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WITH bright pink dining chairs and bedrooms decked with TVs, laptops and contemporary colour schemes, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a high-end hotel.

But bathrooms equipped with hoists and supports for the extremely frail and a nearby nurses’ station betray the cool, calm exterior.

This is the Evergreen Centre, a new specialist centre for children and young people with eating disorders, opened this week at Middlesbrough’s West Lane Hospital.

Run by Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, the unit is only one of two NHS facilities of its kind in the UK.

It will work alongside the out-patient services provided across the region - and as a second phase to the Birch Ward at Darlington’s West Park Hospital - a similar facility for adults.

The centre will provide care, including structured meals, therapy and medical treatment, for children from aged 11-18 from the North-east and Cumbria, led by a specialist mental health team.

Dr Roger Williams, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, said: “To have this unit on Teesside is fantastic. Most families looking at getting this type of support would have to consider independent services a long way away, but we are able to provide this new facility through the NHS.

“There’s no quick fix for eating disorders but this offers an option - a choice - for families and patients who need high levels of care and support.”

And one such family which would have been quick to access the services is the Taylors from Ingleby Barwick.

Mum, Abigail, 45, a medical receptionist, said: “We would definitely have asked for our daughter to come here when we were at this stage on our journey with eating disorders.”

And what a journey it has been. Katy Harrison-Taylor was 15 when anorexia took a firm hold of her life. The now-18-year-old Stockton Riverside College art student said: “I had issues with food from about 12 but by 15 or 16 my whole personality had changed.

“I was withdrawn and quiet and lost all my confidence. I was diagnosed as having depression.”

It’s hard to believe the bubbly, healthy, girl speaking is the same young woman gripped by an eating disorder.

She said: “After treatment we came to call this other person, who had a definite voice in my head, Ana. So the battle stopped being with me and we had to work to control Ana.”

Former All Saints pupil Katy started getting help after confiding in her teacher.

Abigail, also mum to Daniel, eight and stepmum to Stephen, 21, said: “It came as a shock to us that she was struggling. With hindsight I can see when it took hold was when she gave up sweets for Lent and started restricting her food.”

And Katy admits to having “tricks” to avoid eating when her parents were more aware - but that only led to more of a decline.

By this time, at her lowest BMI of about 12.4 - just over five stone - and 68% of expected body weight, she was being helped at Wessex House in Stockton through Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services and at the West Lane site through the Newby Centre as an outpatient.

Abigail said: “The staff were fantastic. It made us face up to the reality and deal with ‘Ana’. But at times it was devastating.”

Abigail, and husband Ian, 50, a warehouse manager, had to “re-learn” family life.

Ian, stepdad to Katy, said: “The thing about anorexia is it doesn’t just control the person it takes control of the whole family. The doctors taught us great techniques using animal metaphors so we could help Katy.

“It sounds daft but being told to stop being a rhino - trying to shove her out of this problem - or for Abigail - to stop being a Kangaroo who was not always tough enough - helped. Instead we were urged to be ‘dolphins’, to create a safe environment, to go the journey and gently nudge her along.”

But the picture of tranquility and hope at times was difficult to see. July 2009 was a low point. Abigail said: “Just before a family holiday the doctor told me to cancel it. Her parting words were, ‘if her lips turn blue call 999.’ They warned us her heart could fail. It was her prom around that time as well - and that was very distressing.”

Katy added; “When I look at the prom photo now I think I look awful - but then I was thinking I looked bad because I thought I was big. I’ve come a long way since then.”

And while Evergreen was designed for youngsters - making use of technology to encourage patients to Skype friends and family - the frailty of its users is apparent.

A fully-stocked clinic room homes a defibrillator and two of the rooms have been adapted to allow for patients in wheelchairs.

Katy, who now works as a check-out girl in Morrisons, said: “As a family we considered whether I should go to this kind of place but the closest was Sheffield. I would have been really helped by the structure of it all.”

Patients at the Evergreen centre will have a carefully-engineered diet plan and therapy after meals. But Katy admits keeping food down is only part of the treatment.

“Ginnie, one of the psychologists, encouraged me to see the issues as bubbles on the surface so that we could then look at what was causing the bubbles.

“For me, it all came about at a time in my life when I felt out of control, so used this as a means to take control back.

“It was only after I had well-established anorexia that it was about being fat.

“At that point, when you’re counting calories and starving, you can’t control it on your own, you need a team of people like the Evergreen staff to help you.”

Now free of medication for depression, Katy remains positive about her future. She has a boyfriend, Jonathan Binks, 19, from Billingham, who is a great source of support.

She also has a new-found passion for photography and is planning on attending university in London at the end of next year.

She said: “I feel really positive now and just want people to know there is hope.”

To find out more about the Evergreen Centre visit www.tewv.nhs.uk