ITV Emmerdale’s Gemma Oaten has broken down in tears on BBC Breakfast today.
The soap star made an emotional appearance as she became overwhelmed while chatting to hosts Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty. The 38-year-old was on the show to raise awareness over eating disorders.
Gemma told of her own experiences with eating disorders and the charity she set up as a result. With the support of her parents, Gemma the actress and her family set up SEED 22 years ago - a cause that she finds to be a massive help both to her and others.
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She said: "My eating disorder developed around the age of nine. My mum and dad set up SEED 22 years ago, and I genuinely believe that through doing that, they helped bring me back and saved my life too.
"My dream would be to grow the service enough so that there isn't just set hours for people to come by, to have a team of people on hand who are always there - that would be phenomenal.
"But also for other eating disorder charities around the UK, maybe take hope and strength that if we can do it and we thought we were staring down the barrel of a gun - they can. It might be that we can start, hopefully, helping other charities around the UK to take on our model."
When asked if she had a message for anyone out there suffering from an eating disorder, Gemma said: "Early intervention is absolutely key. The sooner they come forward and speak to us - the sooner we can get that help in place.
"But also, don't be ashamed, an eating disorder is very clever at making you feel alone and the stigma around it is filled with shame and sadness, and devastation. But actually, there's hope, and if you reach out to us we understand because we've been there, we've lived with it.
"Nothing surprises us, nothing shocks us - if anything we love those people who are always authentic and honest because that takes a lot of courage to do."
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