Special Feature

Be part of the official Aah Nightcampaign and help inspirefamilies to put aside one extraevening a week to have a propermeal together.

ENTERTo enter our Bisto Kids search,your child needs to tell us in afew words what they would doto make Aah Night happen inyour family, such as sendinginvites to all the family.

WINYou could win the chancefor your child:

To be an official face forthe Aah Night Campaign.*

Will be invited to take part inexciting Aah Night activities.

£500 voucher to spend on a

Red Letter Day of your choice.If you’re not picked to

be a Bisto Kid don’t worrybecause there is also achance to win £1,000!To enter visit:www.aahnight.co.uk/bistokidsThe closing date is 6th Decemberand winners will be announcedby 10th December.

BRING BACKFAMILY MEALS

One in 10 families never sitdown together for familymeals the latest Bistoresearch has revealedand nearly half of peopleonly have family mealson the weekends.

And it’s not as if we don’t want to. Awhopping 73% of parents and 69% of kidswould like to eat together more than we do.Times have certainly changed, a generationago nearly two-thirds of families ate togetherevery night – obviously there was no socialnetworking, games consoles or reality TVback then!

AAH NIGHT PLEDGEThe new Bisto Kids will be helping families makethe Aah Night Pledge which is an agreement to

Terms and Conditions 1. The competition will begin on 00:01 hours 4th November 2010 and close on 23:59 hours 6th December. Thecompetition is open to people aged 18 or over except employees of Premier Foods PLC, Brave PR or any related companies, their families, agents or anyoneprofessionally connected with the competition. Parents must enter on behalf of their children. To enter, your child needs to describe in less than 250words what they would do to make Aah Night happen in your family. Entries can be sent to us using the Bisto Kids Search competition page on the Aah Nightwebsite: www.aahnight.co.uk/bistokids or posted to: Bisto Kids Search, PO Box 100, 91 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8RT. 4. Red Letter day vouchers maybe subjectto conditions (includingexpirydates). 5. For full termsandconditions go towww.aahnight.co.uk. 6. StandardTrinityMirror Rules apply, seewww.mirror.co.uk/rules for details.

To find out more about Aah Night visitwww.aahnight.co.uk/bistokids

WE’RE LOOKINGFOR NEW

BISTO KIDS..

try to get together as a family for one extranight of the week for a proper home cookedmeal. Mums and Dads, if you support the idea,please sign the Aah Night Pledge atwww.aahnight.co.uk and enter your kids into oursearch to find the new Bisto Kids.

Family mealtimes are the perfectopportunity to catch up on what everyone’sbeen up to, to talk, gossip and just have alaugh; so what are we waiting for?

WANTED!5ENTHUSIASTIC YOUNGSTERS

..to be the faces of theAah Night campaign

* Prize includes at least 8 hours of media and promotional activityAAH BISTO, AAH NIGHT and BISTO are trademarks of the Premier Foods Group.

Daily MirrorTHURSDAY 04.11.201048

YourLifeWhere We get closer to YOU

Stabbed six times by the man she loved..

When Lorraine Ferns thinks of the man she loved for 25 years, she tries hard to focus on the happy early years of their relationship and not the brutal end.

She remembers their joy at the birth of their son, even though she was only 16 and boyfriend Stephen McDowall was just two years older.

And she recalls their excitement at moving into their first flat, their joyful holidays, their tender moments.

The fact that Lorraine can think such kind thoughts of Stephen takes courage and an astonishing ability to forgive.

For her ex-partner became so obsessed with her that she was left terrified for her life – then almost lost it when he mercilessly knifed her on supermarket steps.

Stephen, 41, then killed himself with the same blade.

Now, still bearing angry red gashes across her body from the attack only four months ago, Lorraine has managed to forgive the man who made her life hell – and feels deep sadness that he has gone.

Lorraine, 40, says: “I just feel pity that Stephen’s dead and I’m heartbroken. The man who stabbed me wasn’t the man I fell in love with all those years ago.

“He had serious problems and needed help. Stephen was never a violent man.

“He never accepted life without me.

“At least now he’s not suffering anymore, he’s at peace.”

Lorraine first met with Stephen in her h o m e t o w n o f

Kirkintilloch, on the edge of Glasgow, when she was only 13. It was love at first sight.

She says: “I couldn’t believe it when Stephen agreed to go out with me.

“He’d just moved to the area and I’d noticed him straight away.

“He seemed quite bashful and had such a lovely manner, but he was gorgeous too, with dark, floppy hair.

“I was only 13 and he was 15, we were childhood sweethearts I got pregnant two years later. It was a complete shock.”

The young coup le devoted themselves to parenthood when Stephen Junior was born in April 1987.

Eight months later they moved into their first flat together and settled into family life.

“I thought I was so lucky,” says Lorraine. “I had a gorgeous partner who was great dad to our beautiful baby son.

“Stephen was a landscape gardener who loved the outdoors and he took me and

our wee boy away on romantic camping trips to Loch Awe

or the River Tay. “He was so close to

Stephen Junior, he would climb trees to get chestnuts for him. We had so many great times together.”

But as their son grew up, Lorraine and Stephen grew apart.

She says: “Stephen really changed. He became more and

more withdrawn and would sit in s i l e n c e m o s t evenings.

“For years he h a d p l a y e d

football every Saturday with his pals but lost interest and quit.

“We had been together for about ten years when Stephen’s mum, Doris, died suddenly of a heart attack.

“He was really close to his mum and her death seemed to tip him over the edge.”

Not long after Doris’s death, Stephen was diagnosed with depression. He left his job and spent most of his time cooped up at the flat.

