Book

At the age of three, Donna Taylor’s idyllic childhood was shattered when her father walked out on the family, plunging Donna and her four siblings into homelessness and poverty. Forced to sleep in a car, then housed in a derelict council house in Reading, life became even tougher for young Donna when her mother took up with an alcoholic who sold their belongings to fund his addiction. 

Determined to escape the violence and misery of her childhood, as a young woman Donna worked hard to make something of her life. But just as she thought her luck was changing, another cruel twist of fate triggered a psychotic breakdown, and Donna found herself plunged into the strange and frightening world of the psychiatric hospital. Having received the devastating news that she had bipolar disorder and could be in and out of hospital for the rest of her life, Donna decided to kill herself. But after she was rescued at the last minute, she became determined to overcome her mental health problems and use her difficult life experiences as a tool for helping others.

This is her moving and inspirational true story of surviving poverty, hardship and mental illness, and finding happiness after a life of suffering.