Mary Baker was a bright and witty student whose competitive spirit matched her love for horse-riding and playing water polo.

But beneath the surface the high-achieving teenager, from Albury on the NSW southern border, was masking an internal struggle.

Mary became ill with an eating disorder when she was 12 during the first year of high school.

"It started with a tooth abscess, and then a virus, and then all of a sudden, she couldn't eat without us being with her for the rest of her life," her father Stuart said.

Mary lived for another three years with the eating disorder before she died by suicide in March 2011, to her parent's shock.

"It might sound that she was very sick in bed, but after being hospitalised ... she came home and expressed a wish to get her life back to normal, which

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