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Nikki Grahame’s mum has ‘never seen her this bad’ in 30 years of battling anorexia as star begins treatment

Nikki Grahame and her mother
Nikki Grahame’s mum Sue opened up about the star’s battle with an eating disorder (Picture: Rex/Instagram)

Nikki Grahame’s mum has opened up about the reality star’s 30-year battle with anorexia, admitting she has ‘never seen her as bad’ as she got this year. 

Sue Grahame, 66, revealed to the Telegraph that lockdown took its toll on Nikki, 38, after gyms were forced to close and she spiralled back into anorexia, for which she is now being treated at a specialist facility

Nikki’s mum explained: ‘We’ve been on this road a long time, 30 years on and off, and I’ve never seen her this bad.

‘I’m frightened that I’ll die and she’ll have no one to support her. I don’t want her to go through any of this alone.

‘While there’s breath in my body, and while Nikki is struggling, I don’t know how to do anything else other than help her.’

Sue revealed that the Big Brother star’s eating disorder began at the age of eight when a girl in her gymnastics class told her that her bum looked big in her leotard which made her start refusing food. 

Nikki Grahame
Nikki’s anorexia got worse in lockdown (Picture: Rex Features)

Doctors had said that Nikki’s anorexia was the worst they’d ever seen when she was hospitalised at the age of nine, and Sue would lay next to her daughter and will her to get better. 

Nikki spent more time in eating disorder units than at home or school between the ages of eight and 16, and doctors would feed her through a nasogastric tube or one sewn into her stomach which Sue says Nikki would ‘just pull out’. 

Her anorexia would go through stages in future years, but Sue says lockdown caused it to take hold even more severely. 

She explained that Nikki had ‘terminal loneliness’ when her job at a school had been put on hold due to the pandemic: ‘This last year has just about floored her… From the first lockdown, it was hellish. 

Nikki Grahame nominating in the diary room 'BIG BROTHER 7'
Nikki found fame on Big Brother as viewers loved her impassioned Diary Room rants (Picture: Rex Features)

‘She struggled because she couldn’t go to the gym. Then in December she fell down and cracked her pelvis in two places and broke her wrist. I stayed with her for three or four weeks because she couldn’t do anything.’

Nikki’s friends set up a Go Fund Me page to help her get specialist treatment, which costs £25,000 a month, to help her to beat the eating disorder.

Sue is hopeful the specialist clinic Nikki has been admitted to will help her to overcome anorexia thanks to its ‘holistic’ approach tackling the underlying issues rather than being focused on just gaining weight as the NHS treatments Nikki had previously tried had been. 

Fans had raised over £67,000 towards Nikki’s treatment and her reps had shared a statement from her thanking them for their donations and kind wishes for her recovery. 

Donations towards Nikki’s treatment at a specialist clinic can be made here



BEAT

If you suspect you, a family member or friend has an eating disorder, contact Beat on 0808 801 0677 or at help@beateatingdisorders.org.uk, for information and advice on the best way to get appropriate treatment

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