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

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. 

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. 

‘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. 

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