I am exploring various ideas (including workshops, a second edition perhaps, and picking up the dialogue on my blog and the Facebook group); the goal is to give a voice to the voiceless, challenge stereotypes surrounding addiction, eating disorders, depression, and lay the foundation for others’ journey in recovery.

Call-to-action: Please share with me your story, or perhaps a shout-out to someone you love whom is struggling with addiction – whether it be food or other. Let’s create a community for stories to live and kindness to cascade – a collective space where, together, we ignite hope.

Change is possible. I am living proof of this. It takes work – everything you have – and a lot of love. This is an important project to me, it highlights the power of love and hope; resilience and courage; and shows how a story can empower the human spirit in ways deemed impossible.

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Collaboration was crucial for this project to come into fruition – seeing Jo bring to life my story was such a powerful experience; this was a significant milestone in my life, as I realised what collaboration truly means.

The Amazon description of Finding Sarah by Joanne Jowell:

‘Society turns a blind eye to people with eating disorders as they are often considered as merely seeking attention. This is extremely ignorant as it goes way beyond that,’ says Finding Sarah’s troubled but captivating protagonist, 26-year-old Sarah Claire Picton.

For more than nine years, Sarah has been purging her food in any place she can find: public toilets, plastic bags, coffee mugs. When she couldn’t satisfy her bulimic addiction, she restricted her diet to the point that she weighed only 41 kilogrammes, a weight better suited to a girl less than half her age. She has lost teeth and her gag reflex. She has lost her energy and her friends. She has come close to losing her life.But then she decided to do something about it.

Sarah reveals her story in brutally honest detail to author Joanne Jowell, setting on a path of enlightenment for herself, her family and anyone who might hear her story. No holds are barred as Sarah describes the selfishness of the illness, the shame surrounding her condition, and the deceptive ends to which she will go to hide her addiction.

Along the way, Joanne meets the players in this story, including Sarah’s mother, friends, ex-boyfriend and psychiatrist. And, of course, there is Sarah herself – cowed but not beaten, searching for herself even as the author does, sharing her life story so that she can reach out to the countless others who suffer in the shadow of addiction.

Comment below with stories, or email me via the Contact form page.