Case Studies
Barnardo's - Susan's Story
Susan has always had a fairly chaotic lifestyle and found it difficult to settle in school, but her life fell apart when at age 13 her mother died.
"I didn’t get along with my dad and I hated school, so I just moved out. No one seemed to notice, I suppose I wasn’t important. I got into drinking, it helped me forget," Susan says.
Susan quickly developed a history of going missing and was introduced to a friend’s dad, who offered her a place to stay for the night and what seemed like an endless supply of alcohol. Susan was 13, the man was 43.
"He paid for all my drink. I suppose he did it to keep me quiet. Soon I didn’t care about anything. He got what he wanted and he wanted to use me. I drank more and more to block it out," she continues.
Fast developing a serious drink problem, being kept secretly in a flat by a violent, abusing man and with no-one to confide in, Susan’s life began slipping away. At the height of the abuse, Susan was drinking up to three bottles of spirits and several cans of strong lager every single day. She was 13.
The one day, Susan was taken to a ‘friend’s flat’ and was ordered to sleep with other men. She refused, but her resistance was futile and she was beaten until she ‘did what she was told.’
Dependent on alcohol, self harming and with nowhere to go, Susan felt trapped. But by a strange twist of fate, her abuser would be arrested which thankfully delivered directly into the hands of the police. Social services would later put her in touch with Barnardo’s.
"If it hadn’t been for that, I think that I’d probably be dead by now. No, I’d definitely be dead. The Barnardo’s people just talked to me, they were the first ones to ever take any real notice, the first ones to care," says Susan.
Despite the damage done to her health by the alcohol, Susan has made a good recovery and is no longer drinking. She has her own home, a supported housing flat and is looking forward to starting college. Susan now realises that she was exploited and is helping other youngsters at the project to understand how abusing adults can groom and manipulate vulnerable girls and boys.
Further information
View the advert: Barnardo's Turn Around TV advert - July 2010 (60 seconds) from Barnardo's on Vimeo.
Barnardo's homepage: www.barnardos.org.uk