I was a drug addict – people say I’m too pretty to have had a habit, I take it as a compliment

A RECOVERING drug addict credits her kids with helping to defeat her demons after turning her life around.

Holly McGinley, 26, got hooked on heroin at the age of 18 and quit the habit three years ago after losing one of her three kids to the care system.

The anti-drugs advocate, from Ayr, feels incredibly lucky to have escaped her battle without any health problems – with most people saying they’d never guess she was so close to the brink.

Holly, whose kids are six, three and six months, says: “People say that you don’t look like you’ve ever touched drugs but there’s that stereotype of what an addict sounds and looks like.

“Everybody in Scotland has this idea in their head of what and addict looks like.

“Maybe I don’t look or sound like one and maybe I wasn’t in too deep and I stopped before it ruined my looks.

“But I’ve been through it nonetheless.

“It’s not a bad thing people saying I don’t look like I have touched drugs, not many people can say they’ve had an addiction and come out the other side not looking like they touched it.

“But it was my babies who saved me.

“I changed myself for my boys, I lost my eldest to the system and promised myself I wouldn’t do that again.

“Losing my eldest son still hurts, it’s a missing part of my life forever but all I can do now is my best for my boys and hopefully they’ll be proud of me when when they understand. 

“I don’t think I would have changed if it wasn’t for my kids. It’s amazing what they can do. They overpower the devil himself.”

Holly, who ended up in jail and suicidal due to her habit, now wants to support other addicts in getting clean.

She thinks having lived experience of their plight makes her the ideal person to help get them back on track.

The mum says: “I want to help other addicts getting into recovery.

“I feel it’s something I should be doing.

“It needs to come from someone that has been through addiction and has that lived.

“People don’t listen to people that haven’t been through it.”