Fatima Whitbread had the worst possible start in life. Abandoned as a baby, she spent much of her childhood in and out of children's homes. A brief, disastrous stay with her birth mother saw her raped by her mother's drunken boyfriend - while her mother held a knife to her throat to 'quieten her down'. Fatima was only twelve at the time.Athletics was her saviour: local athletics coach Margaret Whitbread took the young Fatima under her wing, eventually adopting her. Fatima competed ...

Introduce young ones to the strength of love and kindness in this touching story about finding hope in the toughest places, authored by Olympic-medal-winner Fatima Whitbread.North Star, North Star,Are you near or are you far?Shining with a twinkling glow,Please show us which way to go.Join Little Fatima on a journey to find her forever home, even though it is not as easy as she had hoped. But through this journ...

In***Drip by Drip, Day by Day: Finding Purpose Through the Pain,*** Steven Russell takes readers on a deeply moving journey of resilience, hope, and transformation. From a childhood marked by instability and the search for belonging, Steven crafts a narrative of strength and redemption, offering profound insights into the power of human connection and the indomitable spirit to overcome adversity.This book will deeply resonate with care leavers, foster parents, social workers, and a...

Navigating foster care can be overwhelming for everyone. There are thousands of books offering professional opinions on how to be a good foster carer and provide therapeutic support for children in care, but what about asking the young people who've been there?This essential guide brings the voices of care-experienced authors to the forefront, sharing their first-hand knowledge and advice for making a real difference. From big-picture concepts like understanding healthy relationshi...

Two years ago Bernie Nolan was given the initial all-clear after a courageous battle with breast cancer. Over the moon, Bernie set about rebuilding her life and making plans for the future.Then in the summer of 2012, she was in her bedroom getting dressed when she found a lump just above her breast. Terrified, she immediately made a hospital appointment, where she was given the devastating news that the cancer had returned. It had spread to her brain, lungs, liver and bones and was...

Detective Sergeant Harry Keeble's bestselling books, Baby X and Little Victim described his early years in Hackney's Child Protection Unit, as he battled to get to grips with cases of unimaginably horrific child abuse. In Broken Angels, a more experienced Harry relates a series of extraordinary cases he encountered with Ella, a young and newly qualified social worker.Together, Harry and Ella faced the violence of forced marriage, the horror of maternal incest and the cruelty of chi...

In the summer of 1992, Jeremy Howe and his wife, Lizzie, were tending to last-minute holiday preparations. Lizzie was leaving to teach at a summer school before she could join Jeremy and their two daughters, Jessica, six and Lucy, four, at the seaside. That night, arriving at his mother’s in Suffolk, Jeremy managed to get the excited girls to go to sleep, irritated that their mother hadn't called to say goodnight as she had promised. Just after midnight the household was woken by a policem...

In the middle of one of the worst civil wars in Syria's history, Louise Monaghan crossed a heavily guarded border to save her six-year-old daughter from the father who had callously snatched her from her home in Cyprus. Not knowing what lay ahead, the Irish mother tricked her ex-husband into believing she still loved him and wanted them to live together as a family, purely so that she could see her kidnapped child again.Once in his homeland, Louise too was held captive, locked insi...

In this heart-rending book, Jacqui Kirby tells of the devastating impact Colette's murder had on her life. It robbed her not only of her beautiful daughter but also of her marriage and, at times, her own sanity. This is the remarkable story of a mother's loss, but also of her hope - hope that she would one day get justice for Colette.On 30th October 1983, 16-year-old Colette Aram left the family home to walk to her boyfriend's house. She never arrived. Her mother, Jacqui Kirby, knew instin...

A true story of abuse. Three sisters. A shattered Irish childhood.Joyce, June and Paula Kavanagh were three sisters born to a family of ten in Ballyfermot, Dublin in the 1960s. Their father abused all three of them in the family home throughout their childhood. In 1989, the sisters made the brave decision to bring charges against their father and, in 1990, the state took a successful case against him. He was convicted and imprisoned.Click, Click is...

What kind of a woman would sell her own child?A monster.Tess was just eleven years old when her mother sold her to a rich elderly man.Grace ran a brothel in Croydon and she plunged her young daughter into a terrifying world of sex and depravity. Grace was ruthless in her pursuit of money and had a toxic mix of cunning and high ambition. Dangerous criminals visited the brothel every day, and Tess was exposed to things no little girl should see. A timid child who longed ...

On July 4, 1990, eighteen-year-old Stacey Lannert shot and killed her father, who had been sexually and emotionally abusing her since she was eight.She suffered terrifying abuse at the hands of her unstable, alcoholic father for ten years until the night she realised he was turning his attention towards her younger sister, who was on the verge of becoming his next victim.Stacey's trial went horribly wrong and she was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life...