FROM RAGS TO ES

After starting out with nothing, Laura Rosinska, 48, transformed her life

- LOUISE BATY

Crying myself to sleep, I felt so lost and alone and wondered what the future held for me. It was September 1991 and, aged 15, I'd just left school, having failed all my GCSEs and had no home to call my own, after cutting ties with my parents. 'Dad was right,' I sighed, remembering all the times my father had told me that I'd never amount to anything.

In fact, his cruel comments - slamming me as 'stupid' - had left me feeling deeply unhappy throughout my childhood.

School was hard because I had so much internal energy, I was fidgety in lessons, with a deafening chaos of thoughts whirling around my mind, stopping me concentrating. I found it hard to take turns when speaking, interrupting other people without meaning to. I really wanted to do well at school but I didn't seem to have the mental capacity to succeed and being labelled as a 'space cadet' and a 'daydreamer' by my frustrated teachers chipped away at my self-confidence and I was extremely self-critical.

With all this dysfunction, it was no surprise that my GCSEs had been a disaster and, after leaving school, just weeks before my 16th birthday, I'd told my parents that I was leaving home, too.

'I'm never coming back,' I'd said, walking away with only a small holdall of clothes. But, as the months went by, having no permanent home was tough. I drifted from one place to the next, stopping with friends until I overstayed my welcome.

ALCOHOL BECAME A PROP