The Dundonian author of a thought-provoking book about her battle with anorexia has revealed steps are being taken to turn her story into a film.
Tina McGuff, 45, released her story Seconds to Snap earlier this year with the book focusing on her battle with mental illness and struggle to overcome an eating disorder.
The critically acclaimed story, which will be adopted as preparatory reading by Dundee University’s School of Nursing next year, is now in the early stages of being transformed into a movie after Tina was contacted by a Hollywood producer.
Tina admits that the news has left her somewhat stunned as she had never planned for such a reaction when she began writing about her experience.
She said: “I met with a Hollywood producer in September of this year and they’re now looking to see if the book can be made into a film.
“The producer I met with said she thought my book had a very positive message and would love for it to become a movie.
“I was very surprised and very honoured when she told me.
“When I was on Lorraine Kelly’s show recently Lorraine suggested that Gwyneth Paltrow would be a good fit to play me.
“I’m sure Gwyneth will be delighted!”
Tina went on: “I hoped that when I wrote Seconds to Snap that I would be able to go back to my old school, Braeview Academy, and speak about my experience, but I never expected this.
“It’s all been quite surreal.
“I managed to return to Braeview Academy recently and spoke for an hour to fifth and sixth year pupils about mental health.
“It was amazing to be back and the pupils were just phenomenal.”
Tina believes that the reaction to her book proves that much more still needs to be done at local and national levels to combat mental illness.
She said: “I still don’t think enough is being done to treat mental health.
“I’ve had about three or four emails a day from people all over the world telling me the book has helped them.
“A man contacted me saying that reading my book had helped him more than 30 years of therapy.
“Many young people have also contacted me saying there still isn’t enough education about mental health and that we need to speak more openly about it.
“They’ve helped push me. I have more books on the horizon, but am focusing on the film at the moment.”