Welcome to The Sherlock in Conversation podcast with me, Charlotte Collins. In this episode, we will be discussing eating disorders and exercise addiction. There will be no mentions of specific behaviours or numbers. If you need additional support, please look at Feast, First Step CD, The Hub of Hope or ABC.

Eating disorders are sadly becoming more common and are one of the most life-threatening mental health conditions out there.

According to recent statistics, approximately 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder and cases are on the rise.

Yet many taboos still surround eating disorders, meaning support has never been more important.

Today we're joined by Hope Virgo, a multi-award winning international advocate for people with eating disorders and Rini McGregor, the UK's leading sports dietitians specialising in eating

disorders to delve deeper into the issue and provide valuable insights to those who need help,

whether you're struggling yourself or are worried about someone you know. Welcome, ladies. Hi. Hi. Thanks for having us.

Thank you so much for being here. Can we just go straight in? I want to ask you both about your

backgrounds and how you got into this. Hope, perhaps you can go ahead. Yeah, sure. Yes, I've been

kind of campaigning probably for about four, five years now.

So I come at it from a lived experience perspective. So I grew up with anorexia and ended up being

hospitalized when I was about 17. Spent a year in treatment and then kind of was in this

ongoing state of recovery since then. In about 2016, I did relapse

and I tried to get support on the NHS but wasn't able to because I wasn't underweight.

And it was kind of when I came through that relapse, I realized that the way that the system

currently is set up is just so wrong on so many levels. And that's not a kind of dig at the NHS. It's obviously due to funding. It's kind of an educational issue as well. And so I kind of came through that relapse and just thought, actually, I really, really want to change this and do what I can. So yeah, it kind of began from there really and kind of began quite slowly just kind of talking a little bit more openly about things

and then kind of set up a couple of groups and then began to work a lot more with the government

around kind of funding issues and resourcing issues as well.

And Renee, what is your background?

So I started life as a clinical dietitian and actually had nothing to do with eating disorders

for quite a long time

because I actually had my own experience of an eating disorder when I was a teenager and was quite

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