Born and brought up in a poorer part of London her early years are as chequered as life itself. A father becoming increasingly addicted to alcohol and an abused mother. Life has dealt her a draw deal. Even at school she finds herself the odd one out, and not inspired to learn. Truant becomes an everyday part of life. Despite this there are two things that keep her going, even after her father in forced to leave and her mother dies on her 18th birthday. The first is a desire to travel. In a way it is her desire to escape the life she exists. The other thing, that will continue to develop over her lifetime is a strong moral code. Through this she has one friend, Nattie. Together they do everything, even to point of creating a girl gang intent on protecting other girls from those who would pedal drugs. Even at this stage her life is going no where and things quickly decline when they both meet Mich, a girl from a totally different background and studying at University. When Kayleigh senses that Mich is taking Nattie away from her she going into a rapid decline until that fateful day, the 17th August when is a fit of anger she confronts Nattie with knife. At that point Mich appears and dies on the end of Kayleigh's knife. Prison, having been convicted of manslaughter is Kayleigh's next home and even that leads her on a downhill path until with the support of a psychiatrist and prison teachers she starts, just, to turn her life around. There are also the first thoughts that she might ultimately reach her dream. To find out more you will need to read Part 2 - My Emergence.