Figures in a new report on child poverty in the North East making for alarming reading: 38% of children in the region are living in poverty, rising to almost half - 47% - in households with children under the age of five.
The gap in living standards for youngsters in the North East compared to the national average is at a 20-year high, while the region also has the highest proportion of looked after children in England (108 children per 10,000 children).
But these figures only point to the scale of the problem. For how poverty affects children - limiting their life chances, affecting physical and mental health - the report by the North East Child Poverty Commission also highlights heartbreaking individual stories of what it means to grow up poor.
