A schoolgirl who ate her own hair for four years had to have a hairball the size of a rugby ball removed from her stomach.
Melissa Williams, 13, underwent emergency surgery when doctors discovered the reason for her severe stomach pain.
The Liverpool teenager visited her GP on several occasions over the course of a year, but doctors believed she was suffering from anxiety.
Mum Jackie Williams, 40, eventually decided to take her daughter to Alder Hey Children's Hospital, where scans revealed a the 10cm mass of hair.
Jackie told the Liverpool Echo: "She was getting really badly bullied at school for three years and when she would get anxious she would pull out her own hair and eat it.
"The first things we noticed were that she was feeling and being sick, had poor appetite and lost about one stone in weight. I thought she had an eating disorder because she wasn't eating.
"She started getting sent home from school a lot and asking not to go in because she felt sick, but because it was on the same day every week I thought it was a lesson she didn't like.
"We were to and from the doctors about half a dozen times over the year but we carried on persisting."
Doctors at Alder Hey could feel Melissa's stomach was tender, Jackie said, but were unable to work out what the mass appearing on the X-rays could be.
"They said they had never seen this before," Jackie said. "They did an X-ray and they saw a big mass in her stomach but didn't know what it was.
"It was actually my neighbour that said she read something years ago about people eating their hair, and that's what it was."
Melissa went into emergency surgery on October 1.
The hairball was so heavy that doctors had to cut it into four sections, before removing each one with two hands.
"The doctors said if we didn't take Mel in when we did she might not have pulled through the surgery," Jackie said.
"She was relieved once the pain was gone and she was so brave."
After the surgery, Melissa was in hospital for two weeks due to issues with her bloods and excess fluid in her stomach.
She was then well enough to return home for four weeks before ending up in hospital again with three different infections.
Melissa is now being supported by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), and although she does still pull out her hair sometimes, she no longer eats it.
Her family want to raise awareness of Rapunzel Syndrome, an extremely rare intestinal condition in humans that results from ingesting hair.
The syndrome is named after the long-haired girl Rapunzel in the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm.
Jackie said she wants to make sure other parents know the signs and symptoms to look out for.
"Parents should look out for any changes in their kids' hair, and it's not just the hair on their head. It can be eyelashes and eyebrows," she said.
"Also any changes to eating, sickness and stomach pains are all symptoms.
"I'd also say that parents shouldn't give up when going to the GP, If you know something is wrong with your child then keep going back, don't give up and don't take no for an answer."
Rapunzel syndrome occurs when the trichobezoar - the technical name for a hairball - reaches past the small intestine, and sometimes even into the colon.
Characteristics of the syndrome include a hairball in the stomach, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting and a Vitamin B12 deficiency.
