Julie Hird counts her blessings daily for the life she is leading now.

For 11 years, Julie worked as a prostitute on the streets of her home city of Bradford. She knew Shelley Armitage, one of the three Bradford prostitutes whose deaths have been investigated by police. “It could so easily have been my face in the paper. I thank God every day it wasn’t me,” says Julie.

Julie, 32, recalls the ‘emptiness’ she felt on hearing about the deaths of Shelley, Suzanne Blamires and Susan Rushworth.

“There was a way out for them. It didn’t have to end like that,” she says, referring to the rehabilitation programme she embarked on which led her away from the chaotic life she was leading.

“I couldn’t do a normal job. I thought about it, but I couldn’t do it because of the lifestyle I was leading,” she says. “You are not living, you are existing. I couldn’t get out of bed without a bag of heroin. I couldn’t brush my hair without heroin. There was no way I could get a job.”

Julie’s troubles began when she rebelled against her family as a teenager. She had her first child at 19. He and her two subsequent children were taken into care as she battled drug addiction, but she lives in hope that they will be reunited.

“I used to run away from home. I was smoking cigs and spliffs. I got introduced to heroin at 18. That helped me black out the hurt and pain from my past,” says Julie.

Prostitution was a way of earning money after she split up with her boyfriend. “When we broke up I had no way of support, so I started selling myself on the streets of Bradford,” she says.

“I used to hang around with a girl and she always had money and drugs. I’d go along with her and take the registration numbers (of cars she was getting into) and make sure she was safe. But guys used to choose me and they offered me a lot of money.

“When you come to that point in your life, you don’t feel like you’re worth anything. People didn’t treat me with respect. They used to abuse me. I used them to get what I wanted, but you get treated like dirt.

“I was looking for acceptance. I thought at least I could get paid for it, instead of giving it away. I felt dirty, but there is a way out.”

Julie regularly visited the Sunbridge Road Mission in the city centre on Wednesday evenings for a warm meal. St Pio Friary, run by Franciscan monks, on Westgate, was another safe haven.

“They have a soup kitchen, and I used to go for a coffee and something to eat. I got to know them well and I am still in contact with them,” she says. “I always knew I wasn’t living right, but you need to know how to break away from that lifestyle. You do need support, and being there it was so peaceful. Once I left them, I went back to my own world. Then, one day I said, ‘I am sick of my life.’ They asked if I’d heard about Teen Challenge.”

Father Thomas, from the Friary, put Julie in touch with the Christian faith-based charity. She embarked on Teen Challenge’s recovery programme in October 2008 and is now working as an auxiliary for the organisation, helping other young women escape prostitution and addiction.

Julie knows prostitution isn’t preventable, but believes that legalising brothels will go a long way to keeping working girls safe.

“Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world, and it is going to happen whether it is legalised or not,” she says. “But I am all for legalised brothels, because they can be managed and can be safer. The girls are doing this because they have to. We don’t enjoy it. It’s a need, not a desire. Our body needs heroin.

“I have been attacked a few times, but you shake it off and get back on with it. Every time we jumped in a car, we were vulnerable, but if I didn’t like the look of them, I wouldn’t go with them. It’s a way of life.”

Julie has twice spoken about her experiences at the Sunbridge Road Mission. She believes she has been ‘born again’ and has left her past behind. She’s confident others can do it too.

“I used to sell my body on the streets of Bradford, but the next guy who touches me will be my husband,” she says.

l Stephen Griffiths, 40, of Holmfield Court, Thornton Road, Bradford, is being held in Wakefield Prison while he awaits trial, charged with the murders of Suzanne Blamires, 36, Shelley Armitage, 31, and Susan Rushworth, 43.