Sheila Taylor has been helping vulnerable women in Bolton for 17 years.

She works with Bolton-based charity Urban Outreach to try and provide support for sex workers in the town.

In addition, she helps to run the Eve’s Space project - a women-only scheme offering a safe and relaxing space and doing outreach work through specialist female staff.

Over the years she has met hundreds of women who have found themselves working as prostitutes in Bolton, often as a result of unhealthy relationships or problems with drug and alcohol addiction.

One of these projects included asking women to write poems explaining their feelings about working on the street.

These pieces of writing are used as part of the police’s efforts to deter men caught soliciting sex in public places in Bolton.

Some of the poems are available to read below along with descriptions of their authors:

This was written by a sex worker in her late 20s who had been working since she was a teenager and was abused as a child.

I’M HUMAN.

Don’t call me a junkie

Don’t call me a prostitute

Don’t call me a slag

Don’t call me a low life

My life was taken at 10 years old

But I am and always will be

A Human Being

Written by a woman who had stopped working but had been a sex worker for years.

ROBBED.

Robbed of happiness

Robbed of love

Robbed of my children

Robbed of money

Robbed of respect

Robbed of childhood

Please don’t rob me anymore

Written by a woman who was having her first Christmas with no drugs, no sex work and no alcohol.

CHRISTMASES.

Christmas before it got real bad

Was real cold and real sad

Christmas now is really fun

Buying toys and being a mum

Christmas in a few years’ time

I will still be happy and all will be fine.

Many Urban Outreach projects rely heavily on donations from members of the public.

As well as working with sex workers and vulnerable women, the charity helps homeless people, ex-offenders and anyone who needs support. To donate money to Urban Outreach or find out about volunteering or other ways to help, visit: www.urbanoutreach.co.uk.