A TRAGIC victim of anorexia has died, less than a year after she apparently made a heroic recovery from the illness.

Anthea Elliott, who told The Herald in February "I almost starved myself to death", died last week after being admitted to Derriford Hospital.

Her son Kyle, 19, who had nursed her for the past two years as her condition worsened, held her in his arms as she died.

Kyle, who lives in Cattedown, Plymouth, had to abandon his A-levels at Lipson Community College to care for his mother.

He told The Herald yesterday of the night his mother died. "It was horrible," he said.

He said that her final illness had started as just a skin rash which the doctors at first thought was severe eczema. It was only after a second home visit that she was admitted to Derriford Hospital, shortly before she died.

"Everyone who saw her was worried because she was really thin. She has been like that since I was 16," said Kyle.

"I had to drop out of Lipson Community College to look after her. I tried to do A-levels but I couldn't balance school work and looking after Mum.

"Now I don't have to look after Mum any more I just don't know what's going to happen. It's early days at the moment."

Kyle has been doing a bookkeeping course.

His sister Kayleigh, 16, is at college in London, and lives with their grandmother Mary Sharratt, near Croydon, south London.

Ms Sharratt told The Herald: "Andrea told The Herald that she almost starved herself to death, and now she has."

She said Ms Elliott had been deteriorating over the past couple of weeks. She started complaining about a rash a few months ago, then her organs started failing and her skin was "rotting away".

"She was taken into hospital the week before. I phoned her doctor and said she needed to go into hospital."

Ms Sharratt said she spoke to her daughter by phone the night before she died.

"Then all her organs failed.

"It's one thing to lose your mother or father, but to lose your own child is a different pain," said Ms Sharratt.

"I wish I knew what started it off because now I'm thinking that I failed her as a mother.

"She came up to me two years ago. The doctors gave her three months to live but she turned it around. Her weight went from four-and-a-half stone to seven stone."

In February this year, Ms Elliott spoke to The Herald about her condition, less than a year after her long-term anorexia was finally diagnosed.

Her body was irreparably damaged by years of starvation and doctors warned she would be dead within months unless she got help.

She had severe muscle wastage, brittle bones and epilepsy, all linked to her eating disorder.

She said: "I was totally malnourished, starving to death and my body was rejecting food.

"There needs to be greater recognition of eating disorders, without the stigma attached that people are deliberately doing it to themselves."

She was eventually diagnosed with atypical anorexia, which she linked to a traumatic childhood, when she had problems at school, suffered from bulimia and had a strict stepfather who would make her eat.