'My Mum's kicked me out'

Eleven-year-old Hayley rang ChildLine in the early hours of the morning. She had been thrown out of the caravan where she lived with her mum and her two younger sisters, after a row. She said her mum's friend had been drinking and then started yelling at Hayley and calling her terrible names. Her mum was drunk too, and she had sided with her friend and told Hayley to get out and stay away. Now Hayley had walked several miles to the nearest town and was calling ChildLine in desperation from a phone box.

'I haven't got my coat with me and it's freezing. I don't have any money, either,' she told the counsellor. 'I've had lots of rows with Mum lately. She's always drinking and getting angry about stuff. We had a fight yesterday because she slept with a man in front of my two little sisters. She said she'd kill me if I told anyone.'

Hayley went on to say that she had no contact with her dad and didn't know anyone else she could turn to. The counsellor was extremely concerned for Hayley's safety, alone in the phone box so late at night, and suggested they arrange for the police to pick her up as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the counsellor also arranged for a social worker to meet Hayley at the police station.

Social services rang back later that week to let ChildLine know that Hayley and her sisters were staying with a foster family temporarily. Their mum had agreed to get help with her alcohol abuse.

ChildLine was brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

‘Marcus was going through hell,’ says his mother, Zoe. ‘The bullying was horrible, and it had really changed his personality. He didn’t have his old confidence any more.’ The bullying had beaten it out of him. ‘One day I said, “Here’s ChildLine’s number – you can tell them anything and it won’t go any further. Why not phone up and see how you get on?” And it was brilliant, absolutely brilliant.’

According to Zoe, the help Marcus received was ‘Immense. I am so grateful ChildLine was there. It was such a help to him. I can’t ever thank his counsellor enough for what she did.’

Read more stories of some of the children ChildLine has helped. All of these true stories are taken from calls to ChildLine. All names and identifying details have been changed to protect the identity of the caller.