Crack cocaine addict Lily is learning to be a mum again, thanks to the help of drugs workers.

Lily, 35, admits her two children, a girl aged 13 and an eight-year-old boy, missed out on treats while she was spending her money on drugs.

But now they are getting pampered again after the Drug Interventions Prog-ramme in Bradford gave her the help she needed to break her addiction.

Her life suddenly changed for the better after she was arrested and kicked out of her Bradford home during police raids on crack houses late last year.

The house was closed up under new legislation and five days before Christmas she had to move with her children to a hostel.

But Lily had already been introduced to Karen Hather, a referral worker with Bradford Council-run DIP, at the police station after her arrest - a policy which is now standard in a bid to get drug users straight into treatment.

Karen left her details and Lily rang her and they met.

She said: "It just seemed right at the time and I have never regretted it. She found me and the children somewhere to live and treated me as a friend. Now I am trying to keep off drugs and leave my past behind."

Lily started taking amphetamines at 17 when she left home to stay with a friend. Within two years a boyfriend introduced her to crack cocaine. When she reached 30 she began dabbling with heroin but her main drug remained crack.

Lily said: "It's a most difficult drug. It plays with your head and you just have to do it. I was going out robbing cars - anything I could to get my hands on the money to buy the drugs.

"My children suffered; they didn't have the luxuries. They missed out on things other kids would have had. I felt guilty, and that made me take more drugs.

"I would get up and go out in a stolen car, or rob a car, and then go and score drugs. I would do it all day, sometimes at night.

"My kids weren't going to school and my son wouldn't talk to me. Sometimes I'd even take my daughter out and about when I was scoring.

"Being a drug addict is a deceitful life. You are a thief and a liar. I would have ended up in prison or six feet under.

"But Karen has shown me it can be different. DIP has given me my life back.

"With help you can find success. I have got my son back in school and I am looking at going to college. I never had money, I would spend £30 to £50 on drugs when I got my Income Support on a Tuesday. Now I have got £45 in my bank account.

"When you are a drug addict you become very selfish - now I am a mum again. I make sure I get up in the morning and take them to school and when they need a pair of shoes they get them.

"The kids have been thrown from pillar to post through my action. All I can do now is rebuild what I have done and give them a better life and the love and respect they deserve.

"I have another chance. Other addicts shouldn't think there is no-one out there for them. If you want help, reach out for it because there are people willing to give you another chance."