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

While I was there, it was almost as if all this rubbish and junk and everything had literally come up and all I wanted to do was end his miserable life and put the pillow over his head. That sounds really harsh, but that's how I felt. All this anger and everything came up inside me and I can remember getting out of the room and I walked into the chapel and thought, "God I can't do this. I said that I'd forgiven him, why am I going through this right now? I can't go back in that room, not without you. I need you right there with me." And d'you know when I went back in that room, you're gonna laugh Heather, I ended up sitting there, stroking his head and praying over him! I was praying over him and I went to kiss his forehead and it was just as if Jesus had taken a hold of the whole of my body and was doing it for me. I kissed his forehead and as I did that, he opened his eyes and he grabbed hold of my cross. I had a cross that a dear friend bought me and I was wearing it that particular day. He was pulling it down and he kissed the cross. He looked at me and winked and I said to him, "D'you know, I actually forgive you, I forgive you and I wanna release you into that forgiveness. I don't blame you, we were children, we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't know what we were letting ourselves in for." And that was it. I felt it was almost as if something on the inside of me had been broken. Y'know when you get these chains that hold you for such a long time in fear; that spirit of fear was broken off me and I knew it that very day.

I felt a peace about it and I came away and I felt quite sad, but relieved at the same time. Sad that he was dying, but relieved that I was able to meet with him before he passed away and the next day he actually passed away. So I'm hoping that he has gone to be with the Lord.

The other one with Sheridan was when my friend Toni came to stay with me. This is my spiritual mum from Southampton who brought me to the Lord in the first place. She came to stay with me and when she went back to Southampton, she rang me to tell me that there was some sad news that Sheridan's mum had passed away. I actually wanted to go to that funeral 'cause she was a lovely woman. She got me out of a lot of beatings because she would stand there and Sheridan was petrified of his mum so he would never hit me in front of his mum. So she saved me from quite a lot of beatings. So I was able to go up to Southampton.

At first I was absolutely petrified, thinking, "Oh my God, what am I gonna be walking into?" As we got to the door, I went to walk away, I just wanted to run away, but Toni grabbed hold of me, being stern in the way she can be sometimes and the door opened and it was Sheridan's sister. They actually thought I was dead. I suppose there might have been rumours I had cancer, I don't know how they get that way, but that was possibly what they heard. When I got into the room they all asked me, "What are you doing with your life?" and I started telling them that I've got Jesus in my life now and I don't take drugs and the things that were are no more. I told them I've completely got a new life; I'm married and have a fantastic husband, Ricky. So I was able to share my testimony with them.

During the time of that testimony the door opened and it was Sheridan. He stood at the door and everyone went silent because they knew that me and him had history. I'm thinking, "Please Lord, please Lord, please Lord, let it be ok, let it be ok, let it be ok" and he came over to me and he went, "It's really nice to see you and I'm so glad you could be here for mum" and that's all he said.

The next day we went to the funeral and a lot of black people, they have a tendency to open the coffin and you can go down and pay your last respects in the church while the coffin is open. So the coffin was open and I could see Sheridan and his brother stood up at the front and Sheridan was crying. I'd never seen that side of him before. I could see that his heart was broken because of his mum and I actually went down there and as I got down to the thing and I said my farewells to her, I went up to Sheridan and said, "Jesus loves you and I forgive you. Whatever has happened in the past has happened in the past and I want it to stay in the past. I just want to be released". He gave me a big hug and said, "I am so glad that you made it and you did something in your life".

From that day to this, it's a fear that came off me and other things as well that just literally came off me; the chains of prostitution even. Those different things are like little hooks that are in your heart and can tear you if you're not careful. I believe that God was doing a surgery on my heart and that these hooks and chains were coming away from me so I could praise God in the freedom that I have in God rather than in that fear. So all that fear's been broken and I'm as bold as they come now!