Goodnight Sweethear

Staring at my phone, an empty feeling in my stomach crept in as my bank balance glared back at me.

£30, I thought.

That’s all I have.

It was New Year’s Eve 2009, and I was sat in a council house with two young children and no furniture, wondering how on earth I’d ended up here.

Just 12 months earlier, I’d been a senior executive in retail, had a lovely big house, flashy cars, and a happy family.

Now, my life had been turned upside down, and I guess you could say it all started with a deer.

That March, as a pair of startled eyes stared at me, I knew disaster was coming.

It all happened in a matter of seconds – driving home from work, the deer jumping out in – swerving off the road and coming to an abrupt stop.