Next Monday sees the start of Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Running from February 25th to March 3rd, it aims to increase awareness of the myriad issues surrounding eating disorders, and promote understanding of both the conditions and the support available for them.
In sport, and in athletics in particular, focus on food is naturally one means of optimising performance by ensuring adequate nutrition. However, the danger of this developing into an eating disorder is recognised, but perhaps under-appreciated amongst the athletics community. This is what James Findon, founder of LUCA and lecturer & researcher at King’s College London, is aiming to tackle in his research study, launching to coincide with the start of the week.
Much more on James’ study to follow, but for now we’re after your stories to share with the LUCA community. Catriona Rennison wrote a very open and inspiring piece last year about her experience of an eating disorder and athletics, and also spoke about her journey at UCL’s orthorexia talk at the end of last year. We would love it if anyone with a similar story would share it with us; it can be any length, even just a paragraph, and we can of course anonymise any details.
You can email any stories you’d like to share to hello@london-athletics.com – we look forward to hearing from you soon!