Newsreader Mark Austin has slammed the NHS mental health system as he revealed his daughter almost died from severe anorexia and depression.
Mr Austin, who presents the ITV Evening News, called on the Government to spend more money on mental health care saying there were not enough services to meet a mental health “epidemic”.
The ITV journalist said his teenage daughter became “dangerously ill” with the disease and sunk into the “very bleak, dark world of depression.”
He said: “She was there but she was gone and it all happened very quickly and we thought we were losing her.
“So we tried to get help but there wasn’t really the help there.”
Mr Austin said at one stage his daughter weighed less than six stone and was “close to organ failure.”
Speaking to the BBC programme World at One he said his daughter needed “quick, significant intervention” but instead was offered fortnightly counselling.
He added: “There were no beds available. There was no specialist unit available she needed to be in somewhere where they were looking after with people of her own age.”
Mr Austin said his family were lucky enough to be able to afford private health care but said the system was failing those less fortunate.
He said his daughter was now "doing fine."
Adding: “We were very lucky. I've got money, I can have private insurance.
"I've got a wife who is an A&E doctor but what about the people who don't have that? What about the people who don't have the resources to go private?"
