The crippling expense of an eating disorder: ‘It cost $250,000 to save my daughter's life’

By Keeli Cambourne
Updated May 15 2018 - 10:00am, first published May 14 2018 - 10:01pm
Molly and her mum, Keeli. Over five years, Molly was admitted 12 times, ranging from four weeks to eight weeks.
Molly and her mum, Keeli. Over five years, Molly was admitted 12 times, ranging from four weeks to eight weeks.

Within two weeks of Molly's diagnosis with an eating disorder I had tapped into the mortgage to pay $20,000 for the first private hospital stay, writes Keeli Cambourne.

It cost around $250,000 to save my daughter’s life. That’s just the hospital bills. It doesn’t include psychiatric and counselling expenses, fuel costs to drive the 300km round trip three times a week from the South Coast to Sydney to visit her while she was in hospital, the accommodation costs for when I was too tired to drive home, or the pharmaceutical accounts every month.

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