Now 18, Chelsea Cameron grew up watching her drug addict parents pass out while dealers hammered on the door

The news wires in the UK have been buzzing today (and rightly so) on the release of an ‘open letter’ from Scottish teenager Chelsea Cameron to her drug addict parents.

It is an astoundingly moving set of comments on the effects on herself of her sad & deprived upbringing by her dysfunctional Mum & Dad, and it provides an inspirational illustration to young and old alike on someone’s ability to overcome adversity to create a better life for themselves.

Even despite the harm that she has undoubtable suffered through her parents’ addiction, her love for them still shines through crystal clearly in her passionate ‘beyond her years’ words, which visibly urges them to mend their ways, and indeed she has set those very two people a lifetime example – when it should have been the other way around, shouldn’t it?

Clearly Chelsea has been helped get through her struggles by her belief in God, and that may be a lesson to us all, don’t you think?

The letter has been reproduced as far as possible below so that you all can share in its young wisdom

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CHELSEA CAMERON: AN OPEN LETTER TO MY MUM AND DAD

By Chelsea Cameron,31 Jan 2017 6.00am

I’ve had the best few years of travel, educational achievements and continued to have many great years in the church.

You probably think you know me but you don’t.

Thank you for teaching me that taking drugs ruins lives, breaks families apart and gives no-one a quality of life worth living.

I’ll be eternally grateful for this lesson you have taught me, which has a message that has stuck by me until this day and always will — I have never and will never have a desire to take harmful substances through your example.

Thank you for teaching me to be ambitious. Your example showed me that no ambition for education, work or any type of success is very harmful and leads to not a lot of self-worth. Your example showed me that life is all about choices and that I didn’t need to make the same ones you did.

Remember that time we forced dad into watching Hannah Montana? You probably can’t remember it but there’s a line in one of the songs that says: “Life is what you make it so let’s make it rock.”

Life has turned out for me what I have chosen to make it. You both can make your life rock as you make good choices.

Thank you for teaching me to not be so easily embarrassed. You both have not made the best of choices — those have sometimes gone pretty public allowing everyone I associate with to know what you are both like.

But that has given me the opportunity to speak freely and openly about who I am and how my life has been growing up.

Up until my third or fourth year of high school I tried to have an alter ego. People didn’t need to know the circumstances I was in, and in fact if they found out, I’d probably die on the spot because I made myself something that wasn’t associated with the harsh truth of our lives. The thing that kept me sane was thinking people didn’t know the truth, they probably did but I brainwashed myself into thinking they didn’t.

Life is not sunshine and rainbows and thank you for teaching me that life is unfair — people disappoint you and there’s sometimes nothing you can do about that. A lesson well learnt from the both of you.

Thank you for not being there to wave goodbye as I jetted off to Uganda on a trip of a lifetime, thanks for not being there when I got my first set of exam results to say well done, thanks for not being there when I got the position of head girl (a personal dream), thanks for not being there for me as I stood in front hundreds of people to speak at the Caird Hall for my school prizegiving, thank you for not being there for me when I needed you.

You’ve given me the greatest lesson of how to be independent. You have both allowed me to be a more patient and tolerant person than I could have imagined.

Dad, I see you often but I hope you now have a greater insight into the type of person I am and the things you have taught me.

Mum, I’ve not seen you in a while and I hope you’re well. I hope you also know me a bit better now, and know that I’m trying to be a good person and that all is well.

I hope one day that you’ll wake up and realise there is so much more the world has to offer you guys and when that day comes, please come to find me so we can enjoy life together.

I’ll show you some nice restaurants I like to go to and if you’re lucky I might take you to Germany one day.

Until then, I’ll dream of what my life would be like with parents to enjoy it with.

Chelsea