Tragedy of the former head girl consumed by anorexia: 26-year-old died from 'addiction to laxatives'
- Georgia Willson-Pemberton, 26, was head girl at Heathfield School Ascot
- She was a child skiing gold medallist and had appeared in Tatler magazine
- But she lost ambition after graduating from European Business School
- Her father Robert: 'Her world was her oyster, she could've done anything'
- Coroner: I'll write to regulator to ask them to change laxative guidelines
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In the grip of illness: Georgia Willson-Pemberton's weight plummeted as her life was gradually destroyed by anorexia
Blessed with brains as well as beauty, Georgia Willson-Pemberton appeared to have it all.
But the one-time child ski champion’s life was gradually destroyed by anorexia and a deadly addiction to laxatives, her despairing family told yesterday.
After a four-year battle with the eating disorder, the former head girl of a private school died following an overdose of over-the-counter laxative pills, which caused ‘catastrophic’ organ failure.
Her weight had plunged to less than seven stone – desperately low for a 26-year-old woman who stood at 5ft 11in.
But in the grip of anorexia, she had continued to take laxatives, buying more than 6,000 over the internet from supermarkets.
Her father Robert, 62, sobbed as he told her inquest how he was helpless to save his ‘hugely intelligent’ daughter.
‘The world was her oyster, she could have done anything,’ he said. ‘Her ambition just disappeared. This disease just consumed her. That’s all she thought about.’
Her worried parents paid for treatment at several of the world’s leading eating disorder centres, including a three-month stay at the Monte Nido Centre in California, which charges up to £33,000 a month and has treated celebrities including Ally McBeal actress Portia de Rossi.
But Miss Willson-Pemberton continued to lose weight and died in hospital in December after collapsing at her parents’ £2million home in Putney, south-west London.
She told doctors she had taken 50 laxatives several days earlier and surgeons at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital found her gullet, stomach, small intestine and liver had been irreparably damaged.
Intensive care consultant Michelle Hayes said she believed the ‘catastrophic organ damage’ was caused by the overdose and long-term ‘chronic laxative abuse’.
Miss Willson-Pemberton had been a star pupil at the £29,000-a-year Heathfield School in Ascot, Berkshire, becoming head girl as well as a junior skiing gold medallist in national championships.
She was pictured with her mother Elizabeth on the website of ‘society bible’ magazine Tatler, and her brother Alexander, 29, reportedly attended a prestigious cookery school with Pippa Middleton.
She developed anorexia in 2008 while studying for a degree in international marketing at the European Business School in central London.
Tragic: Georgia Willson-Pemberton developed anorexia in 2008 while studying for a degree in international marketing at the European Business School in central London
Prestigious: She was a former head girl at Heathfield School Ascot, which charges £29,000 per year in fees
'Hugely intelligent': Georgia Willson-Pemberton spent four years 'in and out' of hospital as she battled anorexia
Miss Willson-Pemberton gained weight as an inpatient at centres in the US and Britain, including the Priory rehabilitation clinics and Life Works in Woking, Surrey, but she never lost her fear of eating and learned how to deceive doctors.
During one stay in the Priory she smuggled in 200 laxative pills inside a padded bra, and she worked out methods of influencing weigh-ins and blood test results.
She also began drinking heavily and hid vodka bottles underneath her parents’ sofa and behind a radiator at one treatment centre.
Her mother nursed her at home after she became ‘too clever’ at fooling doctors.
Mrs Willson-Pemberton, 61, was praised as a ‘brilliant’ carer who could spot her daughter’s tricks, but ultimately could not save her.
Parents: Her father Robert (left) and mother Elizabeth (right) were pictured leaving the inquest today
High society: Tragic Miss Willson-Pemberton had appeared in Tatler magazine but battled anorexia
'World was her oyster': Miss Willson-Pemberton was 'hugely intelligent' and 'could have done anything'
Mr Willson-Pemberton, a company director, said the eating disorder had taken over the family’s life, adding: ‘I know she felt guilty for what she was doing to us but through it all she was just a loving child.
‘We couldn’t understand, bearing in mind the privileges in life she had had, how she had managed to get to this point. We did everything in our power to try to sort it out.’
After her death, her parents discovered she had bought more than 6,000 laxative pills online, which were delivered to her flat in South Kensington, west London.
Her father questioned why she had been able to buy so many without any checks, such as those in place for buying painkillers.
Assistant deputy coroner Darren Stewart said he did not believe the overdose was a suicide attempt. Recording a narrative verdict, he said Miss Willson-Pemberton had died after the overdose caused multiple organ failure.
Tragic: Miss Willson-Pemberton was described as the life and soul of a party but battled anorexia for four years
Problems: She had one of the most stubborn cases of anorexia her doctors had ever seen, the inquest heard
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mental illness is "selective"?! i don't know what search engine that was found from?! This disease is an illness and the cause of which is yet undiscovered. If there was a cause don't you think parents and medical pros would have put a stop to many of the cases? I too developed the illness at university - i think in some sort of strange way I was scared of my own success and potential in life. I had set a standard so high for myself I was terrified of what I could achieve yet the possibility that there were factors out there (albeit small) that could cause it all to go horribly wrong. Food though...that was a start, I could control that and all the social interactions surrounding food. This terribly beautiful, successful young lady seems haunted by her own success.
- ksi22 , Glasgow, United Kingdom, 04/4/2013 08:23
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