UK’s youngest mum: I pray my girls will meet

forbid Arihanna should have to go through what I did – I want her to talk to me about anything.”

For two years, Tressa kept the identity of her first daughter’s father secret from her family – but at 14 she broke down and told a social worker.

A police investigation was launched and Jason, then 19, was jailed for four years in 2009 after a DNA test revealed he was the dad. Devastated Tressa’s baby was then taken from her, and she was told the girl would be adopted and contact between them phased out. Memories of their final meeting, when her daughter was three, still haunt Tressa.

She says: “I didn’t realise it was the last time I’d see her. She didn’t recognise me and she was scared. I couldn’t hug her.

“The worst part was when she shouted for her mummy – but she meant her adoptive mum, not me.

“After that, we could only send letters. I wasn’t allowed to say ‘Mummy loves you’ in case it confused her.”

Tressa sank into deep depression and used alcohol and drugs to numb the pain. At her lowest point in 2011, she developed a heroin habit. But she managed to get clean with the help of a counsellor and began to build a new life with Darren.

The pair were overjoyed when she found out she was pregnant in 2012 – but Tressa miscarried, and just three days later her mum died of pneumonia at 41.

PROUD

“Losing both the baby and mum in the same week was so hard,” says Tressa. “It’s hard to know she will never meet Arihanna. She’d be really proud of her.

“She was with me when I gave birth to