LEANNE Johnson was a happy-go-lucky teenager from a loving family — but when she fell in with the wrong crowd and started taking drugs everything changed.

Eight years later, addicted to heroin and crack cocaine and selling her body on the streets, she took the drastic step of turning to a television programme for help.

With the support of her family and The Jeremy Kyle Show, she managed to get clean.

But tragically, after turning her life around, she died from a cardiac arrest aged just 26.

Now her mother and two sisters hope her story — being told on the ITV1 show today — will serve as a warning to others to prevent families suffering the same heartache.

Sister Melanie Gatis, aged 43, who lives in Lostock, said: "She contacted the Jeremy Kyle Show last year, to our despair, because it's not something we would do.

"She was selling her body on the streets. She had no veins in her body. She was doing anything to get money.

"Those were things we were not aware of."

Miss Johnson started taking drugs at the age of 18 when she fell in with a bad crowd — and later turned to prostitution on the streets of Bolton to fund her habit.

The shocking extent of just how far her life had spiralled out of control and the dark secrets she was keeping were only revealed when the family went to film the programme.

Former Deane School pupil Miss Johnson, who studied hairdressing and beauty at Bolton College, was first filmed at the studios last May and was put on a 12 step rehabilitation programme which she successfully completed, spending four months in Luton.

She was settled at home in Church Street, Westhoughton, where she lived with her mother Pamela Johnson, but died on September 9 last year, less than a week after her second visit to the show's studios.

Mrs Gatis said: "She was fine, she had had a night in with my mum and was doing applications for Westhoughton College."

Ms Johnson thought she was sleeping but, realising something was wrong, dialled 999. Her daughter suffered a cardiac arrest in the ambulance.

Mrs Gatis said: "It was severe. She had tried everything.

"She had detoxed but obviously people go back to it.

"For a little girl that was brought up so perfectly — she was the loveliest girl, she didn't really drink or smoke.

"She was just a normal teenager, that's what shocked us."

Now the family wants the hard-hitting programme to be shown in secondary schools.

Mrs Gatis said: "We have seen it.

"We knew it was going to be hard-hitting — it was tough.

"It's the first time they have ever done an hour-long special on anybody.

"It's the worst case of addiction they have ever seen.

"They have done so much for us. The show gets a bad press but they gave us so much support. They phoned up every other day when she was in rehab."

Several members of the show's production team attended her funeral at Overdale Crematorium and the family went back on the programme in October to film the final segment.

Ms Johnson, aged 67, who now lives in Chew Moor, said: "I know that Leanne would've wanted to get the message out there as a warning to others.

"We decided she had not gone through it for nothing. The story needed to be told.

"We're all very close — it was like she had three mums."

She added: "The people on the show have been absolutely brilliant.

"They offered us counselling — anything we need. They have just been there for us all the time."

A spokesman for the Jeremy Kyle Show said: "The family wanted to do the programme so that people can be made aware of the dangers of drugs.

"There was no audience when the family came back in.

"We have never done a show like this before.

"It was devastating for everyone that worked on the programme. We had never experienced anything like that.

"She was 26-years-old and had her whole life in front of her. The family contacted the show as a last resort. It's really sad."

The Jeremy Kyle Show is on ITV1 today at 9.25am.