I have quite often thought that advertising via pamphlet drops through the letter box were a complete waste of time, money and trees until I picked up the bundle of post this morning. I hastily separated the wheat from the chaff and was about to throw the latter in the bin when an image caught my eye and my breath was held back as a failed to exhale.

The pamphlet was in the form of a newspaper but A4 size and on the front page was a familiar face. It was a photograph of my daughter Lucie from about a year ago and she was looking radiant, wearing her hair down, with a red colour running through it but the tips were left blonde. It was not the fact she was in this pamphlet that stopped me in my tracks but what I saw on closer inspection. Lucie was holding a syringe against her inner elbow joint, her eyes were rolled back slightly, she was drooling a little from the left side of her mouth and she looked at peace.

How I had initially thought she looked radiant is absolutely beyond me because the image was horrific. My little girl was shooting drugs into her vein. My little girl was on the front page of this brochure as a feature and I was utterly shocked to the core.

With shaking hands I dropped all the post with the exception of the pamphlet and with trepidation, I started reading the article Lucie was featured in. How could this be? What the hell is she doing? Where is she right now?

Questions flew through my mind but the answers were right there in front of me. Unbeknownst to me, Lucie was an addict and she was now being featured in the promotional material for a new drug and alcohol withdrawal service! New questions. How did I not know? Why would she not come to me? What the hell?!

I am broken. My heart is broken. My beautiful little girl is broken.