A YOUNG woman with learning disabilities who plunged to the depths of despair has transformed her life and is hoping to help others.
Samantha Avery, 24, from Salmon Row, Truro, is campaigning for greater awareness and acceptance of people with learning disabilities.
She was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) 13 years ago.
"I could never sit still for very long," she said. "Mum was suspicious that something was wrong but she didn't know what was going on. Then when I was 11 years old I was diagnosed with ADHD. I was just about to go into secondary school; there couldn't have been a worse time."
Things seem to go from bad to worse as Miss Avery was placed on a cocktail of medication to regulate her disability, her parents split up and her teachers struggled to understand her condition. She said fellow pupils at Penair School would taunt her about her disability.
"As soon as I got through the door of the school I wanted to get out," she said.
At 17 she left the family home and was housed in B&B accommodation along the dual carriageway at Threemilestone, being moved about eight times in three years.
She said she took to self-harming and was issued with a police caution when she hit out at a gang who branded her an 'ADHD freak'.
"There were some really hard times – times when I felt isolated and I just wanted it to end," she said.
She was referred to the Cornwall Foundation NHS Trust's (CFT) Intensive Support Team, which supported her until she was discharged from the service in December.
"They helped be more independent, helped me with cooking and with my mental health when I was feeling suicidal because of everything that's gone on," she said.
"Without them I wouldn't be the person I am today. I'd still be lying in bed, depressed."
Miss Avery now volunteers helping people with disabilities to learn about livestock at the charity-based Robert Owen Communities' Boscawen Farm in Blackwater.
She also helps CFT, to repay it for its support and with the hope of one day getting a job there, and at the Murdoch and Trevithick day centre in Redruth, which provides a meeting place and activities for adults with learning disabilities.
She was recently made Cornwall co-chairman of Robert Owen Communities, which is based in Totnes but provides specialist and residential care in Cornwall and Devon.
She said: "I understand how people with learning disabilities feel if they can't get their voice heard. I want people to know that there is hope, and not to get yourself down and let other people make you feel worthless or depressed by their discrimination."
She has also made a YouTube video about difficulties people with learning disabilities face, the hope that is out there and her gratitude to CFT.
"There is a brighter and better future and at the end of the day the world would be a boring place if we were all the same," she said, though the government's decision to replace the Disability Living Allowance with the Personal Independence Payment had made it harder to make ends meet.
