19 February 2006
People
By Melanie Swan
Drugs agony of Lydia,17
A DEVOTED mum and dad have told how TV's Brat Camp saved the life of their druggie daughter.
Lydia Rowlands, 17, had gone hopelessly off the rails - overdosing twice on ecstasy and stealing from friends and family to fuel her habit.
Mother Tina, who feared drugs were about to kill Lydia, said: "She'd become a stranger to us - a monster."
In desperation, Tina and husband Brian sent their daughter for 10 gruelling weeks at the Utah camp featured in the Channel 4 reality show.
And as Lydia herself told The People: "It's really worked."
Lydia - who took cannabis when she was 12 and dropped out of her posh private school at 15 - is now off drugs.
The once cherubic youngster from a middle-class home in Southampton turned to drugs after being bullied. She said: "It pushed me into the wrong crowd. I smoked weed most days and by 14 I was doing speed once or twice a week.
"I would stay out for nights or weeks on end. Some nights I'd sleep in parks. A lot of the time I stayed with a drug dealer.
"I stole my mum's i-Pod and kids' mobile phones and sold them to pay off £300 of drug debts. The person I owed money to threatened to attack me. He told me there were other ways I could pay my debts - sexual ways." Lydia was rushed to hospital after taking three ecstasy tablets in her bedroom.
Tina, 40, recalled: "On the stretcher her eyes were rolling and she was unrecognisable."
The second overdose was a nightmare reminder of the fate of 18-year-old Leah Betts, who died after taking ecstasy at a party.
Lydia collapsed, stopped breathing for a while and went berserk in an ambulance.
Tina, a trainee counsellor, said: "We didn't know if she would pull through. It was a parent's worst nightmare." But after Brat Camp, Lydia volunteered for a project to aid troubled teens and enrolled for a performing arts course.
She said: "I'm so glad I did Brat Camp. Who knows what would have happened to me."
Transport boss Brian, 50, said: "She made our life hell. She's so different now - it's amazing."
Lydia added: "Brat Camp was life saving for Lydia. We've got our daughter back."
Brat Camp, Channel 4, Wednesday 9pm. Brat Camp Unseen follows at 10pm on E4.
