St. John's man fighting eating disorder ignorance

A St. John's man whose daughter died because of an eating disorder is stepping up his campaign to raise awareness of anorexia and bulimia.

Events will be held in high schools and shopping malls across Newfoundland and Labrador the week of Feb. 1 to raise awareness of eating disorders.

"Having gone through this personally, I would suggest to families that they be very aware to changes in personality of their adolescents," said Vince Withers, who chairs the Newfoundland and Labrador Eating Disorder Foundation. "People with an eating disorder will have noticeable changes in terms of mood, self esteem, school, in terms of having their friends around them."

Withers founded the Eating Disorders Foundation after the death of his daughter Renata in 2006.

He hopes events this week will reverse the stigma attached to potentially fatal eating disorders.

"There are about 8,000 families in the province with an eating disorder and the awareness week is basically to bring this out in the open, and during the week we'll be holding a lot of public events," said Withers.

The Foundation is reaching out to teenagers and men this year. Withers said one-quarter of people with anorexia or bulimia are male.