Maddison looked like any other 10-year-old in the school playground, giggling, playing with her friends.
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She was on the debating team, loved her sport and was conscientious with her school work.
Yet in just 12 terrifying months, her world spiralled out of control.
Maddison morphed into a sad, stressed child who cried constantly and told her mum she didn't want to live.
Anorexia nervosa had weaseled its way into the little girl's psyche before her parents knew what had struck them.
"She said she was going to stop taking sugar in her tea and not eat lollies any more.''
Speaking exclusively to the Mercury, Maddison's mum Nicole said she never thought anything like this could happen to her.
Didn't this happen to older girls? Weren't anorexic girls skin and bones?
Her daughter certainly wasn't the skinniest girl at school and that's something that makes this illness all the more difficult for others to comprehend.
"It all started last year in year 5, I just noticed that things had got really busy," Nicole said.
"She was in debating, and at school early for sports training, there was lots of practice at lunch times, lots going on. She was getting quite stressed, worrying she didn't have time to do her homework.
"By July she just kept bursting into tears, crying in the shower.
"She would say 'I just feel sad'. We'd talk and I'd tell her it's all part of puberty your hormones must be all over the place, just keep talking to me."
Then came "one indicator" that put Nicole on alert.
"She said she was going to stop taking sugar in her tea and not eat lollies any more.
"She was still eating sugar in other things ... but then at Halloween, she collected a massive bucket and didn't eat a single lolly which is just odd."
By fourth term Maddison's sporting commitments had wound up so Nicole thought "taking the extras away" would ease the load. But things got worse.
"My daughter had had already been sucked in," Nicole said.
Maddison had stopped eating her school lunches. The sadness had set in.
"She had cut down on sweets too but she was still eating fine at home."
Nicole was concerned but not alarmed, until by chance she went walking with a friend who knew someone with anorexia.
"The details struck home, I thought 'Oh god I think my daughter is heading the same way'."
"I hadn't likened the sad with the eating disorder. I didn't know you could be suicidal because of the eating disorder. I thought the dangers were the starvation, the body's response to not enough food."
That "weird day when everything fell into place", Nicole contacted the Butterfly Foundation.
"My daughter was 10, she wasn't even 11 yet, I thought people are going to think I'm nuts."
But they didn't. Nicole was advised that early intervention was the best medicine. She was referred to a GP educated about eating disorders.
"I didn't have a clue what she weighed. Interestingly she knew. She knew how much in the morning, at night ... We took the scales away immediately."
Nicole quickly educated herself and realised her daughter had all the classic symptoms.
After seeing the GP and keeping a food diary, Maddison was open to talking to someone who wouldn't judge her.
She was referred to a clinical psychologist who specialised in early intervention.
Nicole regrets putting that appointment on hold until after an overseas Christmas holiday.
"Things seemed to get better while we were away. When we got back she went back to school. That's when things went downhill rapidly."
Lunches weren't touched and Maddison complained of headaches.
"The obsessiveness, bad temper, moodiness, she complained of being cold all of the time. She went downhill really rapidly," Nicole said.
"By the time she saw the psychologist I was told 'your daughter has restrictive anorexia nervosa'.
"I thought that's it. She's already got it."
And so at the ripe old age of 11 the difficult road to recovery began.
The immediate aim was to nourish her body so she could think rationally again.
Family-based therapy meant eating three supervised meals and snacks a day. Nothing left on the plate, no exceptions.
"That was really hard. Once you have anorexia you are frightened to eat.
"Someone described it as being forced to face a fear like bungie jumping six times in a day.
"When we first started there were tantrums. The first three weeks were horrendous, we were at war with the eating disorder," Nicole said.
"We had to keep reminding our daughter that her food was her medicine. We were lucky she never lost any more weight and after three weeks she was compliant."
When a person starts treatment the whole family is affected.
"People leave jobs to concentrate on re-feeding and caring for the person with the illness. Life revolves around shopping, cooking, feeding and families need support," Nicole said.
"You have to really separate the child from the eating disorder and that helps you get through it."
Research suggests people have a genetic predisposition to developing eating disorders.
"It's not a choice, it's a brain disorder and it's treatable," Nicole said.
"It's not just rich little kids, spoilt, trying to be perfect, or teenagers trying to be skinny. It's a real illness everybody needs to learn about and understand."
