Nikki Grahame’s mum has recalled what a “pitiful” state her daughter was in when she died battling an eating disorder.
Sue Grahame said Big Brother star Nikki had a BMI of just 10 and could not manage to get up stairs when she died a year ago on Saturday aged 38.
Body mass index is your weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Doctors consider a healthy BMI for women to be 18.5 to 24.9.
Nikki, a former beauty therapist, had told how she developed anorexia as a child and written two books on her condition, 2009’s Dying to Be Thin and Fragile, released in 2012.
A Channel 4 documentary is being screened tonight to mark the anniversary of her death.
Sue said her daughter started to show signs of illness from the age of eight, when she refused to sit down in a restaurant on Mother’s Day.
She said: “She became very withdrawn and was just going into a decline. Little did I know it was going to be a 32-year journey.”
Recalling the day Nikki died, Sue told BBC Breakfast: “She was blue lighted to the local hospital in Dorset and she was there for two weeks.
“She had a BMI of 10, she was pitiful, and I went there every day to shower her, to dress her, to sit with her while she ate, to take the load off the nurses, it wasn’t a specialised unit.
Get all the biggest showbiz news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the free Mirror Showbiz newsletter.
“Nikki managed to convince them ‘I’ll be fine when I go home’, They’d already said we can’t have you, you can’t make stairs, so they let her home and she died that night.”
Sue said she is glad that her daughter took part in Big Brother in 2006, and that Nikki never regretted it.
She added: “She said in interviews Big Brother saved her life, because that was the healthiest and happiest she had been for those years.
“So when the doors opened and she heard the cheering, it was genuine, her tears.
“Going on Big Brother was her dream and I’m really glad she did, she deserved it.”
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@mirror.co.uk or call us direct at 0207 29 33033.
