A bereaved family has spoken out over the dangers of heroin after a promising college student died of an overdose at the age of just 26.
Leanne Johnson, a trainee hairdresser who resorted to prostitution to fund her drug addiction, had spent time in rehab after appearing on the Jeremy Kyle Show in a bid to kick the habit.
But when she returned home to Bolton, Greater Manchester, she went out and bought heroin despite telling her mother she was going to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.
Leanne was found dead in her bedroom by her mother hours later, surrounded by drug paraphernalia including a syringe in an ashtray and a crack pipe in her handbag.
Her sister Melane Gatis said: 'Leanne has had a last-minute blip and we still don't know why. I just think, she succeeded in kicking her habit and then embarked on a moment of madness which cost her life.
'If her story saves one person's life then Leanne has achieved some form of legacy. No family should go through what we went through.
'We honestly thought we'd got our sister back. It's heartbreaking - Leanne was fun-loving, funny and she was just really looking forward to her future.'
An inquest in Bolton was told that Leanne had had a good upbringing and worked in a number of shops while studying at college, but when she was 18 started a relationship with a man who got her hooked on drugs.
After: Leanne is pictured under the influence of drugs; her family took these photographs to show her in a bid to shock her into changing her behaviour
Tragic: Leanne's family have released a series of old photographs of her to warn against the dangers of drugs
Horror: These shocking images, also taken by Leanne's family, show how low she sank due to the addiction which eventually killed her
At one point she was smoking a rock of crack cocaine and injecting six bags of heroin every day, the hearing was told, and she sold her body in order to get the money she needed for drugs.
She split with her boyfriend but her habit worsened when he died from heroin abuse, and she started to go missing - on one occasion for several weeks.
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