For nearly 20 years, Carly Burgess carried a devastating secret that took her to the brink of death. She was 13 when she first realised her stepdad was watching her sleep at night.
Then, he began to touch her. It was the beginning of what would become an increasingly sinister and perverse interest in her, which lasted until she ran away from home aged 15.
Over the next 20 years she straddled the line between life and death, abusing drugs and alcohol to try and forget and numb herself to her reality.
In 2020, as she lay on the verge of death in a hospital bed, the 32-year-old from Little Hulton vowed she wouldn't take her secret to the grave.
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