Carrie White

Carrie \c(ar)-rie\ as a girl's name is pronounced KARE-ee. It is of Old German origin, and the meaning of Carrie is "free man". Pet form of Caroline and occasionally other names beginning with Car-. - Thanks to Think Baby Names

I was born in Falfield, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire on March 18th, 1970.

I have a sister, two years older and a brother, five years older than me.

We also had a white cat, Tish and a black Labrador, Loofer.

I lived here on a Prison Officers Estate Eastwood Park HMP for 8 years.

My mother (with us) moved away in 1978, leaving my father back in Falfield. We moved in with my step-father who had lived on the same Estate as we did.

I attended Berkeley Vale Primary School for one year.

Berkeley is famous for its castle and the Edward Jenner Museum.

I lived here until I moved to Exeter when I was 17 years of age in 1987.

I attended Selsley Primary, Archway Comprehensive and Stroud Technical College whilst I lived in Woodchester. The farm where I used to live is now a Riding Stables.

My father died when I was 16 in 1986 from Hodgkin's Disease which he had contracted whilst working in the submarine docks in Chatham, Kent.

The image is his headstone. He's buried in Falfield.

As a child, I found it very difficult to verbalise my emotions, thoughts or opinions through fear of ridicule; I still do. So, a journal became my friend; a place I could finally be myself and learn to express myself.

I wrote in that journal on a daily basis and it became a very important part of me. Not one single member of my family ever knew that journal existed and I was glad of that.

Even now, I still use a journal to convey particularly strong emotions which I'm afraid of verbalising. I don't feel I can express myself well enough to be understood a lot of the time, so I use my writing as a source of therapy, release and communication.

When I 'met' my partner, Chris via the Internet, I allowed him to read some of my journal entries as a way of helping him to understand me better. His exact words were, 'You write very eloquently; why don't you consider writing professionally?' And, that's exactly what I did.