Product Description

Say the name Nikki Grahame and most people will remember the bubby, highly strung and hugely entertaining Big Brother 7 contestant, famous for her diary room outbursts. Since leaving the Big Brother house, she had forged a successful career for herself in presenting and writing. Yet Nikki isn't just another reality television contestant and her life story is not like any other you will ever read. From the age of eight until she was nineteen, Nikki battled anorexia nervosa - but few cases have been quite as extreme as hers. What she has been through while suffering from this illness might surprise you - it will definitely shock you. At just seven years old, Nikki began feeling that she was overweight. A remark about her being fat from a fellow pupil at a gymnastics class along with insecurity brought about by her parents' separation and he beloved grandfather's death, were the catalysts for Nikki's long-term eating disorder. Aged just eight and weighing just under three stone, she was diagnosed as anorexic. For the next eight years, Nikki was in and out of institutions - seven in total - during which time she attempted suicide twice and had to be sedated up to four times a day so that she could be force-fed. At one point, she was sedated for fourteen days while doctors sewed a tube into her stomach, through which she was fed in order to get her weight out of the critical range. Nikki admits that she knew every anorexic's trick in the book: from breaking into hospital kitchens to water down full-fat milk, altering her diet sheet and switching name tags on food to ensure that she received smaller amounts, to even stuffing a door-stop down her trousers before a weigh-in. The extremes that she went to in order to avoid eating and find ways to exercise excessively shocked doctors who have worked in the field for years. As Nikki says, 'I've always wanted to be the best at everything I do, so I had to be the best anorexic - and I was.' This is the heart-rending and powerful story of a girl who lost her childhood but was brave enough to finally admit that she wanted to live again. With searing honesty, Nikki recounts her long and painful road to recovery, how she has had to come to terms with the long-term ramifications of her illness, how she coped with being in the Big Brother house and how she uses her new-found fame to promote awareness of eating disorders and to help those who are suffering from similar problems. This compelling book tells the story of an incredible journey.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #196883 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 316 pages

About the Author
Nikki Grahame was born in Watford in 1982. Her parents separated when she was a child and she cites both this and the death of her beloved grandfather as catalysts for the start of her severe eating disorder. Between eight and nineteen years old, Nikki was in and out of hospitals and institutions as she battled with anorexia nervosa. At one point, her weight was so dangerously low that she went into a coma; one of the doctors treating her said that hers was the worst case of anorexia he had seen in 32 years. Although she will never be 'cured' of the illness, Nikki made the decision that she wanted to live her life again and has not looked back since. Her time as a contestant in Big Brother 7 made her a household name and, since leaving the house, Nikki has established a career in the media. She has written columns for OK!, the Sun and More magazine and has been a presenter on Big Brother spin-off BBLB. Nikki devotes a lot of her spare time to increasing awareness of eating disorders and hopes that by sharing her life story, she will help others who fall victim.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic heart renching book
I found this book a great insight into how entrenched someone can get in Anorexia, there is no glamour what so ever, which is important to me as this illness is so often misunderstood. It bought me to tears many times whilst reading, to see what a difficult struggle and fight that Nikki had endured. To us she seemed hilarious and entertaining to watch little did we know this immense battle she had nearly lost. It is well worth reading, for family, friends and sufferers. I don't think this would trigger someone nor make them worse however everyone is different and as Nikki wanted 'to be the best Anorexic' it may prove dangerous for some suffering with the illness. Overall a very emotional read but truly worth it!

nikki grahame dying to be thin
i found this book very truthful and honest, it must have brought back some very bad memories for nikki in order for her to give such an honest account of her struggle with anorexia. it gives people an indepth look at the problems and aftermath of anorexia. i would be very interested to read her mums view and struggle to cope with nikki over the years as her life too must have been hell. i wish nikki lots of luck for the future and hope she never has to return to her painful past

To Hell And Back
Nikki Grahame: Dying to be Thin

This is a very sad and traumatic true story,written by Nikki herself, of an 8 year old girl's sad journey in to her teens,obsessed by her determination to be the best anorexic there has ever been,even if it meant killing herself in the process.
Nikki has given us an insight to what it was really like, for herself and her family, to have lived with anorexia pulling them apart,and how they all came together in the end,and you could say to live happily ever after.

But this is no fairy story.All this REALLY happened and it totally shocked me.
I couldn't put the book down,willing Nikki to pull through and to come to her senses.The book draws you in to her world.You will laugh and you will cry.
I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like to have missed out on 11 years of your life,all your childhood years.And what it must be like to be left with a damaged body at such a young age.
This is what happened to Nikki.This is what she is sharing with us in this book.If just one person is helped by reading this book then Nikki has done the job she set out to do.
This is the best book i have read this year.Don't let the fact she was in Big Brother put you off buying it,i promise you ,you will be pleasantly surprised how well it is written,Nikki speaks from the heart and is very very honest throughout the book.She shows no self pity at all.Going in to Big Brother was therapy for her,and so was writing her story.
After reading the book,i can now understand her behaviour in Big Brother.
And i can understand now why she wants to make things better for her family and why she is enjoying life to the full.
Well done Nikki for your bravery in writing this book.