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Anita Meldrum

I came to Scotland in 1994 with my son, Andrew, who was 11 at the time. We came from Yorkshire, England.

Although life for me was OK and I had a good job, Andrew had a very difficult time and was bullied at school, even by one or two teachers, for being English.

Over time he became withdrawn and depressed, not socialising. In the end he started to truant and we ended up with him trying to take his own life.

A spell of counselling did not help him and he left school at 16, and went to live with an aunt for a while as he and I were both not coping with his depression.

At the same time I had become very stressed and then left my job, which meant our finances were very stretched and this did not help.

Finally, after six months away and a job in a bakery, Andrew came home again. Two years later we are OK, but it has been a long haul and the whole thing has set back his life expectations.

Even though we speak the same language we suffered from discrimination.