Gentle guidance

The recent rise of social networking sites such as Facebook and RSVP has made the idea of meeting strangers online unremarkable. Without the internet, Adèle and Emma may never have met in late 2005. "I'd always bought Adèle’s products and was inspired by her messages," says Emma. "One day I decided to check out the website and see what else I could find. There was a competition called 'I love my Intrinsic…' and I chose to write about their scrapbooking papers."

Most of us wouldn't think twice about entering a competition, but few of us find ourselves in as fragile a state as Emma was the day she stumbled across it. "It took me a few days to work up the courage to enter [the competition]," says Emma, then adds, "it’s almost as if I knew something would happen if I did."

Over at Intrinsic, things were even busier than usual with Christmas fast approaching and the office short on staff. "I don’t usually check the website; there are other staff who do it," recalls Adèle, "but with nobody else able to take it on, I had to add it to my list of things to do. I was frazzled and thinking, 'What are we doing? Are we making a difference?'" Then she came across Emma's entry in the competition. "It said: 'I love Intrinsic because it helped me get through my illness.' I just burst into tears."

Adèle was at first unaware that Emma had battled the eating disorder, anorexia, or that her condition had been so severe. "Because Emma was from Adelaide, we thought we’d ask her to come in to the office to collect the prize," says Adèle. "When she came in, she'd just returned from the clinic and come off her feeding tube. I soon learned this was one of the darkest periods of her life. To know that our cards had made a difference to Emma was quite overwhelming."

Meeting Emma today, several years down the track, it's hard to imagine how desperate things were for her that day. "Intrinsic tried to contact me, but I was at a clinic in Sydney as an inpatient, and unable to access my email," explains Emma. "Our number in Adelaide was unlisted, but Adèle didn't give up. Eventually she tracked down my grandpa's number and called him. When Papa rang us, we'd literally just walked out of the clinic, ready to go to the airport."

Words: Francesca Newby. Photography: Sam McAdam

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