A mum-of-two from north Wales who was sexually abused aged five, raped at 13 and spent her teenage years as the ‘white whore’ of gang members has turned her life round thanks to a women’s support group.

Helen – not her real name – is now a self-possessed young woman whose children take part in primary school concerts after being helped by a special Early Intervention programme funded by Arfon Jones, North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner.

It’s a world away from the life she knew when she was brutalised, beaten, abused and traded for drugs and sex after a troubled childhood.

She was suffering from PTSD and bulimia and had been a regular drug-taker when the trauma of seeing her children facing the life she had led drove her to escape to north Wales.

There she was directed to the North Wales Women’s Centre where she joined courses in building confidence and managing emotions, which were paid for by the commissioner’s funding.

Helen said: “When I started the confidence course I wouldn’t even look at people serving me in a shop, but now we’re in a house, my kids go to school, I’ve done an Open University course and I’d like to work with people who are in the same position as I was.

“The women’s centre has turned my life round and my kids’ lives round and through them I’ve been able to access other services.

“Without them my kids would be in gangs in a few years’ time and my daughter would be like me.

“I knew I had to get help because of them – I wouldn’t have done it for myself.”

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