Maggie Ayre met Hattie Darkin from the ASTRA project which helps runaways and their families in Gloucester. With her she went to meet 15 year old Chantel and her mum Nancy
Hattie: We're on our way to meet a young mum and daughter. Chantel was reported to us by the police. She was leading a chaotic lifestyle staying put for days and weeks at a time.. She’d started hanging out with Yardies and at addresses used by druggies: putting herself more and more at risk.
Maggie asked Nancy what that was like:
Nancy: It was horrendous: she was very vulnerable. I kept on thinking Iwas going to get a knock at the door. You hear these stories...kids don't see danger.
The fact that she did come home in the end didn't stop Nancy worrying. Maggie asked Chantel why she did it
Chantel: I had a lot of problems at home, and a lot of trouble with my brother... I was mixing with the wrong people... My friend had a flat which her mum didn’t know she had so I stopped coming home for a couple of weeks....When it came to my mum, when she cries and stuff I do get upset, but when I came back I’d get names called me from my brother and loads of abuse and stuff so I'd just go back out again.
Nancy: They suddenly get to the age of 13 and she changed. She stopped going to school - just refused to go.
The change in Chantel's behaviour had a devastating effect on their relationship.
Nancy At the lowest point we were just shouting at each other. I was only my own with five kids and working full time: I was screaming for help.
Nancy had been to every organisation she could think of for help and felt as though she was banging her head against a brick wall. Then a friend told her about ASTRA.
Hattie: We’ve got very open referral policy. We’ll see anyone - anyone who’s run away or thinking of running away. Chantel: I ran away and went home and mum wouldn’t let me in. So I called Hattie from Astra and she came a picked me up and made me feel much better..... Its her job: she knows what she’s doing, she does it for other kids as well.
Hattie: When she actually rang me - she was very distressed. We went for a drink and a chat. She didn’t know what to do.... Mum was trying so hard and trying to be so supportive but her pull from her friends and the buzz from running around with potentially dangerous people - it was a buzz..
Maggie asked how she'd helped to resolve the situation. A bad experience involving guns had really given Chantel a fright and had finally opened her eyes.
Chantel has stopped running away. Mum still worries but Chantel feels she's changed a lot; she doesn’t mix with the same people, and is planning to go to college in September. And when friends stay out - she doesn't. Her mums hope for her: a normal healthy life, a job and happiness seem closer to becoming reality..
