BOLTON hair and beauty salon owner Helen Wood has called her shock Big Brother victory "a godsend".

The 27-year-old, from Bromley Cross, thanked viewers for voting for her to be crowned winner of the Channel 5 reality show.

She now hopes to put her past problems behind her as she looks towards a happy and stable future with son Jack, aged 10.

And Helen says this will be helped after she scooped the show’s life-changing prize sum of £100,000.

The former Thornleigh School pupil, who owns Dolly’s in Chorley Old Road, said: “The majority of the money is going to be for stability for my son, and I’m going to treat the people who have been there for me.

“Going back four years and my life was turned absolutely upside-down.

“Those people still remain in my life and have stood by me.”

In 2009, she hit the headlines due to a sex scandal involving another Bolton woman, Jenny Thompson, and Manchester United footballer Wayne Rooney.

Ms Wood said: “The £100,000 means absolutely nothing when for years and years I have been slated as a kiss and tell girl when that’s not what I was and to finally get rid of that name.

“I won’t be doing a book, I’m not a kiss and tell girl.

“I just want to say a massive thank you to people for giving me the opportunity to prove that I’m not the person that I was portrayed to be four years ago and to thank people for picking up the phone.

“In total, I had 137,000 calls. I couldn’t even believe 37 people would pick the phone up.

“I was just so overwhelmed. I couldn’t believe the support I have had.

“If you compare my Twitter to what it was like four years ago, this is just a godsend.

“I did have a lot of haters in Bolton, but I also know a lot of the town was backing me up as well.

“Any support from my home town means more than anything.

“I’m going to go back to work in the next couple of weeks.

“I’ve missed working and the girls as well.

“They have kept the shop going and I’ve had a lot of support from my clients.”

On day one in the house, Ms Wood was guaranteed a place in the final after housemate Pauline Bennett selected her for a “power trip” reward.

In the weeks that followed, Ms Wood says she was portrayed as the “villain of the house” and was seen clashing with some housemates, including 18-year-old runner-up Ashleigh Coyle, who many tipped to win.

She said: “People have come up to me on nights out and said, ‘you don’t understand, we could see what Ashleigh’s game plan was.’ “No-one has condoned how I behaved but they liked how honest I was.

“They get 47 minutes to watch a programme covering 24 hours.

“I wish they had seen the times I had been so good to people.

“If anyone was down in that house, it was me that was there first to comfort someone.”

Ms Wood is delighted to be reunited with her group of close friends, including Michelle Morton, aged 27, who lives in Heaton, Bekii Edge, aged 21, who lives in Breightmet, and Beth Crompton, aged 28, who lives in Horwich.

She said: “It’s been really emotional. I’ve really missed them.

“They are not just my friends, they are my family.”