Doctor's 15-year anorexia recovery sparks JourneyED peer support charity

In the quiet aftermath of a fifteen-year illness that nearly claimed her life, New Zealand physician Dr Meg Vardy has transformed her survival into a structure of care — launching JourneyED, the country's first registered charity offering free peer support to the roughly 92,000 New Zealanders living with eating disorders. Her work addresses a quiet but profound gap in the mental health system: the absence of someone who has walked the same path and can say, with authority, that a way out exists. In a cultural moment when weight-loss medications and relentless diet culture are reshaping humanit