It is not often that individuals feel the urge to thank the judge who sentenced them to time behind bars – but for Kate Shurlock, the situation is quite different.

For more than 30 years, Miss Shurlock has had to face it all – from alcohol and violence to serious health scares – making her successful qualification as a veterinary nurse all the more incredible.

Perhaps most remarkable of all is that she credits the same judge who sentenced her to jail time for her rehabilitation.

The early years for Miss Shurlock, who is now 42 and lives in Mile End, Colchester, were tough.

Her parents divorced at a young age, but a life-changing incident as a child derailed her for years, and still scars her to this day.

Miss Shurlock said: “My parents divorced when I was eight and I had a traumatic incident when I was 12.

“After that my life because so chaotic."

She continued: “At 15, no-one could handle me anymore. I was in and out of different homes, so I agreed to be put in a hostel.”

And Miss Shurlock soon found out that life was going to get a whole lot harder, as she brawled with other residents.

“You learn very quickly to toughen the hell up when you get your nose broken in a hostel when you’re 15,” she said.

“I took the wrong road and it wasn’t long before I ended up in prison.”

“But what for?” I then tentatively ask.

Yet Miss Sherlock is open about her mistakes and misdemeanours – like an open book, she talks through some of her darkest years.

“I went to prison because I was always fighting and I couldn’t handle my drink,” she explained.

“I got into brawls in nightclubs, and had all sorts of fights in jail.”

And it was in prison that she realised this was not the life she wanted, and slowly Miss Shurlock began to turn her life around.

“I wasn’t there long but it was long enough to know I hated it and wanted to change,” she recalled.

“When I went to prison, the judge gave me long enough to tell me that this was going to be my life if I didn’t change.

“Never, ever again was I going back to prison – I never became institutionalised.”

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It’s then that she makes a statement enough to make most people’s eyes widen.

“In fact, if I could find the judge who sent me to prison, I would thank him,” she said.

“If you get the help you need, can give up the drugs – I managed to break free from it, but I’m one of the lucky ones.”

Miss Shurlock’s road to rehabilitation didn’t end there – her early years, in which she endured a traumatic childhood, meant she never received an education, and so, she headed back to school.

“I had to go back to school at 28, and I had to do a foundation degree which took me three years,” she said.

Miss Shurlock enrolled at Harwich Community College, before then taking a foundation degree at Otley College for three years.

Her final step towards becoming a vet nurse was at the College of Animal Welfare in Potters Bar.

“I just carried on and, finally, received my qualifications before going on to work at Companion Care.”

But rather than talk about herself, Miss Shurlock had some words of advice other people struggling with their mental health.

“Suicide is a permanent end to a temporary problem – that’s a really important quote to me,” she said.

“I’ve crawled back from so many traumas, but you can survive; you just need to reach out to someone, because there are people who can help.”

And it can come from someone you least expect – even the judge who decides the sentence.