But within months the grade-A student at an independent school was caught in the grip of a terrible eating disorder.
Her battle with anorexia took her through several crises, all the time reducing her frail body’s ability to survive.
And just over a year after starting the diet, she died aged 16.
A shadow of her former self: Anna in the grip of her anorexia and before she started the diet that ended up causing her death
‘It just happened so quickly, from realising she had anorexia to her passing away,’ said Anna’s mother Christine
Gibson, 52, from Wimbledon, south-west London. ‘We just didn’t have time to learn how to help her.’
Anna, a pupil at £12,000-a-year Wimbledon High School, was 15 when she began watching her weight in January last year.
‘She was never fat,’ said Mrs Gibson, who is divorced from Anna’s 62-year-old father Paul Wood. ‘She had a bit of puppy fat, but all girls that age do and it would have disappeared naturally.
‘After five or six weeks I stopped dieting but she just carried on reducing her food intake.’
In February teachers contacted Anna’s mother when a swimming coach reported her dieting to a school nurse.
Mrs Gibson, an accounts administrator, said: ‘We thought they were over-reacting at first. But we didn’t know Anna had started to take drastic measures.
‘She made it look like she was eating, but really she was eating far less than she should have been. She became deceptive and sneaky.
‘She would hide food up her sleeve and throw it away when I wasn’t looking.
‘She’d also been making herself sick.’
By May Anna was clearly unwell and her mother took her to see her GP, who agreed to monitor her health. She also had regular meetings with a psychologist.
But nothing anyone said could persuade her to eat properly and in August the teenager was admitted to hospital.
‘When her GCSE results came out I phoned her to tell her she had got ten A*s and one A,’ said Mrs Gibson. ‘But there was no reaction. She was withdrawn and down, like her fire had gone out.’
By then Anna, who was 5ft 7in, weighed six and a half stone and had so little body fat that she could not keep warm. Her skin also became rough and would flare up – a typical symptom of anorexia.
The teenager, who had ambitions to become an architect, managed to put on two stone and after four months of treatment doctors allowed her home in time for Christmas.
Unable to resume her studies until the next academic year, she took on a part-time job three miles from home. On February 11 this year she collapsed on the way to work and was taken to hospital.
Her parents realised she had been walking the six-mile round trip and not eating the packed lunch she took with her. Anna went home but within days she was back in hospital. Tests revealed she had a perforated ulcer.
Doctors warned her parents that she needed surgery but was so weak she was unlikely to survive.
Although she came through the operation, the teenager’s body was so ravaged by the anorexia that it was unable to heal itself.
Her major organs began failing. She suffered brain damage, paralysis, a collapsed lung and could not breathe without a ventilator. On March 26, she died of a heart attack.
‘Everything after that is a blur,’ added Mrs Gibson, who also has a 20-year-old son, Matthew, with her ex-husband. ‘We were heartbroken.’
The couple want other parents to hear their story in the hope that they might realise the dangers of eating disorders before it is too late.
Mr Wood, a structural engineer, added: ‘Until Anna was admitted to hospital we had no idea how bad it was.
‘I just wish there was more help out there for parents trying to deal with a child with the disease. We just felt so helpless.’
An inquest into Anna’s death is due to be held in November.
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