A 23-year-old British woman seems to have set a dubious record in anorexia. By relentlessly starving herself, she has managed to retain the body of a 12-year-old.

She has not had her periods so far. Doctors and her family are worried about her future, but she has no regrets.

Indeed she insists that she is proud of her looks and has no plans to change her lifestyle.

Miss Hensley, from East Croydon in Surrey, began to starve herself at the age of 12 when she was bullied for being a swot.

'I found if I looked younger and took on a more fragile appearance it frightened off the bullies,' said Miss Hensley, the daughter of an optician and a legal secretary.

'Even the teachers warmed to my vulnerable child-like appearance, treating me more sympathetically and giving me more attention.

'Now, I can't imagine what it would be like to be a curvy woman.'

At the age of 17, however, her weight dropped alarmingly to only 4st 4lb.

'Doctors told my shocked parents I was so ill, I could die of heart failure,' she said.

'So doctors forced fed me with a tube down my nose, which saved my life.'

Notwithstanding the experience and the dangers she is courting, Hensley is still on a starvation diet. Only she is maintaining her weight at a constant 5st 7lb, Alison Smith Squire reports for Daily Mail.