Brave fight to the finish (From Ledbury Reporter)

Brave fight to the finish

12:08pm Friday 21st September 2007 in News By Gary Bills-Geddes

THE mother of a young woman who died following a long battle with anorexia has paid a warm tribute to a daughter who touched so many lives and never gave in.

Hundreds of cards have flowed into the Putley home of Ray and Elizabeth Hunter following the death of their daughter Susanna on August 15, aged just 37.

Colleagues and friends packed Ledbury Parish Church for the funeral, saying a final farewell to a young woman who was elegant, selfless and full of a good humour and hope.

To the end, she was an inspiration to others with her condition but could not understand why she could not win her battle with an eating disorder that took hold as a teenager.

The night before she died in Manchester, she had wandered round her hospital ward urging other anor-exia patients not to give in.

Mrs Hunter said: "It is important to remember that people do recover for anorexia. They can go on to have splendid lives.

"Susie didn't get the illness. The illness got her. But it is not all doom and gloom because she was a lovely person and would really light up a room. Her life was not wasted, despite the case that it was not a life fulfilled."

Mrs Hunter said Susie often asked herself what am I doing to myself?'.

At times, 5ft 10 inch Susie would weigh as little as four-and-a-half stone. She had five spells in hospital in what became a weight gain and weight loss rollercoaster.

Mrs Hunter said the problem, which started while Susie was working in America, was not about body image. She added: "People did notice her, whether she was ill or well. She was a good lacrosse player and she was tall and elegant."

Mrs Hunter continued: "Anorexia, which is a mental illness, was her way of controlling her life."

In her working life, she displayed great organisational skills and held down various jobs, including as a PA in London and later at a Christian centre near Stratford, Red Hill Farm, where her ashes have been laid.

A tribute paid at the funeral by Lord Shuttle-worth, her uncle, sums up how Susie is now recalled by so many friends and family members.

He said: "Just occasionally, I have been privileged to see, out of the corner of my eye, the flash of a kingfisher. I never knew quite where she came from or where she was going but invariably a glimpse of her lifted me up and enhanced my day."