19-year-old Ayllah-Beau Foley hasn’t eaten for five years

OHMYGOSSIP — Meet the teenage girl who hasn’t eaten for five years because her stomach is paralysed. Ayllah-Beau Foley (19), from Cheltenham, has gastroparesis which means she has to be fed nutrients through a tiny feeding tube directly into her heart, Mirror mediates.

“Having this condition has really changed my life,” she said. “I can’t sit down for meals with my family anymore, I can’t eat out with my friends – I can’t even tuck into a Sunday lunch.

“I have a twin brother, Jordan, but we can’t eat cake together on our birthday – if I tried I’d just be sick. It is really hard but I try and stay positive, and I just hope I can beat this horrible illness one day.”

Ayllah-Beau’s condition first developed when she returned from a volunteering project in India. “I was so excited to go to India with school and I couldn’t wait to get out there and get stuck in. But when I came back I just felt awful and started to get really ill. I assumed it was just food poisoning I’d picked up out there, but it just got worse and worse.”

It soon became clear that Beau needed medical attention, and her parents took her to the doctors.

“My twin brother, Jordan, is a soldier and sometimes it can be difficult seeing him so active when I’m cooped up in bed all the time – but of course I’m so proud of him. I’ve come to accept my condition now and I take each day as it comes. I hope that one day, I’ll be back to my normal self, but for now I try to stay as positive as I can.”

I hope you will be well soon!