EAT OR DIE
We lift lid on amazing secret past lives of Big Brother housemates EXCLUSIVE Nikki had weeks to live Scar where tube saved her Weight fell to less than 5st
BIG Brother babe Nikki Grahame nearly DIED during a 17-year battle with anorexia, The People can reveal.
At one point the pathetically thin youngster had to be force-fed through a TUBE as her weight plummeted to less than FIVE STONES.
Viewers puzzled by the scar on her stomach will be shocked to learn that is where doctors inserted the feeding tube after she refused to eat.
But tormented Nikki kept pulling it out, even though it was keeping her alive. Eventually desperate doctors warned her she could be sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
A former school pal said: "Nikki was really, really ill. She was so thin she was given weeks to live. She was so thin she looked liked a child.
"They tried everything to get her to eat but she wouldn't.
"Doctors fitted a tube into her stomach and she was fed through that. But she kept ripping it out. Every time she did it they would put it back in, only for her to rip it out again.
"She was left with pretty bad scarring on her stomach from all the tubes, but she had skin grafts last year to reduce it."
Blonde Nikki, 24, has had the eating disorder since she was seven. The pal said she:
HID food to avoid having to eat her meals.
BECAME so ill she was rushed into hospital.
SPENT months being treated in homes for anorexics.
The friend, who met Nikki at Northwood School in Middlesex said: "She was hardly ever at school because she spent such a long time in hospital and clinics. I visited her a few times and it was really upsetting. She was always thin but she was convinced she was fat.
"Even when she was going through a good spell she still had to go home every day for lunch.
"She wasn't allowed to eat at school because they knew she would just throw it away."
Nikki now has the condition under control - but it has left her obsessed with looking perfect.
Before having her boobs increased she was flat-chested and hated her figure. And she is still less than 5ft tall because the anorexia affected her growth.
Our source said: "Now she's on Big Brother, Nikki is part way to achieving her ambition of becoming famous. She doesn't want to throw it all away.
She knows that if she stops eating she'll be sectioned and it will be on her record for life. But she is still very careful about what she eats and exercises vigorously to stay thin. She's also obsessed with hygiene and cleanliness.
"At one time she used to scrub all her food before she ate it.
"She might be eating in the Big Brother house, but the anorexia is definitely still at the back of her mind. She wants her body to be perfect."
In the house, passion-starved Nikki moaned to Richard yesterday: "I haven't had sex for months and months."
And she ogled Pete's manhood, telling the embarrassed lad: "You're very small but your c*** is huge! Don't be ashamed, you have got the biggest c*** I've ever seen in my whole life."
But she showed that food is still an obsession when she lashed out at Canadian Richard - for scoffing cornflakes.
Nikki ranted: "That selfish Yank has eaten all the f****** food. He's had four bowls of cornflakes.
"And they're not normal bowls. They're mountains!"
alice.walker@people.co.uk
