Last Christmas, in the grip of anorexia, Nicola Hobbs weighed less than four and a half stone. By spring she was at death's door.
But what a difference a year makes.
After four years with the eating disorder, the 19-year-old is at last in recovery. And she celebrated by sitting down with her family for a traditional Christmas lunch.
'Last year I dreaded Christmas,' said Miss Hobbs, who has a twin sister, Rachel. 'I picked at my food and had to force myself to join in.
'So it is a huge achievement for me this year to really enjoy Christmas dinner, a proper one with not only potatoes and vegetables but turkey and pudding.'
Miss Hobbs, the daughter of a business consultant father and a careers adviser mother, succumbed to anorexia at 15.
She was always slim but felt 'deeply uncomfortable about my body and under-confident about who I was'. She also began to over-exercise, seeing her weight fall to below four and a half stone, far too light for her 5ft 4in frame.
Eventually, a teacher suggested that she saw a doctor. It was July 2006 and was to be the beginning of two years of visits to hospital, including time on a drip.
Despite her anorexia, she won a place at Reading University last September to read psychology.
But in the New Year she began experiencing an irregular heartbeat-a side effect of malnutrition.
Then in May she found she could not hear properly - the tubes in her ears were collapsing through lack of nutrition. 'Blood tests showed I was at death's door and I was immediately admitted to hospital.
'It was a turning point as it made me realise the damage I was doing to myself. I had to help myself.'
In July she was allowed home. Since then her weight has risen to six stone and she is aiming for eight. 'I don't want to be a slave to anorexia any more,' she said.
'As I ate Christmas dinner with my family supporting me, I knew that at long last I was on the road to recovery for good.'
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