Isaiah 61.1 says, ‘He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted

My Bible: reasons to believe in the power of the Bible

‘Isaiah 61.1 says, “He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” That ties in with what I do with [debt counselling charity] Christians Against Poverty. Sometimes people's stories are dire. You hear their story and your automatic reaction is, “O my word – how is this ever going to be resolved?” But the thing about CAP is that there's always hope.

‘I got into CAP in the first place because I was struck by the statistic that 28 per cent of their clients have believed that suicide was their only solution. For me there was something really wrong with that statistic, that people just felt they had nowhere to turn. 

‘That verse from Isaiah: people in debt are imprisoned by their circumstances. And debt is just the tip of the iceberg for them. There are very few people whose homes I go into and they're just in debt. They've often got physical health problems, mental health problems, family relationship breakdowns. They often haven't been very well educated, they can't read. If you can't read you really can't manage technology – Universal Credit is based around people having access to the internet. For people who can't read, it's desperately hard – and they just don't open their post. Circumstances like that can make you angry that our society is so imbalanced. 

‘I work with CAP because I wanted there to be a sense of hope where there was no hope, and just to see lives transformed. CAP is not just about getting people out of debt, it's about sharing the love of Jesus and showing them that there is someone that cares and loves them. 

‘I've been a single mum for 16 years so I know what it's like to feel that there's no one to support you, so that's a motivator. And I like to solve other people's problems! 

‘I'm not someone who marches and demonstrates, but I just feel that sometimes there's something that can be done, and we shouldn't just accept things because that's the way they are.’

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