14 DAY TRIAL // In May this year, Rachel Farrokh’s story went viral: she was a 37-year-old woman from Southern Carolina who had worked as an actress and a former fitness enthusiast, who had been struggling with severe anorexia for the last 10 years of her life. She was dying.
She and her husband were going public with her story because they needed the money for one last attempt at saving her life. Unfortunately, because she weighed only 40-something pounds (18.1 kg), only one clinic in the country would take her: centers in her area had already deemed her too high risk and had turned her away.
Rachel is now finally receiving the life-saving treatment.
Rachel is in hospital, stands on her own again
Both Rachel and her husband have been quiet on social media for the past few weeks, but as he explains in the post below, it was only because they’d been so busy with everything to have the time to check in with their supporters.
She is now in San Diego, where she was admitted after the doctors at the Denver center called in favors and got them to take her, because airlifting her to Denver would have been a major risk.
According to Rod, her husband, Rachel has kept up the fight, as promised. She is in good spirits and she’s responding well to treatment, so far.
He also posted a video of her standing up on her own for the first time: as you can see below, she’s not doing it without assistance, but for what it’s worth, she’s doing it without human assistance.
For a case as severe as hers, every little step counts as major progress, so for Rod, seeing her stand up with the help of a machine, was amazing.
Rachel uses her story to raise awareness
Before being admitted to the hospital, Rachel lived at home and Rod was her primary caregiver. She could not stand or take care of herself, so she relied on him for everything.
Rod could no longer keep a job because of this, and needless to say, Rachel hadn’t worked in a long time.
It wasn’t always like that, though: some years ago, she was an actress and a fitness enthusiast, and he was the trainer at her gym. They met and fell in love, and were happy for a long time before she developed the eating disorder, which, she revealed, started with a “small” obsession that she could always stand to lose a few pounds to look “perfect.”
Rachel agreed to go public with her story knowing it was her last chance to get help and get back the life she once had. At the same time, she was reconciled with the thought that she might not get the donations in time, because she knew her case (and her death) would raise awareness on this terrible and often misunderstood disease.