“Stephen suffered from terrible mood swings,” says Lorraine.

“My Stephen, the most gentle-natured person I had ever met, had gone and in his place was an angry, paranoid man. He would phone me constantly demanding to know where I was.

“He followed me to work one morning, when I was on starting at 6.30am.

“And when I was on a late shift he would ring me up every night.

At the end of her tether, Lorraine marched Stephen to his GP and went with him to see a psychiatrist.

He vowed not talk to professionals without her. Doctors said he completely depended on Lorraine.

But his depression, and obsession, were ruining their relationship.

Stephen started getting drunk and would try to kill himself.

“Stephen was never violent towards me, but he despised himself,” says Lorraine.

“He would smash up the house in sheer frustration. I would tidy up, time and time again, tears streaming down my face as I picked up broken plates and glass.

“I couldn’t go anywhere without looking over my shoulder. He even accused me of having an affair when

FAmily: lorraine and Stephen with their young son Stephen Junior

my Stephen was gone, replaced by a paranoid man

Enough: After 25 years, lorraine felt the man she loved was long gone

Would you forgive him?

Daily MirrorTHURSDAY 04.11.2010 49

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stabbed six times by the man she loved..

football every Saturday with his pals but lost interest and quit.

“We had been together for about ten years when Stephen’s mum, Doris, died suddenly of a heart attack.

“He was really close to his mum and her death seemed to tip him over the edge.”

Not long after Doris’s death, Stephen was diagnosed with depression. He left his job and spent most of his time cooped up at the flat.

“Stephen suffered from terrible mood swings,” says Lorraine.

“My Stephen, the most gentle-natured person I had ever met, had gone and in his place was an angry, paranoid man. He would phone me constantly demanding to know where I was.

“He followed me to work one morning, when I was on starting at 6.30am.

“And when I was on a late shift he would ring me up every night.

At the end of her tether, Lorraine marched Stephen to his GP and went with him to see a psychiatrist.

He vowed not talk to professionals without her. Doctors said he completely depended on Lorraine.

But his depression, and obsession, were ruining their relationship.

Stephen started getting drunk and would try to kill himself.

“Stephen was never violent towards me, but he despised himself,” says Lorraine.

“He would smash up the house in sheer frustration. I would tidy up, time and time again, tears streaming down my face as I picked up broken plates and glass.

“I couldn’t go anywhere without looking over my shoulder. He even accused me of having an affair when

I started going swimming with the girls from work.”

Last year Stephen pushed Lorraine too far. He questioned where she had bought some underwear, which he had bought her, and it was enough to make her end their relationship.

“We’d been together 25 years but the man I fell in love with had long gone,” says Lorraine.

“I told him to pack his bags. I

wanted my life back.” When Stephen moved out just

before Christmas, Lorraine’s relief was immense. But his relentless campaign continued.

“He would phone, at home or at work, constantly asking where I was,” says Lorraine.

“But I still felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I

no longer had to answer to him.”

But in June, events took a horrifying turn.

Stephen suspected Lorraine had an evening date, when she was going to the cinema with girlfriends.

He lurked outside the amusement arcade where she worked and

followed her to the local Tesco Metro store.

Earlier that day he had bought two knives and boasted to shop staff that they were for his wife.

Lorraine was on the steps of the store, trying to light a cigarette, when Stephen appeared.

“He asked me if I’d seen his brother, but I hadn’t. His eyes looked tormented, odd, crazed.

“Then he said, ‘If I can’t have you, then nobody else can’. And he plunged a kitchen knife into my stomach.

“I tried to shield myself with my arms as Stephen stabbed me again and again.

“My arms were sliced to pieces as and I could feel blood pouring down my face where he’d slashed me.

“It seemed to go on forever before I heard a young lad shout, ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

“It jolted Stephen into reality and he suddenly stopped the attack and fled.”

Witnesses say Lorraine crumpled to the ground clutching her stomach as blood poured down the supermarket steps.

Rushed to Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary, she needed nine hours of surgery.

Any of the 16 wounds to her neck or chest could have been fatal.

Stephen had missed her jugular and major organs by millimetres so she was lucky to be alive.

When Lorraine came round she found both her arms pinned above her head in splints.

Stephen had severed all the tendons in one arm and two of her fingers had been hanging off.

“But the worst was yet to come,” says Lorraine. “My doctor sat down next to the bed to break the news to me. Stephen was dead.

“I was devastated. After he’d

attacked me Stephen had phoned the police and confessed it all.

“ Then he’d gone to a quiet spot, behind McDonald’s in the centre of town, and plunged the blade into his heart and stomach.

“When police found him he still had a pulse and he’d died on the operating table, just downstairs from my hospital room.

“I was angry at Stephen, because he could have left our boy without

his parents and I’ll never forgive him for that.

“But he wasn’t a bad person. “If Stephen had got

more help he might have moved on.”

Lorraine has returned to work but needs weekly physiotherapy sessions and is living with her sister as her flat holds too many memories of her troubled ex.

“I grieve for Stephen every day,” says Lorraine.

“Not for the tormented man he had become, but the gentle person I fell in love with all these years ago.

“I’m almost relieved for him now that he’s in peace.”

Her ex-boyfriend followed her, left her terrified and stabbed her before killing himself, so how has Lorraine Ferns managed to do the one thing most people could not even dream about.. forgive him? By Karen Bale

SCARS: Lorraine still bears the marks from her attackPICTURE: MARTIN GILFEATHER

Stephen could have left our boy without parents

JEALOUS: Stephen destroyed their relationship with his obsession

Would you forgive him?