A former anorexic dubbed Skeletor by strangers has battled back to health and into the finals of a modelling competition.

Becky Hands, 21, was crippled by insecurities as a schoolgirl and bullied for being different, driving her into an obsession over her weight.

At one point she was eating just 100 calories a day - one twentieth of the recommended 2000 for a healthy woman - and her weight plummeted to a dangerous four stone.

Model patient: Becky Hands has fought a long battle with anorexia but is now hoping to become a top model

But after years spent in and out of hospital and disorder clinics, she has got her disorder under control and reached the finals of a modelling contest.

She is even brave enough to strut her stuff down the catwalk in a swimsuit.

Pretty Becky, from Southend, Essex, said she was picked on at Westcliff High School by pupils because she worked hard and wanted to achieve.

She said: 'I was bullied because I was a bit different. I felt like I didn't fit in, which I think was because I worked hard and wanted to do well and wasn't always messing about.

'Looking back, I never really got bullied about my weight. I realise now I was just normal size.

'But I got it into my head that I was fat and that gave me an excuse to blame all my insecurities on my weight.

'I looked at the most popular girls in school who were all really skinny and thought I wanted to be like that.

'Then after I lost weight, I got a lot of positive comments from people and from that moment I was in a spiral.

Brink of death: Becky Hands is now a healthy weight (left) but plummeted to just four stone as she battled anorexia

'I would obsess about every calorie I ate. Gradually it got worse until I was eating just 100 calories or so a day. I would also exercise to the point of collapsing and sometimes took laxatives.'

In the beginning, Becky tried to hide her obsession from family and friends but they soon noticed her dangerously skeletal frame.

She said: 'I would be in the street and people would call me Skeletor. It was really hard.'  

At her lowest ebb, the beauty would eat just a bowl of lettuce and cucumber a day.

But after a long fight to overcome her demons, Becky has now gained the confidence to enter the modelling contest and has reached the finals of Miss Essex FM 2008.

She will take to the catwalk for the judging at Liquid and Envy nightclub in Basildon, Essex, next month.

Becky said: 'I never thought I would have the confidence to strut down the catwalk dressed in a bikini - it's something that wouldn't have entered my head.

'But getting through to the final and even having the courage to enter the contest has given me the confidence I need.

Bullied: Strangers in the street used to call Becky Skeletor because of her tiny frame. At the height of her anorexia she ate just 100 calories a day

'I have been battling anorexia for so long but at last I finally feel I have turned a corner and am making a recovery.'

Now looking the picture of health, Becky said she did not think she would ever be free from the disorder.

She said: 'I don't think you can ever be fully cured of anorexia but I'm at a point now where I control it rather than the other way round.

'One of my biggest regrets is that because of my anorexia, I had to be pulled out of school so i never got any qualifications.

'I have tried to go to college since then, but I have had to drop out due to my health.

'I would love to get a job or go back to studying one day soon. It's just a matter of taking it one day at a time.' 

Becky also hit out at websites encouraging impressionable youngsters to get into anorexia and other eating disorders.

She said: 'On these websites, girls talk about how much they want anorexia and share tips on how to get it.

'Anorexia isn't a fad or fashion accessory, it's a disease which kills a lot of people every year.'