For 26 years of my life I was high,” reveals Sandy, now 48. Her life has always been a roller-coaster ride. “My earliest memories of growing up were filled with pain. I come from a broken family. My father was a gambler and never could hold a job for long. My older brother was too wrapped up in his own world to care. To support the family, my mother had to sell lottery tickets. She got one sen for each ticket she sold. Financially, we were crippled,” she reveals. Her eyes hardly show any expression. The lines on her face are proof of the hard life she has had.

With so many problems at home, Sandy looked for a quick exit; she left home as soon as she was done with school. “I knew that there was no way I would pursue an education. I wasn’t interested. I wanted to earn money. I was already independent. I just needed financial independence,” she explains.