OM: THINNEST WOMAN IN WORLD

Valeria Levitin is 5ft 8in and weighs just 4 st 3 lbs (25.4kg) - less than half of what she should weigh at the very lightest - after years of extreme dieting.

Valeria has battled the illness since her early twenties and says she is desperate to get better and warn others of the dangers of anorexia.

She told the Sun: "I have received emails from young girls who want me to teach them how to be like me.

"All the letters I've had are from women, mainly in their twenties, who see me as some kind of inspiration."

Valeria, who is originally from Russia but now lives in Monaco, hopes to recover to fulfil her dream of becoming a mother.

Valeria, who developed her eating disorder as a teenager, has chosen to speak out about how the illness has ruined her life.

She says she wants to share her story to prevent other people falling victim to the same fate, saying anorexia has made her ‘lonely, unattractive and repulsive for the people around me’.

She believes the roots of her condition lie with her mother, who was terrified Valeria would grow up obese like her relatives. Even as a young child, her diet was curtailed.Valeria was weighed often to ensure she hadn't gained any weight, such was her mother’s drive for perfection.

At 16, and weighing 10st, Valeria moved to Chicago with her parents. Desperate to fit in at a new school, she thought that if she lost weight, she would be accepted and liked.

As a result, she restricted her diet even further, cutting out sugar or carbohydrates.

The irony today is that, having cut out certain foods for so long, her body is intolerant to them and could not process them even if she wanted to.

When a classmate made a cruel comment about Valeria’s figure, she became even more determined to lose weight.

She said: 'We were playing football and during the game a man said, "I know how we can win. We need to put Valeria’s big ar*e in the goal”. It shattered my whole world.'

By the time she was 23, Valeria’s dress size had plummeted from a healthy size 12 to a tiny size six.

Deciding to become a model made the situation even worse, as she was told she was still too fat to succeed. As her weight continued to plummet, by the age of 24 and weighing just six stone, she was banned from dancing over concerns she would injure herself.

A collect photograph of Valeria Levitin, aged 11

Valeria as child

In her teens before anorexia took over

For the next ten years she saw more than 30 health specialists, though once dipped to a dangerously low 3st 10lbs. Today, even if she wanted to eat certain foods, she would be unable to.

Many foods have to be avoided because they don’t agree with her body any more. It has been so long since she ate bread that she can no longer remember what it tastes like.

Her illness has also made her life a very lonely one. Single for a decade, she says relationships are difficult as she is unable to do the normal things that couples do, as going to restaurants.

Now, she believes she cannot be cured simply by going to a doctor, having never gained weight after seeing a specialist.