20,000 CHILDREN IN DANGER: The pressure of celebrity has seen troubled stars pay the ultimate price.

Byline: STEPHANIE BUSARI

ANOREXIA and bulimia can strike anyone at anytime.

Even the rich and famous have fallen prey to the deadly disease of the mind.

No one it seems is immune.

The late Princess Diana, Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries and former Hear'say member Kym Marsh have all suffered.

And while not suffering from eating disorders themselves, Hollywood actresses such as Jennifer Aniston and Calista Flockhart parade the red carpet with bird-like frames that inspire impressionable youngsters to diet.

LENA ZAVARONI: Child star Lena shot to fame as a nine-year-old with a big voice on Opportunity Knocks. She died aged 35, after a battle with anorexia in 1999. Lena, weighed just four stones after losing a long battle with anorexia. She started to diet excessively after she was described as "cuddly".

She once said: "I only became fanatical about not eating when the pressure became too much. I just wanted to have a nice shape."

GERI HALLIWELL: Pop star Geri's battle with bulimia reached its lowest point when she searched for cake in George Michael's bin.

The 30-year-old former Spice Girl was staying at her pal's Los Angeles home during Thanksgiving in 2000 and at supper restricted herself to only a few slices of turkey.

But she reveals that her will broke after she took out the rubbish to the garage.

The skinny singer has shed 28lbs since her days with the Spice Girls. At 5ft 2ins, she weighs around 7 stone - 10lbs underweight for her height.

She said: "Bulimia has nothing to do with being thin, it's about loneliness and low self-esteem."

TRACY SHAW has been frank about her anorexia. Her weight plummeted to just five stones in her early 20s.

She set up the Tracy Shaw Foundation after hearing how a teenage girl came within three days of starving herself to death.

The Corrie actress admits now that she is worried that anorexia may prevent her from having a baby with new husband Robert, 29.

CALISTA FLOCKHART: Rumours of anorexia have plagued the Ally McBeal actress.

Calista has consistently defended herself against suggestions that she was anorexic, but refused to go on two talk shows in the USA unless the hosts agreed to avoid the weight issue.

She said: "I don't believe my weight was ever a problem. It was society's obsession with my weight that was the problem. When it all started, it just kept going and going."

PRINCESS DIANA revealed in a Panorama interview that she used bulimia for many years to cope with the pressures in her life.

At 5ft 10in Princess Diana weighed 127 lbs. She revealed that on her honeymoon night she raided the galley of royal yacht Britannia for ice cream.

KAREN CARPENTER was the first celebrity to give us a glimpse into anorexia after she died from the disease.

The lead singer with the Carpenters died aged 32 from a heart attack, which was caused by an addiction to laxatives. She had suffered from anorexia for eight years before she died in 1985.

Friends say a reference to her weight in a newspaper review led her to diet obsessively.

DOLORES O'RIORDAN: The troubled singer from The Cranberries said in 1996 of the pressures of stardom: "I felt lonely and depressed, I had eating disorders, I drank too much and I was suicidal."

CAPTION(S):

PROBLEM: Geri Halliwell; BATTLE: Kym of Hear'Say; GONE: Karen Carpenter; SUFFERER: Princess Diana; PAIN: Dolores O'Riordan; VICTIM: Lena Zavaroni