Thrown Away Child

A memoir covering Louise Allen’s abusive childhood in a foster home, how she survived and how she hopes to right old wrongs now by fostering children herself and campaigning for the improvement of foster care services.

A brutal foster mother. A child's courage. A story of survival.  A foster home should be a refuge for children with a troubled start in life, but this was not the case for Louise Allen.  Born to a teenage mother in the late 1960s, she is placed in an isolated house where her foster mother, Barbara, inflicts a brutal regime of starvation and punishment upon her. Suffering atrocious neglect, Louise is at the mercy of predatory, sadistic neighbour Kevin, while Barbara's husband turns a blind eye and social workers seem not to notice.  Somehow Louise finds a way to survive, taking comfort in scraps of food handed to her by the travellers who live on a nearby caravan site. She develops a talent for art but the cruel Barbara is intent on ruining the one thing that gives her hope. When Louise finally realises how disturbed her family is, she finds the courage to change her destiny. It will be an uphill struggle that will almost kill her. A heartbreaking story of neglect and cruelty and how one little girl's imagination helped her to survive and even forgive.