Peterborough mental health nurse takes on Three Peaks Challenge £30,000 fundraiser to train eating disorder nurse

A Peterborough woman is taking on the Three Peaks Challenge in a bid to fundraise £30,000 to help specially train an eating disorder nurse.

Mandy Scott, co-founder of Personalised Eating Disorder Support (PEDS) based in Peterborough, is aiming to climb Snowdon, Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike in just three days.

The mental health nurse, from Werrington, is setting off for her three day expedition on July 8 for a cause extremely close to her heart.

PEDS, set up in 2013, is the only nurse-led eating disorder charity in the UK.

It provides support for eating disorder sufferers and their families – with the goal of getting early help to avoid hospital admission.

Mandy, who is taking on the challenge to also mark her 40th birthday, said: “I’ve said to my family and friends ‘forget presents, my biggest present will be to help me get 6,000 donations of £5’.

“A lot of my teenage years were lost to anorexia. I had two lengthy hospital admissions where I was away from family and friends, I missed a lot of school.

"I want to try and prevent other people going through that hospital process and to help people get the support they need earlier.”

Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness among adolescents, according to mental health charity, Beat.

"PEDS mission is to ‘help build a life to get well for’ and give people suffering from eating disorders and their families hope", Mandy added.

“If you help that person to build a life to get well for then they have a purpose, they have a reason to get better.”

Even though PEDS has the backing of the NHS, the University of Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin University and the local authority, financially it is not enough due to the “tsunami of referrals” PEDS has continued to receive since Covid.

Mandy said eating disorders have a huge effect on the lives of sufferers and their families: “It’s not just loss of life, it’s loss of potential life.

"People find that their eating disorder impacts on all areas of their lives, their friendships, ability to pursue an education, to manage in a job or find employment.”

Following her recovery from anorexia, Mandy was able to go to university and train as a mental health nurse.

She went on to work at the Phoenix Centre, a children’s inpatient eating disorder unit in Cambridge, before setting up a community eating disorder service in Bedford.

Later on, 10 years ago, she co-founded PEDS with her children's nurse colleague, Sue Rattle. They both met while working as eating disorder nurses at the Phoenix Centre and decided more needed to be done to help sufferers of eating disorders and their families.

PEDS, which now employs a team of 12 staff, plus volunteers – eight of whom are also climbing with Mandy for their own causes.

PEDS aims to “educate people on the signs and symptoms” of eating disorders by reaching people through schools and GP surgeries, as well as clubs and societies, so that people can receive earlier treatment before the illness develops.

To donate to Mandy Scott’s fundraiser, visit her JustGiving page.