The Auckland District Health Board has traditionally sent girls suffering from anorexia to Australia for acute treatment, but the Furse family are calling for the ADHB to invest in a clinic for New Zealand.
The Furse family has finally been reunited in their Auckland home, after four and a half months of separation.
Millie Furse and her mum, Michelle, have been living in Sydney while the 17-year-old underwent treatment for anorexia.
18-year-old Hannah Furse has been looking after the house as well as caring for 13-year-old younger sister Laura.
Michelle says everyone in the family has had to make sacrifices for Millie’s treatment.
“I've had to go back on a benefit, I'm on a domestic purposes benefit because I haven't been able to work," says Michelle.
"Even now I still can't go back to work at this stage.”
“Hannah also, she's just finished school, and she was going to go to Teacher's College this year but she hasn't been able to - she's had to stay home and look after Laura.”
In January, Campbell Live visited Millie at the Sydney clinic; she was still very sick and had nearly died waiting for treatment in Auckland – her weight being as low as 33kg.
The Auckland DHB sent her offshore to the clinic and after months of learning how to eat properly she slowly regained weight back to 50kg.
Millie says the clinic was very helpful but it was hard being away from friends and family.
“Here I would have had the motivation of my friends and family and there I just had my Mum, it would have been better to have more people,” says Millie.
Michelle says it was hard being in Australia on her own with no other people to turn to for advice.
“It's really hard, you know. I feel for all the mums that are still over there because sometimes things go wrong and your kid's texting going ‘I hate it here, and I just want to go home’ and you're thinking you can't come,” says Michelle.
Michelle says she would love to see a clinic opened in New Zealand so that other families battling anorexia could benefit.
“I'd be happy that other people aren't going to have to go through what we've had to go through to get the treatment,” she says.
“It would be reassuring if for any reason we might need that service again, we're not going have to do what we've done again, that's one of my big fears.”
Millie now says she is feeling a lot better, however is not yet cured of anorexia.
“I still feel the same way about food, I'm still scared of it and I still don't want to eat it,” says Millie.
“So really they were just getting my weight up before I could come home again.”
Millie says she is excited to return back to school with her school ball coming up in May.
“I've bought my dress already so no one will have the same dress as me, because I got it from Australia,” she says.
3 News
Campbell Live interviews Health Minister Tony Ryall about new funding for anorexia services in Auckland.