My father sexually abused me from age 3 to 17.

I was a lost and broken child.

I just wanted to escape and run away and be rescued.

I started to seek out boys who sensed my desperation and would get me to give them sexual favours, pretending we would be together, when they had no interest.

I was violently sexually assaulted by a boy and his friends, when I refused to have sex with with him.

I lost my mind, I was being abused by my dad, older males, at school, and no one cared.

My gp referred me to a children’s mental health centre, who basically saw everything I was experiencing as either my fault, my choice or exaggerative.

I couldn’t cope with my life and tried to unalive myself four times in one month. I was then put under the Mental Health Act.

I struggled for years mistreated in mental health services until at 25 I prosecuted my father for what he did. He was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment.

I am learning to heal one day at a time.