My girl died after eating 15 pens, broken glass some pills and 10 wire hangers

A GRIEVING mum has told how her self-harming daughter- hooked on swallowing objects-was killed by a tiny PEN she gulped down.

Tragic Kayleigh Bird was just 21 when she bled to death after the pen-like those given away in bookies-ruptured her bowel.

During the previous seven years Kayleigh had overdosed on pills- and swallowed pieces of broken GLASS, a total of 15 PENS and ten metal COAT-HANGER handles.

But, in a warning to other parents, her heartbroken mum Michelle, 42, told the News of the World that her daughter did NOT want to die-and her actions were a cry for help. She said: "Kayleigh thought she was invincible. She said she didn't do it to end her life. They were cries for attention.

"My message to people who self-harm is: 'You're going to kill yourself by accident. Don't do it to yourself or your family.'"

Michelle recalled how up to the age of 14 Kayleigh was a happy, normal girl. But her parents then divorced and Kayleigh and her two sisters moved with their mum from Colchester, Essex, to Pontefract, West Yorks.

Fun-loving

Michelle said: "Up until she changed schools, she was a happy, well-adjusted, fun-loving teenager. She loved the Spice Girls, especially Mel C, and never missed an episode of Hollyoaks.

"But because of her southern accent, she struggled to fit in at her Yorkshire school and was bullied.

"I constantly tried to get her to open up but she became secretive. Almost overnight, her whole attitude changed. She became very argumentative and her bedroom was totally out of bounds.

"I wanted to respect her privacy but I was out of my mind with worry, wondering what was going on behind her door."

When she was 15 her mum discovered her shocking secret.

Kayleigh had raided the family's medicine cupboard and overdosed. She collapsed at a friend's house and was rushed to hospital.

Sobbing

Her mum was at her bedside when she regained consciousness. Michelle said: "We fell sobbing into each other's arms. I asked her: 'Why did you do it?' But there weren't any answers on offer. The bullying was obviously making her unhappy but it wasn't extreme enough to explain this."

Kayleigh was assigned a counsellor but her overdoses became a monthly, then an almost weekly, occurrence.

"The staff at the hospital kept saying: 'It's a typical teenage cry for help,'" said Michelle, who's remarried.

"But I knew it was something more. My two other daughters had never done this."

Worse was to come. Kayleigh started picking up broken glass in the street and slashing her arms. Then she went through a phase of straightening and swallowing coat-hanger hooks. And when she was 20 she began swallowing pens.

She had seven operations to remove items she'd gulped down, and her stomach became criss-crossed with scars.

Eventually Kayleigh was diagnosed with a self-harming compulsion and given specialist help at a unit in Mansfield, Notts.

But while she was staying there two months ago she swallowed the 5cm-long pen that killed her.

The last time Michelle spoke to her was the following morning- November 29-on the phone.

"Kayleigh said: 'Are you angry with me, Mum?' I told her: 'No darling, I can't be angry with you because I love you.'" Three days later Kayleigh died.

Mortuary

Michelle said: "The pen was supposed to pass through her system - like many of the others had. Only this one perforated her bowel and killed her in her sleep. At the mortuary my husband Martin had to identify her. I couldn't accept she was gone.

"There was not one member of Kayleigh's family who didn't love her to bits. The tragedy is she just couldn't see it."

Michelle added: "If telling Kayleigh's story stops just one family going through what we did, I'll be happy. To every parent I say, if your child's temperament changes, don't turn a blind eye.

"Self-harming is a cry for help we must all answer."