How one woman went from homeless to blushing bride

Apr 19 2009 by Catherine Lillington, Sunday Mercury

GABY Chick arrived in Birmingham from the streets of London’s Kings Cross at the age of 20.

Her hair was long and unkempt, her complexion pale and sickly, and she was drastically underweight.

Her shocking appearance was not just due to living rough.

It was also caused by her addiction to drugs.

This addiction had landed her in Holloway prison three years earlier after she was caught smuggling cocaine into Britain from the Caribbean island of Dominica.

Now, nearly ten years later, the pretty 29 year-old has turned her life around to become a beaming bride and proud mum-of-two.

Gaby said she was introduced to drugs when she got into a relationship with a man who was six years older than her when she was aged 13.

She said: “Among my darkest moments was being locked up in Holloway prison as a girl. The lure of making a couple of grand smuggling drugs ended up with me getting caught bringing in cocaine from Dominica. Changing my life for good involved getting away from my boyfriend, which was as difficult as getting off heroin.

“I wanted to die – I’d lost all hope. At first drugs feel like they can take away all the pain. I felt confident with it.