia in my mid teens. It massively knocked my confidence, alongside my parents’ divorce. Living with an eating disorder is like having someone in your body controlling who you are and how you think about yourself. It’s like you’re in the driving seat of a car and your hands are tied: you know you need help, but you don’t know how to ask for it. It took me a year to realise I needed to talk to someone. I started going to counsellors, nutritionists and doctors every night after school to try and work out why it was happening. Sometimes there isn’t a why: it just is what it is.

Looking back, I think my anorexia was a cry for help. My mum met someone else and it split the family – I didn’t have a father in my life, I lost contact with my brother and my sister. All of a sudden I had a stepdad and I didn’t feel needed any more. I just felt so alone.

Rugby player Heather Fisher opens up about her battle with anorexia and alopecia