This picture will surely send shivers down your spine, but it’s a reality.

Pictures of an anorexic woman have stopped traffic in Italy. The model shown is Isabelle Caro, a French woman who has suffered from anorexia for 15 years and weighs just over four and a half stones. Photographed by “Oliviero Toscani”

Some anorexia groups have deemed the shock tactics as being too crude but the poster has been backed by the Ministry of Health, who said the campaign shows the reality of an illness that can be caused by stereotypes imposed by the world of fashion.

She has been displayed on Milan billboards as the city celebrates its fashion week.

Caro, who is French and has her own blog site, said that she had suffered from anorexia since she was 13 as the result of a “difficult childhood”.

She added:

I’ve hidden myself and covered myself for too long. Now I want to show myself fearlessly, even though I know my body arouses repugnance. I want to recover because I love life and the riches of the universe. I want to show young people how dangerous this illness is.”

Many people blame the fashion industry and the obsession with stick-thin size zero models for the rise in cases of anorexia.