A young woman left fighting for her life after being tormented by fat-shaming bullies has fought back by becoming an ultra-marathon runner.
Heather Reid, from Erskine, has told how constant harassment by sick trolls left her hospitalised over 50 times after self-harming to escape years of cruel comments.
Heather, 23, is now planning to run 250km across Tanzania in a gruelling five-day race to raise awareness of the impact of bullying in the hope of saving the lives of children.
She told the Daily Record how the abuse she suffered started at a young age when children would tease her and play cruel tricks on her at school.
She said: "It all started as soon as I went to primary school. Kids teased me and no one wanted to play with me.
"I was always called fat and mocked for my appearance. I didn't really have any friends so I used to hide in the toilets during break and lunch. As the years went on it started getting vicious. I was getting called some nasty names as well as having cruel pranks played on me
"By the time I was leaving primary school I was at breaking point. I was so young but I remember telling my mum I didn't want to be alive anymore."
But Heather said the bullying only escalated when she went to high school with her peers then able to attack her through social media.
She continued: "My phone was going constantly. I would wake up in the morning and I'd get hate messages. I'd get them all day at school and even when I went home.
"I couldn't get away from it. Other kids were telling me on a daily basis that I should have been aborted.
"As a kid, you start to believe that when you're hearing it all the time. My head became a very dark place and I made multiple attempts to end it all."
Things came to a head when Heather was 16, when one suicide attempt almost claimed her life.
She added: "I don't remember much except waking up in the hospital a couple days later. I'd come really close to dying. Doctors had to resuscitate me and I know my parents were fully prepared to lose me that night."
Seeing the impact on her family made Heather realise that she needed to take back control of her life. Her older sister encouraged her to take up running and it was at that point that she found what she began to believe was her "purpose in life".
Heather said: "I felt like I'd found my purpose in life from the very first training session. I'd constantly been bullied for my weight but then it began falling off me.
"For once in my life, I started to feel good about myself and I was surrounded by positive and supportive people."
Heather became addicted to the gym and soon found herself training for hours every day.
After encouragement from a friend, she decided to sign up for her first marathon and before she knew it, she was completing ultra-marathon races and took part in nine events last year.
On June 12 she will take on the UltraX Tanzania multi-stage marathon to raise money for the Kidscape Campaign For Children's Safety.
She said: "The charity does amazing work in schools in the UK and educating on bullying. I'm a firm believer that parents and teachers need to be educated in how to deal with bullying.
"Kids don't realise how much their words can have an impact and it's leading to deaths every single day.
"Bullying affects people for the rest of their lives and it still affects me to this day.
"But if I can survive what I went through my whole life then I can survive this race."
Donate to Heather's JustGiving page here.
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