This is Sylvia Hurt.
Her life has been devastated by years of sexual, physical and mental abuse.
But Sylvia doesn't see herself as a victim. She is a survivor. Determined to help prevent others suffering the kind of humiliation and feeling of worthlessness that have dogged her life since she was three years old, Sylvia has written a harrowing, heart-rending account of her life story.
Her powerful autobiography - Am I not a person? (ISBN 0 9532051 0 X) published by The Word Factory of Nottingham) reveals in disturbing detail the true, long-term effects of sexual abuse on a child.
The only mistake Sylvia ever made was being innocent, naive, and trustworthy, like any child. This made her easy prey for those who would use her for their own gratification.
Neglected by her mother, abused by her father and other relatives, Sylvia lived every day of her childhood in fear and horror and spent most of her adult life despising herself. In the book, Sylvia tells how she was raped several times (including by her boss when she got her first job), treated worse than an animal, incarcerated in a mental institution, given massive doses of drugs and ECT, and had her children taken forcibly from her and put into foster homes.
But it didn't end there. She also had to cope with great personal tragedies that would have broken the spirit of even the strongest person. And the years of abuse have left Sylvia with a compulsive eating disorder she is still fighting against.
Am I Not A Person is now out of print.
Please note: Sylvia Hurt is not a pseudonym and this book is not fiction. It is Sylvia's own account of her trip to hell and back... time and time again. She pulls no punches.