WHEN police found heroin at Wendy Graham’s daughter’s Greater Leys house, her world came crashing down around her.

It set off a chain of events which landed two of Ms Graham’s grandchildren in care, and a third grandchild born addicted to the drug.

Ms Graham, who lives in Headington, ended up quitting her job to look after her daughter Emma Cox and acted as guardian to her grandson Mason while she helped Miss Cox kick the habit.

But now, nearly four years after Ms Graham discovered her daughter, then 19, was addicted to heroin, she is drug-free and has been reunited with her family.

Ms Graham said: “Initially I noticed a change in the way she was, her appearance and her attitude to life and to me.

“She lost interest in keeping her house clean and she went downhill.

“I heard rumours she was on drugs but didn’t believe it – you don’t want to believe that sort of thing of your children.”

But when police raided the house and found the drugs, the truth became clear, and Ms Graham’s grandchildren, Joshua and Maizie, now five and three, were taken into care.

And in 2009, Miss Cox was charged with possession of class A drugs and intent to supply after being caught smuggling heroin into prison.

She was spared jail but had to live with her mother as one of the conditions.

Ms Graham, 49, who has three other children who do not live at home, said: “I was absolutely gutted, distraught.

“I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t eat.

“I was terrified I would lose my daughter — that the drugs would kill her.”

When Miss Cox fell pregnant for the third time, with Mason, she didn’t discover she was expecting until she was four months along — and she had been using heroin during the pregnancy.

It proved the necessary wake-up call to finally withdraw from the drug.

Mason had to spend time in intensive care due to the drugs going into his system in the womb, but he was returned to his mother after a few hours’ treatment.

Ms Graham said: “She was petrified she was going to lose him and she’s stayed clean ever since and turned it completely around.

“The court said she could keep Mason but I had to be his legal guardian, even getting up with Emma and sitting with her for night feeds.

“I had to put my life on hold but it was successful because she got to keep him, she’s got all of her children back and she’s off the drugs for good.”

Drugs tests in October 2010 showed Miss Cox was clean, and she moved into her own flat in East Oxford, with her children joining her in March.

Now Miss Cox is on her own feet, her mum plans to return to work this month as a carer, after receiving support from public service provider Action for Employment Ms Graham said: “My advice to anyone in my position is you have to be there, and although you feel at your lowest point, just be there for them.

“Although they don’t want to hear it, talk to them, try and find out how they’re feeling.

“I don’t like to think what would have happened if I hadn’t been there for Emma — I don’t think she could have done it on her own.”