BOLTON teenager Melanie Dobson died after being hooked on drugs from the age of 13.

Melanie was just 19 when she died, but her family say they are relieved she will not suffer any more.

As reported in Saturday's BEN, she was found dead in a town centre bedsit last Wednesday night, six years after becoming a drug addict.

Now, as her family try to come to terms with their loss, they say there is a "sense of relief" that the young heroin addict has been "set free" from her troubles.

Cannabis

They believe her addiction may have been sparked when she began smoking cannabis. She eventually moved on to heroin.

Melanie's mum, Gayle, was too upset to speak of her teenage daughter's death.

But her aunt, Carol Smith, 40, who is offering support to Melanie's parents, yesterday told of the family's desperate fight to wean the girl off drugs.

Speaking at the family's home in Hawker Avenue, Great Lever, Mrs Smith said: "We feel a sense of relief. Melanie was living in hell because she was trying to hide her addiction all the time. "We are just a normal family who didn't know anything about drugs. We have read as much as we could about them to try to help Melanie to fight her addiction."

Mrs Smith believes mood swings which Melanie, a former Westhoughton High School pupil, began experiencing as a 13-year-old could have heralded the start of the drug nightmare.

Her aunt added: "Looking back to when she was 13 and had the mood swings we think that was when the trouble started. "But it was only three years ago that we found out about the heroin and two years ago she tried to come off it. Melanie was a well educated, intelligent girl. We do not know how she got involved in drugs or exactly how long she was on them.

"She was such a pretty girl. It's such a waste. She managed to hide it because she was clever.

Evil

"The problem is that they get involved with somebody who is older than they are. There are older, evil people out there who want to feed children with drugs."

Melanie's body was found at 10pm on Wednesday in a flat on Bromwich Street, Bolton.

But Mrs Smith, who now lives in Manchester, says Melanie's loving mum has been "left in pieces" following her daughter's death. She added: "Her mum is the most fantastic mum ever and Melanie loved and respected her mum so much. That's why she tried to hide it from all her family.

"We're relieved that we're not sitting here waiting to know what's happened to Melanie. That won't have to happen any more. The only good thing from this is that it might stop other families going through what we have.

"We want people to look at her and to see a lovely girl whose life was ruined, that's why we wanted the Bolton Evening News to publish her picture."

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