MY CHILDHOOD was good. I had loving parents. We were poor - but that didn’t matter.

Then, when I was eleven, it started: my schoolfriend’s dad had a friend who began to abuse me. I never told anyone. I didn’t know how to. It was our sick secret. I was a child being used as a woman. He always used condoms and gave me lots of presents: clothes, records, booze, drugs. Soon I realised I could make him pay and demanded money and presents for my friends, too. He had taught me how to use my body as a commodity, a bargaining tool.

So here I was at twelve, no self-respect and seeing my body as a way of getting what I wanted. I became badly behaved, stealing, not going to school, just doing my own thing. I had no morals and had sex with anyone, anywhere, anytime. I hated myself.

When I was fifteen I got involved with a photographer. He used to take porno pictures and pay me for my time. I was a ‘model’. Not as glam as it sounds - that’s what I found out.

When I was sixteen I worked for the studio at £15 an hour. My proper job was hairdressing and I got £14 a week so modelling paid well in comparison. But it made me feel sick.

Outside, I looked happy, confident, attractive and was a fun-loving girl. But inside, I was unhappy, unloved, alone.

After about a year I stopped modelling. I gave up everything, married and had children. But my husband was violent so it didn’t last. I drank a lot, ‘lived’ a lot, partied a lot and by the age of 32, I’d run up debts of thousands of pounds.

When I was offered a guaranteed £70 an hour to model porn again, I was in a terrible situation. But I turned the offer down - even though I was about to be evicted.

What made the difference this time? Just before the offer came I’d found Jesus. I’d always been open to dark spiritual things. But I was also open to God - and He got me! I’d reluctantly gone to a Christian meeting to please my sister and I got knocked over by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus gave me back my selfworth. I wasn’t rubbish - I was the Father’s child! My past was gone, forgiven, my future safe within His hands. Now I am a woman renewed and beautiful, modest and moral and I thank God that I can be me.

I’ve married again - a Christian who knows all about my past and really loves and respects me. I want to say to people - this is what happens. So please don’t judge.