A YOUNG mum who was made homeless after her house was condemned is now helping other people turn their lives around.

Rebecca Crozier, of Bagillt, has bipolar disorder and has dealt with mental health difficulties all her life.

She told the Leader that about three years ago she was sectioned and came out of hospital to find her house had been condemned, leaving her homeless.

Miss Crozier, who has an eight-year-old son named Oscar, explained: “I couldn’t go back to the house. I had no money, nowhere to go – nothing.”

But fortunately the now 28-year-old found Citizens Advice Flintshire (CAF), a charity which offers help and advice to people on topics including benefits, debt, employment and more.

“CAF helped me to put my life back together,” she said.

“It was CAF that helped to support me in reinstating my benefit claims, CAF that helped me deal with getting somewhere to live and CAF that signposted me to where I needed to be when I couldn’t make a decision for myself.

The Leader:

“For someone in my situation, I was lucky that I had that and that I had family to tell me to go to CAF.

“If you don’t have that, you end up on the street - and that was my option.

“During that time I was very lucky that my mum and dad kept my son, but because of everything I was split from him for about six months.”

Miss Crozier told the Leader she now has her mental health support set up, a place to live and has her son at home again.

She has also decided to use her experiences to help other people by training to become a trainee adviser at CAF.

“Without CAF, none of this would have happened,” she said.

“I had no capacity to do the form filling. But the support and empathy from CAF made it a doddle. Knowing someone has your back when you’ve hit rock bottom is massive.

“It is incredible and I am lucky in the sense that I know how you feel sat the other side of the desk, because I’ve sat there.

“I have claimed all the benefits, I have been the pregnant teenager with mental health difficulties and dyslexia from a poor area – that was my life.

“I can use that to know that you’re going to stress out about an assessment or an appeal, but we’re there to do it for you and help.”

She added: “Nobody becomes intentionally homeless. It’s one bad piece of advice or one wrong payday away – and it’s as simple as that.

“I can use my experience to help people. I’m not far off completing my training and I absolutely love it.”

Visit flintshirecab.org.uk