A BRAVE young Port Glasgow woman who survived a series of drug overdoses, prison stays and the tragic death of a baby says the support of a charity saved her life.

Ashleigh Ferguson began a harrowing cycle of drug and alcohol addiction when she was just 13.

The former St Stephen's High School pupil says the turning point in her life arrived when she stepped onto the Teen Challenge bus when she was released from prison in 2020.

Two years on, she's almost finished a course at the charity's leadership academy and is aiming to begin a degree in Christian theology.

Teen Challenge helps young people who have developed problems like drug and alcohol addiction.

Ashleigh said she had a good childhood but things got out of control when she became a teenager.

She started smoking cannabis and taking valium and became trapped in a cycle that would go on for more than a decade.

Ashleigh, 26, said: "My dad was never in the house but when I was 13, he got a new wife and stopped talking to me.

"I started rebelling and thought of myself as a mistake.

"I couldn't register my feelings and I didn't care what happened to me."

When Ashleigh turned 18, she was working in the Pantry in Port Glasgow and in Iceland and was doing well.

But after the tragic death of one of her best friends, she struggled to cope and the cycle of drug-taking and drinking started up again.

Ashleigh said: "I thought it had ruined my life.

"People were saying things about me and I started to believe I was all of the names they were calling me."

When she was 20, Ashleigh was living in a flat with her partner when she fell pregnant.

And her life started to spiral out of control when the baby was tragically stillborn at just five months.

Ashleigh says that's when her life 'went completely off the rails' and she went to prison for the first time when she was 21.

She said: "It was just one bad thing after another.

"I started taking heroin and smoking crack and I was arrested for 12 police assaults on one occasion.

"I came out with an electronic tag and was on a community payback order but it was just a blur after that.

"I was in and out of jail and went downhill so rapidly."

Ashleigh says she overdosed 'countless times' and had to be defibrillated to bring her back to life on several occasions.

She said: "I had no one and nothing.

"Whenever I had money, I would spend what I had on drugs and wouldn't have food for the rest of the month.

"I had a wee flat in Greenock but it became a horrible place full of drugs paraphernalia and was just left abandoned.

"I didn't think I deserved anything nice."

The turning point for Ashleigh came in October 2019 when she got out of jail and found out about the Teen Challenge programme.

She met Gordon McKay and the team and managed to get a place at the charity's Hope House.

One month into rehab, she took drugs and was told to leave.

Ashleigh ended up in jail again but when she was released, she stepped straight onto the Teen Challenge bus and met Willie Carter.

Willie told her all about the Teen Challenge leadership academy and Ashleigh pledged to get involved.

Ashleigh has been living in Nottingham but will soon be back in Scotland to complete a course with Glasgow City Mission.

From there, she wants to go on and study for her degree.

Ashleigh insists she would not have survived without help from the team at Teen Challenge - particularly Gordon and Willie.

She said: "I would be dead without them.

"I was living for drugs and I didn't have a reason to change

"I had no desire to better myself.

"Not that I know God, I know he has a plan and a purpose for my life."