Megan Crabbe was just 10 years old when anorexia took hold, causing her body weight to plummet to a dangerous level that at its worst led doctors to believe she wasn’t going to survive.

However, after discovering the “body positive” hashtag on Instagram, Megan was able to seek real help and has transformed her life — becoming an ambassador in the movement herself.

“The day everything changed for me began with my normal routine — scrolling through Instagram for some fitness inspiration,” she told The Mirror.

“Instead I came across something I’d never seen before: a photo of a woman in a bikini, laughing and confident. She was embracing parts of herself that I’d spent my life hating — rolls, cellulite and jiggly arms.”

After nine years of battling both anorexia and binge eating, Megan said seeing other women of all shapes and sizes made her realise what she believed about herself was wrong.

“A crack opened up in the very foundations of what I’d come to believe about myself because here was a woman saying it was possible to love the body you are in the way it is. It blew me away,” she said.

That was how the 23-year-old started her own Instagram account bodyposipanda, documenting her road to recovery — and ultimately transforming into a body positive role model for others.

However, her journey to that poignant moment was extremely tough.

For years, Megan had endured a deadly eating disorder. At its worst, her parents thought they were going to lose her.

“It all started in primary school when I was aware I was chubbier than everyone else,” she told The Sun.

“By a young age I’d absorbed the idea that being fat is bad, and I took that message to heart.”

Megan refused to eat, often pretending she’d eaten when she hadn’t, and her weight plummeted.

Worried parents Amanda, 57, and Biff, 60, took Megan to see a doctor who diagnosed her with anorexia, and while she was referred for weekly appointments with a psychologist, she continued to lose weight.

She said: “My periods stopped, my hair started falling out, and I felt cold all the time. I was eating next to nothing and battling an exercise addiction to try and lose more weight.

“I was in denial, I didn’t think anything was wrong. But things got so bad that my dad took me to the child psychiatric unit at our local hospital — and I spent the next 10 months in and out of the ward.”

Put on bed rest and fed through a tube, Megan’s terrified parents were told by doctors to say their goodbyes to their daughter as they didn’t know whether her failing organs would recover.

“My dad looked at me and just burst into tears,” she told the publication. “That’s when I knew I had to change for my family.

While she gained 12kg over the next few months, Megan said her mental health didn’t recover — until she found the body positive movement.

As she regained her health, the Brit also inspired others and now has over one million followers.

“I’ve learnt to love my body and have used my account to help others do the same,” she said. “And I’m overwhelmed by the lovely comments people send me.

“When someone messages me to say ‘because of you, I ate today’, it means a million times more.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to help other people find acceptance and self-love, as well as finding it for myself.”

Now she loves her body so much, Megan even posts nude photos — in the hope of inspiring others to love their body too.