When Adele Edwards is hungry, she doesn’t bother with the kitchen. She just heads straight for the furniture. Her bizarre diet is killing her but she says she just can’t stop.

Incredibly, the mother-of five from Florida can’t stop eating household items, such as rubbers and elastic bands. But her favourite snack is the ­polyester filling from sofa cushions. To her, man-made foam is more delicious than biscuits or cakes.

Adele, 30, is suffering from recognised medical condition, Pica. Having munched her way through eight sofas and five chairs, she ­estimates that she’s digested nearly 16st of synthetic foam in her ­lifetime.

She simply can’t stop and now she’s terrified of eating ­herself into an early grave. In recent months, she’s had­ ­emergency treatment for intestinal obstruction after eating chunks of polyester foam which she refers to simply as “cushion”. Doctors have warned that she will leave her children motherless if she doesn’t give up, but she says she’s powerless to stop.

Long-suffering Kelly Coxhead, 32, got engaged to fiance Paul Mappelthorpe ten years ago but is still waiting for him to commit to a wedding date.

He eventually agreed to her dream date of 11/11/11 – but only if one million people joined a Facebook group to convince him.

So Kelly set up a page called ‘I NEED 1 MILLION PEOPLE TO JOIN FOR PAUL TO MARRY ME C’MON GUYS HELP ME lol’, which has gained just 2,863 fans so far.

The desperate dinner lady is now appealing for members of the public to join the group so she can finally walk down the aisle.

Paul, 38, who lives with Kelly in Swindon, Wilts, believes the challenge should be easy for his bride-to-be.

He said: ”It just came out of nowhere. I thought ‘a million’ that sounds good.

”When you think there’s 67 billion people in the world it’s less than 0.1 per cent. I just like a challenge and I like the idea of setting a challenge for her.

”It’ll give her something to look at on Facebook.

”She wants 11/11/11 that’s the deadline she has in mind, but it will depend on how many people she’s got in her group.

”Even her dad hasn’t joined yet. He must be on my side.”

The description to Kelly’s group – launched a week ago – reads: ”we been together 10 years and i think its about time he got off his stubborn arse and married me…..lol he just informed me that i need to get 1 million people to join…..lol so come on join prove to him that i can do it….hahaha.”

The mum-of-four said: ”I talked about setting up a group on Facebook to get people to join to support me and said to Paul how many people do I need to get?

”He said a million. We’ve been engaged for 10 years and I think it’s time he walked me down the aisle.

”We did have a date set for last year but Paul lost his dad and it had to be cancelled.

”I’d love Paul to come home and say he’s booked a date but I doubt it very much.”

She added that she has pleaded with Paul to reduce the figure but to no avail.

If she gets her wish, her four children Nicole, 15, Jack, 13, Ellie-Mai, eight, and Madison-Leigh, five, will be bridesmaids and a pageboy at the wedding.