Carmel Ryan has seen two of her friends lose their eldest children as herion robbed them of their dignity and their lives. For years she dreaded she would lose her first child to the drug.

Carmel, 37, is a woman who lives on her nerves. She has an eating disorder herself and, at Christmas, she suffered a mild stroke. Yet she has a selfless streak running right through her - and four other children to look after so she barely finds time to think of herself.

When Shannon was spending virtually every spare penny she had on drugs, she would hand £20 of her weekly benefit to Carmel for her to buy food, clothes and nappies for Mark - otherwise she knew he could end up going without.

Carmel, of Field Avenue, Blackbird Leys, may not have wanted her first grandchild to grow up with heroin addicts for parents but her love for her daughter meant she never judged or condemned. She just accepted.

She remembers Shannon lived in a fantasy world when she was a child, always dreaming up stories but says her daughter grew up overnight when she was raped at 14.

Carmel recalls the night Shannon was raped as if it was yesterday.

"How could I forget it? It was my birthday. That was definitely the turning point.

"She started drinking disinfectant, alcohol, anything. It was a cry for help. She'd always been a funny little girl and she was happy until the rape."

What Carmel didn't realise was quite how disturbed Shannon was and it was years before she discovered her daughter was a drug addict.

"I didn't spot it. How could I? I didn't know anything about drugs so I didn't suspect a thing. I suppose I was naive," she says, nervously wringing her hands. Carmel felt alone as she battled to support her daughter. She says local doctors didn't give her the help she needed to get Shannon to confront her problem.

She also blames Oxford City Council for placing Shannon in a string of different bedsits and guest houses across the city instead of giving her a home where she could feel settled and secure with her child.

Carmel says: "Life hasn't been easy for her and it has felt as if nobody wanted to help her.

"I've never given up on her though because she needed my support. I just hope she'll stay clean for little Mark.

"I'd hate to think of him going through everything Shannon's been through."

Throughout it all Carmel has received a great deal of support from the staff at Cuddesdon Corner Family Centre, where she now works as a volunteer. Carmel wants to do all she can to help local people going through the same hell she did.

She has set up a support group, Positive Links, for the families of people with drug problems in Blackbird Leys, funded by the estate's Single Regeneration Budget and the Alice Smith Trust Fund.

She is a determined woman and her strength will act as an inspiration helping people see there is light at the end of the tunnel.

**Positive Links meets at Holy Family Church, in Cuddesdon Way, on Tuesdays and Fridays between 5.30pm and 7.30pm. For more information call 01865 777358.