Eating Disorder Awareness Week hits IC

As we’re entering this year’s national Eating Disorder Awareness Week, which takes place over the first week of March in the UK, Imperial College Union will be hosting events and launching a social media campaign in support.

A screening of eating disorder documentary THIN will kick off the events. The critically acclaimed 2006 documentary and winner of the John Grierson Award for best feature-length documentary at the London Film Festival, follows four women with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders in their struggle for recovery.

There will also be a lecture by eating disorder health specialist Dr Paul Robinson who’ll be discussing the benefits of intensive community treatment vs inpatient treatment.

This year’s EDAW is themed around early intervention.

“We’re trying to show the importance of early intervention,” says Emily-Jane Cramphorn, DP Welfare, ”from THIN which shows the less than ideal conditions within many treatment centres, to Dr Robinson’s lecture which touches upon the benefits of community treatment and risks associated with waiting to treat patients until they’re physically unstable”

To raise funds for b-eat ICU will also be offering tours of the tunnels and the Queen’s Tower, doing an online prize draw and a hummingbird cake sale. B-eat is a national eating disorder charity. They provide support lines and run support groups, invest money into research, training and lobby for better services.

For Cramphorn this campaign is particularly special “I was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa when I was eleven and repeatedly refused entry into specialist services because I wasn’t ‘thin’ enough.” she says. “I’ve been hospitalised five times and nearly lost my life as a consequence of inadequate services. Now I’m on the path to recovery but some of my friends have not been as lucky. Chronic illness or even death is the unfortunate reality for many sufferers who are made to wait for treatment. Only one in five people with anorexia fully recover but evidence suggest that early intervention could significantly improve this”

In conjunction with Sport Imperial, ICU will be launching an online campaign to promote body positivity. Though hopefully the campaign will avoid the sexist undertones that characterised Sport Imperial’s last campaign, which aimed at encouraging women to pick up sport by “jumping away the calories”