John Prescott tells of his bulimia secret

After suffering for over 10 years from Bulimia Nervosa, a condition more commonly associated to young women, former deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has admitted to suffering from the disorder.

In a brave admission, Mr Prescott said his reason for this confession after all this time was to try and encourage other people, especially men, who may be embarrassed as he was, to come forward and admit to suffering from bulimia. He said that the shame he felt is the reason it has taken him so long to admit to suffering form the condition, “I never admitted to this out of the shame and embarrassment.

“I found it difficult as a man like me to admit that I suffered from bulimia – the doctors told me that it was probably due to stress.

“I eventually managed to control it and to stop it a few years ago.”

“People normally associate it with young women – anorexic girls, models trying to keep their weight down – or women in stressful situations, like Princess Diana.”

“I want to say to the millions of people, do take advice, it can help and it can help you out of a lot of misery that you suffer in silence.”

He said that during his illness he used to quite happily eat his way through the entire menu of his favourite Chinese Restaurant as well as drinking cans of condensed milk, eating trifles, chips, burgers etc and then make himself vomit.

He has not suffered from the disorder for over a year and now exercises regularly in the gym.

Mr Prescott has been praised by various health experts for confessing to this and there are now worries that there may be a lot more men out there suffering in silence and they hope this will prompt them to come forward.

Also a sufferer of diabetes, Mr Prescott will now be lending his support to the National Health Services campaign for awareness on food disorders.

With his memoirs due to be published soon, some critics may say this is the reason behind his confession. Mr Prescott however says that by going public he hopes he has helped other people like him to seek help.