Lucy, 34

Standing in the freezing cold, I wondered how I’d ended up here.

It was December 2019, and I was in Southend’s red-light district.

I needed cash, and this felt like my only option...

Life was good, once. I’d loved my job as a pub manager, had a partner and two gorgeous boys.

They were my whole world, but when their dad and I split up, I ended up in a bad relationship.

He introduced me to the world of drugs, destroyed my self-esteem.

In 2016, my boys, then 2 and 3, moved in with my dad while I sorted myself