"She'll binge on anything": The woman who can't stop eating... even the soap while having a bath

"She'll binge on anything": The woman who can't stop eating... even the soap while having a bath

While most mums enjoy occasionally indulging their ­children with sweets, Jane Hall knows something that simple could have devastating consequences.

Jane’s daughter, Jade, 20, suffers from a rare genetic condition which gives her an ­insatiable appetite and a predisposition to severe weight gain.

5ft 2in Jade weighs 20 stone â€" despite being on a diet of just 750 calories per day.

If left to her own devices she could eat herself to death and, for her family, trying to control what Jade eats is a daily battle.

Jane, 50, says: “Jade could eat 12 courses and still think she was ­starving.

At times she’d be so desperate for food, she would eat soap or dog biscuits.

“Because her body isn’t able to ­efficiently convert fat into muscle we have to put Jade on a strict diet for life â€" or she would become so fat she would die.”

Jane â€" daughter of late EastEnders star Mike Reid â€" lives near Sudbury, Suffolk, with retire d builder husband Des, 63, and Jade’s ­younger sisters Lucy, 17, and Lily, 13.

Her eldest was four when she was ­diagnosed with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), which leaves sufferers with intense hunger pangs and an endless appetite.

Jade’s brain doesn’t send signals to let her body know when she is full, and she has learning difficulties and slower ­emotional development.

As well as putting Jade on a diet of low-fat food, Jane has had to put locks on her cupboards to ensure Jade cannot help herself.

Jane, who is Jade’s full-time carer, said: “She’ll tell you she can’t eat too much or she’ll die, but the words don’t really mean anything to her.

"She can’t stop herself. Until recently, we trusted Jade to tell us what she’d eaten.

Hunger: Jade had problems from childhood

 

“But then I started finding crumbs in her dressing gown pocket and chocolate ­wrappers hidden in her drawers and realised she was lying.

“I’d show her the empty crisp packets and she’d deny having eaten them.

"We’ve now put a lock on the pantry to stop her giving in to temptation.

“Jade will binge on anything she can find. It was so ­upsetting when I found her eating the soap.

"She was ­having a bath and I turned my back on her for one second.

“There was another time I caught her eating dog biscuits from the dog’s bowl. It’s times like that you realise how ill Jade is.”

At birth, Jade refused to feed and showed signs of underdevelopment. She was fed through a tube while doctors ran tests to find what was wrong.

At the age of 16 months, however, her appetite kicked in and she began to put on weight very rapidly.

Jane said: “Although she wasn’t diagnosed with PWS until she was older, I noticed somet hing was wrong when she was still a baby.

"She didn’t have much mobility and showed no interest in food. She was very small for her age.

“In the beginning, we fed her every three hours and it took two hours to get three ounces of milk down her.

“After about a year and a half her appetite came back in a big way and we had to start ­cutting back on her food intake.”

Jade’s weight climbed steadily as she got older and when she was seven she weighed five stone, a stone and a half heavier than average. At 12 she weighed eight and a half stone.

It’s been a ­battle for Jane. She says: “I’ve been thrown out of Tesco before for confronting someone who insulted Jade.

"They talked about her weight and I couldn’t hold back. I rammed my ­trolley into them and got ­escorted out.

“But Jade’s got a terrible disease that makes her put on weight. So when I say she’s fat but it’s not her fault, it’s the truth.”

Issues: Jade is also prone to mood swings

The PWS condition affects one in every 25,000 live births in the UK.

Following Jade’s birth, her grandfather Mike â€" Frank Butcher in EastEnders for almost 20 years â€" spent seven days in ­hospital with her.

Jane recalls: “He used to call her Princess.

“They were very close. He was great with her.” Managing Jade’s eating is a constant challenge and Jane has to ensure she monitors everything her daughter ­consumes.

Growing up, Jade would ransack the fridge and cupboards, eat leftovers and constantly beg for food.

For Jane, one of the hardest things was having to say no. She says: “No was the first word Jade learned. It’s very damaging to keep hearing that, but I say it out of love.

“She learned to be crafty and would ask to make me a cup of tea so she could eat the sweeteners.

"Once, in the middle of a tantrum she started screaming, ‘How can you lock your disabled daughter in her room?’

“I’d done no thing of the sort, but she was trying to wind me up. She knew I would worry the neighbours could hear.

“I have to remind myself it’s the illness talking, not her. But it’s still very upsetting.”

Yet allowing Jade to get her own way could have very real consequences. “Because she has such a low metabolic rate, to burn off 100 calories Jade would have to walk four miles,” says Jane.

“I used to take her swimming and we encourage her to keep fit. She has an exercise bike in her bedroom â€" but we have to bribe her to go on it.

"I make her go up and down the stairs by asking her to fetch things.”

Each day Jade eats between 750 and 950 calories in healthy food. She has porridge for breakfast, chicken and salad for lunch and a small portion of what the ­family eats for dinner.

However, any deviation can result in weight gain that can take weeks to lose.

Jane says: “However hard I try to keep her on a diet, Jade seems to g et bigger and bigger.

“She can put on three pounds in a day. I’m desperate for her to lose some weight. I sit and cry about it some days.

“She’s seen loads of doctors but we can’t force her to see one if she doesn’t want to.”

Loving: Jade with Mike Reid of EastEnders fame

Jade’s stubbornness â€" a symptom of PWS â€" also means she is prone to temper ­tantrums.

Jane adds: “Every day is full of confrontation. Jade will cause horrendous rows. She can cry and yell for two hours at the top of her voice sometimes and there’s nothing I can do to calm her down.

“She’ll often slam doors and lash out. She has even kicked a hole in the bathroom.

“If she acts up I send her to her room, but it’s not always easy to do given that she’s twice the size of me. It’s so tiring that sometimes I do the hoovering just to drown out the noise.”

Because emotionally Jade is younger than her years, Jane has been told to expect the tantrums until she is around 25.

People with PWS are also prone to ­depression, so Jade’s family rally round her when she is upset.

Jane explains: “We continually have to boost Jade’s ego and remind her how loved she is.

"We shower her with praise when she’s been good an d can’t come down on her too hard if she eats too much. We can’t tell her that she’s fat, she’d be distraught.”

For her sisters, who have grown up ­learning how to care for Jade, dealing with her condition has become second nature.

Eating food unsuitable for Jade in front of her would cause problems and they know to tread carefully when she is upset.

Now Jade attends a local club for young people with special needs where she can interact with others in a supervised area. It also give Jane a much needed break.

She says: “My family is everything and I am so proud of my girls.

"Jade will never be able to manage by herself, but as long as I’m here, she’ll always have me.”

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