A MOTHER has told of her incredible transformation from a jailed heroin addict to an ambitious university student.
Ginny Burton, 48, has been binging Methamphetamine from the age of 12 and said she spent her early life sucked into a “drug vortex”.
Ginny was born in Tacoma in the US state of Washington.
But her early life was blighted by her mom’s drug taking and mental illness, reports KATU.
Meanwhile, Ginny's father was in prison after being convicted for a string of armed robberies.
From the age of six her drug-dealing mother would give her marijuana.
By 14 she was smoking crack cocaine.After being raped by a drug dealer three years later, Ginny said she attempted suicide.
By the age of 23, she had two children, but was reportedly in an abusive relationship and had developed a heroin habit.
So bad was her addiction, she robbed Mexican drug dealers at gunpoint and stole cars.
Her children were eventually removed from her care.
She told KATU: “When you're stuck on the street and you smell like faeces and you haven't showered in forever, and you can't make it into a social service during working hours because you're too busy trying to feed your addiction, and your addiction is bigger than you…
"And you've compromised your integrity a number of times over and over and over again, and you're starting to be victimized by the people on the street… you're hopeless.
“You can't stand your life. You would rather be dead than alive. I spent most of my addiction wishing that somebody would just blow me away.”
Ginny racked up 17 serious convictions and was sent to jail three times, according to Yahoo! News.
But prison gave her a chance to clean herself up – but it wasn't long before she was taking drugs again.
In 2012, Ginny was arrested for crashing a stolen truck into a tree during a police chase. She said it was a wake-up call.
Sitting in the back of the police car, she decided to make a radical change. After a court-ordered drug program, she started taking classes at college.
She said her time at South Seattle College in Washington made her realise how much of her life she had wasted.
And she discovered a love for studying.
She said: “I was actually good at learning.”
Ginny moved on to the University of Washington and excelled.
She studied political science and was named the 2020 Truman Scholar for Washington, KATU reports.
Ginny graduated at the age of 48.
Now she hopes her extraordinary life story can be an inspiration to others living a nightmarish life because of addiction.
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