Pick Me Up! 18-Apr-2019

Walking around the shops, Nan was eagerly loading things into my basket. ‘You’ll need these pots and pans,’ she said. ‘Oh and this will be nice for the bedroom.’ Putting in one thing after the other, a smile was splashed across her face. ‘Anyone would think you want to get rid of me,’ I laughed. See, ever since I was a tot I’d lived with my nan. It made every day special and she was my biggest supporter. Whether that was cheering me on at sports days or helping out now when I was planning to leave home. ‘You won’t get rid of me that easy,’ she teased. Seven years on, I live alone with my three kids. But I love knowing Nan’s not far away - in fact she’s…

I couldn’t believe my luck when I bumped into actor Stephen Graham! Lisa Matthew, Burton-Upon-Trent I love this photo of me and my husband in front of this huge reclining Buddha in Vientiane, Laos. It was truly amazing. Debra Stapley, Dover ‘Where’s all your fur gone?’ asks our fur-baby Chelsea to our real baby! Charlotte Primrose, Lawford Nothing stops my 3-year-old daughter Amelia-Mae reading a magazine with a biccy in bed… not even a broken arm! Kaleigh Lloyd, Stockport How fab does my great niece look on her wedding day? Elizabeth Williams, Llanelli I decided to make myself at home on the set of my favourite TV show Friends. Ali Williams, Anfield How adorable are my four girls? Big sister Ava, 5, and the triplets Isla, Lily and Ella, all…

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Teen love. People sometimes mock it, but if you cast your mind back to your first crush, I’ll bet your tummy still goes on spin cycle. Mine certainly did when I met Joe. A friend of a friend, he introduced himself one day in the school canteen. ‘Hi, I’m Gina,’ I smiled shyly. What I really wanted to say was, ‘Wow, you’re flipping gorgeous!’ It was May 2014 and I was just 15, but I got the feeling there was something special about Joe. He seemed so confident, always cracking jokes and making me laugh. As Joe slid the ring on my finger, I thought I’d burst with happiness It wasn’t long before we’d swapped numbers and started spending more and more of our free time together. We’d eat lunch…

‘I’m not sure we should have got married so soon,’ Joe said. ‘And I don’t want kids.’ ‘But we’ve been trying for nearly a year,’ I cried, shocked. ‘Aren’t I allowed to change my mind?’ Joe, then 19, snapped back over the phone. I felt sick. Joe knew that, more than anything in the world, I wanted to be a mum. Now he was telling me that he didn’t want to have a family with me - at all. He didn’t even want to be my husband! My heart breaking, I slammed down the phone. But as the tears came, I felt anger, too. Instead of just admitting how he felt, Joe had gone silent on me for months, choosing to play video games with his mates instead of just…

Pulling on a pair of high-waisted jeans and a crop top, I smiled at my reflection in the bedroom mirror. ‘You look gorgeous,’ smiled my boyfriend Scott, 19, planting a kiss on my cheek. ‘Thanks, babe,’ I beamed. It was last November - and, finally, I’d got my size-8 figure back after giving birth to my beautiful little girl Everly-Rose a year before. Sure, I had my hang-ups like anyone else, but now I felt back to my old, confident self. Not that I had much time to think about it with a 1-year-old to run around after! Everly-Rose’s dad wasn’t around much - and Scott, who I’d been dating for six months, lived a good 150 miles away. So, apart from when my mum Dawn, 42, occasionally babysat, it…