This is truly heartbreaking.
Too often we wish our teenage years away, longing to turn 21 and taking the little things for granted.
However, it's when we read letters like this that we realise how important it is to count the simple blessings in life.
Sharon Hegarty, whose daughter Lauree suffers from anorexia, got in touch with Cork's Red FM last year to tell the family's heartbreaking story.
Now, a year on, Lauree is unfortunately in critical condition in hospital.
She penned a moving letter, shared on Red FM's Facebook page, in which she expresses her hope for one last chance at recovery.
It reads:
"When I was young I always dreamt of the 18 year old I’d become, I imagined spending my teenage years weekends going out with friends till late, drinking and waking up with a hangover!!!
I imagined the proud look in my mother’s eyes when listening to my leaving cert results knowing even if they weren’t great scores I had tried my best. The feeling of independence and freedom when I waved goodbye to my mum on my first day of college knowing that this was the time to let go and face the big bad world of adulthood. I imagined the pain in my stomach and chest from laughing so much at my best friends telling me cringy jokes in a lecture.
I never imagined or thought I would spend my teenage years striving for the lowest calories intake one could possibly achieve.
Spending endless nights looking up the calories of each and every item I would be consuming the next day. Feeling pains in my stomach not from laughter but from hunger.
Spending every special occasion in hospital...Christmas, birthday, Easter fed by tubes and staring into the bottom of a nutrition drink instead of a shot glass. Staring many times into my mother’s eyes and seeing the pain slowly destroy the last bit of strength she had left inside. All I want from life is to be free to wake up not dreading every day knowing that no matter how hard I try the eating disorder will take every bit of my hope and the strength I have left inside. I just want one last chance to recover to show the people who thought I couldn’t that I can and to get back the teenage years I lost and be given an opportunity to live instead of being expected to die.
I have crawled through hell and back at times have accepted dying. I am trying really hard to recover but need help .....I may not be able do it for myself at the moment but I can do it for my family......Lauree Hegarty"
