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Amanda's Story
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Mum loses custody of her daughter after illness and marriage breakdown
Amanda has just one child, a 6 yr old daughter who is now in the permanent custody of her ex-husband.
Amanda's husband left the marriage in January 2001 accusing Amanda of bad mood-swings after she had been suffering for a long time from post-natal depression. Over the next 18 months he saw very little of his daughter.
In this same period Amanda started drinking. She continued to hold down her job, but soon realised she had a drink problem - and needed help. She asked her husband to look after their daughter while she was in a residency treatment centre - for one month.
When Amanda came out of the centre she found her husband had already removed possessions from the house and when she went to pick up her daughter - he refused saying he was applying for custody - that he considered her mentally unfit to have her - and that he'd found a buyer and wanted to sell the family home.
Amanda is still coming to terms with all of this and feels the stigma of the decision of CAFCASS to award custody to the father - she feels the court's eyes are always upon her and it's affecting her ability to parent effectively ... when she gets the chance, that is.
Listen to Amanda's story
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