Heather Bellamy spoke with Linda Huskisson about a life of domestic violence, prostitution and drug abuse and how she turned her life around.

When I was a prostitute I absolutely hated what I was doing and I got to the point when I hated myself as well and because of this, I ended up taking drugs. I injected heroin and was almost on over a hundred pound a day habit with heroin and everything. It was a real struggle during that time.

I remember just before going into hospital, meeting two women on the street corner when I was outside working. I thought they were absolutely crazy. They came and told me that Jesus loved me and I looked at them and thought they were gone out - do you not realise who you're talking to? You're talking to a prostitute here; what's Jesus got to do with a prostitute? I just needed them to go away, because if Sheridan had come down the road in his car and saw me not working, but talking to two women, then he would absolutely go crazy and I would end up getting another beating. It was a horrible situation.

When I got sent to Dorset hospital, I was in the day room and at that time you could smoke in the hospitals. I was having a cigarette and I saw these two women coming up and I thought, "I know those". They looked at me and went, "Linda?", and I said, "Yeah" and they said, "It's Toni and Karen". It was like wow, how did you find me? That was a miracle in itself because Sheridan's mum told them where I was and she was in the prostitution racket as well and would not normally tell anybody anything, but she gave these people information about where I was in hospital.

They said to me, "You didn't have any time to talk with us before, but now you've got all the time in the world". I went to my bed with them and they told me about Jesus and they kept telling me how lovely Jesus was and all about His love and do you know, it wasn't what they said, it's how they said it. They were so passionate about Jesus. They knew Him inside out. It was so amazing and I wanted that; I wanted to feel that love. I felt that there was something missing and I felt that that was the key.

They led me to the Lord even after all the things I'd said like, "I'm a prostitute. I know what I am. When I get out of here I know I'm gonna be back on the streets; he's gonna put me back on the streets. There's no way I could possibly give my life to the Lord". But they said this prayer over me and I repeated the prayer and I remember Karen saying, "Praise God. You're standing straight Linda, you're walking straight". And I thought, "Wow"! Because I was bent over with all these stitches and the pain, but I didn't feel the pain.

When they left, I went back to my bed trying to contemplate what had just happened. While I was looking, I saw this flower. They brought this chrysanthemum in for me and there was a bright, beautiful looking yellow flower there and I had to pick it out. I took it down to the chapel; it's the first time I'd gone to church in years. I remember putting it down on the altar - excuse me, I get bubbly with this - and I cried, and I cried, and I cried, and I cried. I said, "God, if you are real and if your love is real, I need you to be in my life. You need to change my life because I don't know how to change it". For the very first time I picked up a Bible and I opened it at random and this is what was said, "I have plans for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future". Well that was God talking to me and I knew in my heart that things were gonna get better.

So that's how I became a Christian, but I didn't know what it was like to be a Christian. When I came out of hospital I was literally back on the streets and I didn't want to be there; I hated it. I tried to tell Sheridan that I was a Christian, but he laughed in my face and said, "Absolutely no way, you're back out on the street", so I did go back out on the street. There were times when Karen and Toni would come and knit in my house and I do believe they did that on purpose, because they knew while they were there that I wouldn't be working, because I had that respect for them.

About three or four weeks after being out of hospital I was on the streets again and Sheridan was going off to Wales and he was gonna be gone for a week. I thought this was my chance to go away and leave for good. So I asked Toni and Karen to pray with me and to pray for me and said that I was going and I asked God, "Where can I go that he cannot find me?" And I went home to my brothers.

My mum and dad died at early ages so my brothers were still there, but I never did that before. You might ask why I didn't do that before. I didn't do that before because I was a drug addict and I didn't want my family to know how embarrassing I was and how ashamed I was in the way that I lived. I didn't want them to have to deal with a drug addict. I'd know I'd cluck in front of them - clucking is cold turkey, when you're coming off the drugs.

At that point I knew that I had to go though and so I went to be with my family in Spalding, near Peterborough. I started to go to a church which was The New Testament Church of God just off Lincoln Road in Peterborough. I wanted to move to Peterborough because I wanted to be closer to the church so nobody had to come out and give me lifts, so I ended up coming to Peterborough. I didn't know how I was gonna fund getting a property with a new landlord, so I prayed about it and said, "Lord, if you want me to go to Peterborough, I'll go to Peterborough, but I need the money, I don't know how I'm gonna do this, I need the deposit". The deposit needed to be within a week and I was really struggling. I felt one night that the Lord said to me as I was praying about getting the finances, "Linda take a look around you, you've got the money there". I didn't know what He was talking about, but I looked down at my fingers and I was dripping with gold. I had gold chains, gold rings and things like that and I felt that that was what God was saying. That was the money that could be used for my deposit. So I sold all my jewellery and I had enough money to get the first month's deposit and the rent money upfront and also some money to be able to buy food and keep me going for a few days until I got myself sorted out. So it worked out really well.

Heather: And now fast-forwarding a little bit, after all that happened to you with Terry and Sheridan, later in your life with both men, God took you into situations where you saw them and it was remarkable how you handled that and what you said to them. Could you tell us about those two encounters?

Linda: Wow yeah, they were encounters! I was looking for my children when I had cancer and eventually I did find them and we've got a fantastic relationship now. I've got 13 wonderful grandchildren. So not only have I found my family, they have been extended. My children found their dad and at first I said, "Look, please don't tell him where I live, I'm living a peaceful life, I don't want him to know anything; I just don't want anything to do with it, but I'm more than happy for you to go there".

I was a bit worried in case he was still the same and that he might let them down. My daughter came back one day and she said, "Mum, dad's got cancer" and the first thing I said was, "Oh well, whatever goes around comes around". And she went, "Mum!" and I thought, "Oh, God what have I said?" So I had to apologise to her and it was very difficult because this is the man that beat me up; this is the same man that I lost two children from and a lot was taken from me. I guess in some ways if that hadn't happened, maybe I wouldn't have been on the streets.

Terry, my ex-husband, was in a hospice and my son asked me to go up there. I thought, "Do you really want me to?" thinking, "Oh God, do I have to?" And I felt the Lord say to me, your son needs you Linda; so I did, I went all the way to Oxford. When I got there, my son met up with me and Terry was in his own room. I walked in there and I saw this pathetic looking man on the bed looking very ill and I thought, "Is this what I was afraid of?"