DanceX finalist, Claire Mealor has spoken to the Daily Mirror newspaper today about her hellish battle with eating disorder, anorexia.

The Mirror reported:

Claire said: “I used to be the ugly fat kid. I never wanted to perform on stage even though I loved singing.

“I was badly bullied. Girls threatened to stick my head down the toilet and beat me up. They followed me home from school every day.”

It got so bad that Claire’s parents were forced to pick her up from Edgbarrow School in Crowthorne, Berks, every evening.

She recalled: “There were constant taunts and I couldn’t face walking home.”

At her heaviest, Claire weighed 11st, but she masked her true feelings.

She said: “I was always bubbly so the teachers and everyone around me didn’t realise how upset I really was.”

After dieting to just over 7st, Claire’s skin went grey.

She said: “Mentally, I couldn’t bring myself to eat. I knew the calorie content of everything.

“It wasn’t until a drama teacher said how bad I looked that I realised I had to stop myself.”

Claire’s weight went up to 9½st at university and she has stuck around that mark ever since.

The classically trained singer — she never had dancing lessons — is engaged to shop manager Kirk Budmish, also 23.

Kirk has been Claire’s personal trainer for BBC1’s DanceX contest, which pulled in 5.5million viewers last week and is expected to get even more for tonight’s show.

She added: “Kirk has taken me out jogging every day to improve my fitness. I just have to work twice as hard.

“When I perform, it will be two fingers up to the bullies. I’m going to go for my dreams.”