I was eating myself to death

Walking through the hospital ward, I stopped to look in on my patients, smiling through upbeat chatter as I checked temperatures and handed out medicine. ‘Almost break time,’ I thought, my mouth already watering at the idea of all the treats I planned to buy from the hospital shop. Gorging on junk between shifts was the only time I wasn’t full of worry.

‘I kept a smile on my face during A&E shifts’

It was summer 2010 and my son, Connor, then 13, was being cared for in a psychiatric unit, after trying to take his own life. He’d been