Sarah’s Story

Sarah was 15 years old when she ran away. Sarah and her mum had an abusive relationship; this time her mum took it too far. Sarah thought she was going to die. The rest of her family wouldn’t get involved so she felt like she had no choice but to run away from her mum and home situation.

At first Sarah went to her girlfriend’s house. She took Sarah’s phone to give her some space from her sister, mum and dad, who were all trying to contact her.

Eventually when Sarah turned her phone back on she had a long message from her mum saying she was a disappointment and other horrible things, like she was nothing. All Sarah wanted was for someone to intervene and stop her mum attacking her, but no one was there to help.

Sarah then decided to run away. She was missing for a week and a half. She slept on the streets for 2 or 3 days of that. Sarah only ended up going home when the police found her.

When Sarah went back things with her mum were still bad, however she began to stop paying as much attention to her, and learnt that if she ignored her mum for long enough she became less abusive. She also found more support from her sister as she had an altercation with their mum too. Over time Sarah learnt more about her mum’s mental health condition and her patterns of behaviour so she found things easier to deal with.