OK, so this is not easy, writing about the hero in you. I suffer from the well-known British reserve. What, I asked myself, can I bring on this subject.

Thinking about it, I realise we are all heroes. We all have our up and downs, it's how we react to them that matters.

I've not always had an easy life. At the age of 10, killing myself was a tempting prospect, a way out. There was no question of calling for help. Had I gone ahead with it, I wouldn't have wanted to fail.

Somehow a strong survival instinct kept me alive, made me fight and bide my time.

A few years later, I held my mother's hand, I looked after her and tried to cheer her up when she cried over losing her hair due to the chemotherapy treatment. More than that, I only realise as I type, I listened to her. I was thirteen, powerless and astounded to see my indomitable mother crumb in front of me. Yes, the same mother who terrorised me all through my childhood, the same one who would still thrash my room in the middle of the night screaming blue murder.

I'll pass on the other types of abuse I endured, I've talked about that before. As an eighteen year old I arrived in America, not knowing a soul. It was a liberation, far from all the vestiges of my past, I stop running scared and allowed myself to be myself. It was along road and I was lucky to make good friends.

People thought I was 'gutsy'. I just felt incredibly lucky. Returning home I made a new life for myself, I now had a new identity. Yes, tha's how bad it gets when two people from my own family were determined to hurt, as if they had not done enough already.

I do feel lucky that I had opportunities or found them. I refused to be a victim, I broke the circle. What if I had lived in another country though, one where women's rights don't count? Yes, bad things happened to me, but it could have been far worse.

I guess we all have our part to play. I think of all the people who are incredibly brave, risking their lives to save others, or fighting to stay alive in difficult circumstances. I also think of the admirable people who reach out to others, open up or extend a hand or illuminate someone's life by a kind gesture or a smile.

However little a random act of kindness may be it might brighten a terrible day or even save a live.