12:50pm Tuesday 6th July 2010
A SOUTHAMPTON teenager who has shown there is life after child abuse, has been named this year’s Lesley Pearse Woman of Courage.
Siobhan Pyburn, 19, pictured, created a website The Second Chance to help others who, like her, have been through sexual abuse as a child.
Earlier this year Siobhan told the Daily Echo her harrowing story of how she was abused by her father from the age of six to nearly 15. He was later jailed for three years.
Siobhan was personally selected by novelist Lesley Pearse from hundreds of entries from across the UK.
Her journey from victim to campaigner touched a chord and she won the £1,000 first prize, £200 worth of Penguin Books and a specially crafted award.
Siobhan has been invited to travel to London for lunch with the author and to collect her award.
She said: “It’s amazing that I have won, an incredible feeling to have this sort of recognition.
It will give me the impetus I need to set up a support group for abuse survivors at university – and I must admit the money will come in very useful too.”
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