I lived in a good house with my mum and stepdad who I loved both to bits. My older sister was and still is the devil. She was incredibly abusive towards me as soon as she hit the teen years. She could be lovely to me one minute and then suddenly beat me black and blue the next. My mum knew but couldn't do much about it. She put a lock on my bedroom door so I could keep myself safe from my sister before her and my stepdad got home from work, but my sister managed to barge my door down when she wanted to get to me.

A few times the police had to be called as I was in real danger that my mum couldn't protect me against. My sister was so twisted she even got my mum arrested by saying my mum had been violent against her and wanted her charged. My mum spent a night in a cell because she was trying to protect me.

When my sister went to university, the house was so peaceful and family life was good. But my sister fell pregnant in her second year and planned to live back home for a year when the baby was born, which we were all dreading. Around this time, she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, but refused any sort of treatment or medication. We all read books and got advice on how to approach and live with my sister now we knew she lived with a mental disorder, but none of it helped.

I suffered so much physical and mental abuse, and knowing how peachy life could be without my sister, one day I just snapped. I was getting ready to go to school (I was about 17 at the time) and she came downstairs whilst I was getting some clothes out of the dryer. She started shouting and calling me names again out of the blue. I had my head in the dryer and was ignoring her, when she decided to start battering my head with the door of the machine. I start crying and calling for my mum, she runs downstairs and loses it, telling us to "sort it out yourselves." Those words from my mum killed me. Looking back on it now, I know it was because my mum was torn between her two daughters and wanted to help both of us, but I no longer had protection and had to get out of there. I went to school, had a think, came home and packed as much as I could and left. My sister was home when I was packing and didn't say a word. It was like this was what she had wanted.

I lived with relatives an hour away for the next few months until I had finished school and then moved into a different county with my boyfriend. I hadn't spoken to my mum or stepdad for two years before we decided to patch things up and I'm glad we did, because I love them so much. My sister lives further away now, and I have seen her a few times since, but each time she launches some sort of tirade against me. My mum has given up trying to get us to be friends - I'm not interested. Life is so much better without her in it.