--- title: "Jersey charity launches ambassador scheme to fight eating disorder stigma" url: https://www.nsfw.info/jeds-ambassador-scheme-eating-disorder-stigma/ published: 2026-10-24T10:30:50+00:00 modified: 2026-10-24T10:30:50+00:00 author: "Chief Editor" categories: ["News"] image: https://www.nsfw.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/jeds-ambassador-scheme-eating-disorder-stigma-1024x572.webp summary: "Jersey Eating Disorders Support has launched an ambassador programme, with Holly Jordas using her lived experience of anorexia to challenge stigma and promote e" publisher: NSFW (https://www.nsfw.info) --- # Jersey charity launches ambassador scheme to fight eating disorder stigma **In brief:** Jersey Eating Disorders Support has launched an ambassador programme, with Holly Jordas among its first recruits. Drawing on her own experience of anorexia from the age of 13, she is using her platform to challenge stigma, encourage early help-seeking and remind others that recovery is not a straight line. ## A new voice for an old struggle When Holly Jordas was 13 years old and in hospital with anorexia, her mother was attending support meetings run by Jersey Eating Disorders Support. At the time, Bailiwick Express reports, Ms Jordas found it frustrating. She could not understand why her family needed support when she was the one with the eating disorder. Years later, she sees it very differently. “Supporting someone through an eating disorder can be incredibly overwhelming and emotionally draining,” she said, acknowledging that those meetings gave her mother the education and tools to better understand what she was going through. Now, Ms Jordas has come full circle. Having become a personal trainer and Muay Thai fighter, and having used social media to speak openly about eating disorders and the misconceptions surrounding them, she has become one of JEDS’ first Eating Disorder Support Ambassadors. The role, she says, is an opportunity to turn some of the most difficult experiences of her life into something that might help others feel less alone. “If my story, my voice or simply my presence can make one person feel less alone, encourage someone to reach out for help, or give someone hope that life can become so much bigger than their eating disorder, then that means more to me than I can put into words,” she said. ## Recovery is not a destination Ms Jordas is candid about the fact that her own recovery has not been straightforward. Following the death of her father last year, she said she took some steps backwards, something she has found difficult to accept. Rather than treating that as failure, she is learning to give herself grace. “For a long time, I thought that taking a step backwards meant I was failing or that I should have been ‘better’ by now,” she said. “I’m learning that there is no finish line to cross and no timeline I have to follow.” She returned to JEDS meetings within the past year and described finding a community where she felt understood in a way she had not experienced elsewhere. She praised the charity’s leads, Karen and Amy Dingle, for creating what she called a “loving, welcoming and non-judgemental space.” One of the most important lessons she has taken from that experience is that people do not need to be in crisis before asking for help. “You don’t have to be ‘ill enough’ to come to a meeting or have a formal diagnosis before you deserve support,” she said. “Sometimes the most important time to reach out is when you first notice that something doesn’t feel right.” ## Tackling stigma and misconceptions Ms Jordas is particularly keen to challenge the stereotypes that can prevent people from seeking help or being recognised as struggling. She argues that appearance is a deeply unreliable indicator of whether someone has an eating disorder. “Saying that someone ‘looks anorexic’ is not only incredibly damaging, but in many ways, it doesn’t make sense. Anorexia is an illness, not an appearance,” she said. A person, she explained, can appear healthy on the outside while experiencing a serious eating disorder internally. Equally, a body may change during recovery while thoughts and feelings have not yet caught up. She also wants people to understand that eating disorders are not simply about food or a desire to be thin. They can have deeper roots, with food, exercise and body image becoming ways of coping with emotions, control, trauma, grief or anxiety. “An eating disorder is an illness, not a choice, not a personality trait and not something you can always see from the outside,” she said. Ms Jordas also reflected on the role of social media, admitting that she had previously presented herself online as someone who had everything together. “The reality couldn’t be further from the truth,” she said. By being more open about the difficult parts of her life, she hopes others will feel able to do the same. Over the coming year, she plans to use her platform for social media outreach, radio appearances and speaking opportunities. She also hopes to gain a formal qualification related to eating disorders and to organise events, workshops or retreats where people in recovery could connect with others who understand their experience. ## The NSFW Perspective There is something quietly powerful about a story like this one. Jersey is a small island, which means that stigma travels fast and anonymity is in short supply. The fact that someone is willing to stand up, use their name and say “I am still figuring it out, just like everyone else” takes a particular kind of courage in a community where everyone knows everyone. The ambassador model is also a sensible one. Lived experience, communicated honestly, tends to cut through in a way that leaflets and awareness campaigns rarely do. If JEDS can build a network of people willing to share their stories, it may well reach individuals who would never have walked through a clinic door. The message that you do not need a diagnosis or a crisis to deserve support is one that applies well beyond eating disorders. It is a principle that Jersey’s health and social services might usefully take to heart more broadly. Early intervention is almost always cheaper, kinder and more effective than waiting until someone hits rock bottom. That is not a radical idea. It is just common sense. *Source: [Bailiwick Express](https://www.bailiwickexpress.com/news/you-dont-have-to-be-sick-enough-to-deserve-help-eating-disorder-charity-launches-ambassador-programme)*