"I had cramps because I had no food. I got really, really weak. There were times that I couldn't lift my head off the pillow," recollects Karen, who turned to Christians Against Poverty when she and her husband Mark found themselves pushed to the edge by debt.
When Karen was diagnosed with a terminal illness, Mark had to give up work to look after her. But the effect on the family was devastating. The income dropped, the debt started to pile up and soon £140 a week was all they had to feed their three children and keep their house running.
"I was in pain all of the time because I had no food. If it came to the point of feeding me or my kids though, the food always went to my kids," says Karen.
Tony and Carol found themselves in a similar crisis when Tony was diagnosed with a serious illness and could no longer continue working. "Before we knew it we were in so much debt that we just didn't know where to turn," says Carol. "We were getting phone calls saying that the bailiffs were coming. But my husband was so ill."
CAP's Tina Morris says, "Because it can only take a change in circumstance such as illness, redundancy or divorce for manageable credit to become unaffordable debt, debt is a problem that is severely affecting modern-day society."
The most vulnerable are single mothers and low income families. "If you've got a low income it doesn't take much for finances to become a problem. These families can't be so flexible with the work they get," explains Dan Chapman, who has been running CAP's Wandsworth branch at St Mark's Battersea Rise in London for the last four years.
For some, the debt runs into tens of thousands of pounds. For others it can be a few hundred pounds. The despair it induces, however, is the same, and some are even contemplating suicide by the time of their first meeting with a CAP counsellor.
"Shame and embarrassment about the stigma of money problems make the problem harder to spot. Poverty caused by debt is therefore often unseen," says Tina.
Carol remembers all too well the darker moments. "At times we couldn't even afford bread and milk. I was about to burst, I felt so suicidal. We felt like getting a gun and shooting ourselves - it was torture."
