Care worker Sandra Gould has turned her love of poetry into a mental health aid.
The mother of three has used her own words to help trauma victims
Sandra (54) said: ‘Years of working in the addiction field has given me insights to troubled minds.
‘So when I suffered a breakdown myself from an abusive relationship I used verse to help me recover..
‘The act of writing gave me the strength to leave the violence behind and move down here to Dawlish with my son.
‘I was so pleased with the results that I decided to share them.The effect was over a hundred pieces of my work in a self published book called Poetic Recovery.
‘It’s available on Amazon and contains what I hope are upbeat thoughts on everyday subjects that can grind people down.
It has cost Sandra – who now works as a daily support worker for an MS sufferer – almost £900 to bring her book out.
But she believes it’s money well spent.
‘Hopefully my poetry shows you are not alone – that someone understands what you are going through.’