In 2016 Emily Gibbs lost custody of her five-year-old son, was kicked out of her home and then jailed for attacking two women during a drunken brawl in McDonald’s.

Life could barely have looked more bleak for the 23-year-old, who was even stabbed by another inmate during her time behind bars.

But seven years on the future appears much brighter for the mum-of-two from Faversham, who was determined the daughter she had after her release from prison would not pay for the mistakes she had made.

She says the unexpected arrival of Billie, now four, in 2019 was the point at which she knew she had to turn her life around.

But the journey to redemption has not been without its obstacles, with the pair bumped from one temporary home to another since Billie was born.

Only last month KentOnline reported how the young family were just weeks away from being on the streets after a long-awaited offer of a permanent home was withdrawn by Hyde Housing when it learned of Emily’s chequered past.

But days after we published the story of their plight, West Kent Housing Association reached out to the mum to say it had a flat the pair could call their own.

Now settled in at their new home, Emily, 29, said: “It’s such a relief to have found somewhere permanent, I can barely describe it – it just hasn’t sunk in yet.

“At the minute I still feel like I’m in a bit of a daydream. I’m floating around thinking ‘is this real or am I going to get a call from the council telling us we have to move again?’

“Billie’s lived in eight homes before this one, but here she’s just flourishing already, having her own space and her own room.

“She’s a completely different child in the space of a week.”

In 2016, after losing custody of her then five-year-old son, Emily was evicted from her home for anti-social behaviour and then jailed following a drunken attack sparked by a row over queue-jumping inside Canterbury’s McDonalds.

After her arrest, Gibbs told police: “I’m as guilty as sin. Drinking just sends me into someone I don’t even know who I am.”

Canterbury Crown Court was told how one of Emily’s two victims suffered a broken elbow in the unsavoury incident.

Describing how she felt after being jailed for nine months, Emily said: “It is the worst feeling in the world.

“It was embarrassing and degrading. I was in my 20s, I was a mother and I was going to prison for a fight in McDonalds. I just felt ashamed.

“It was terrifying being sentenced and learning I was going to do time; more for my son because I was thinking what this was going to do to him and what he’s going to think of his mum.

“The lack of control over a situation and not being able to be there for my son sent me into a major depression.”

Emily says her time behind bars was intimidating, and even saw her being attacked for rejecting another inmate’s advances.

“When you go into prison you realise how much more vulnerable a person you are on the inside than you are on the outside, and it’s horrible,” she said.

“While inside I got stabbed in the leg because I wasn’t sexually attracted to another girl who was obviously into me.

“I laughed out of awkwardness and said ‘sorry love I don’t swing that way’.

“The next thing I know I have a pen jabbed into my leg. Unfortunately she thought I was taking the mick out of her and stabbed me.”

Upon her release, Emily quickly found work and ended up taking on three jobs to try to support herself.

It was while working at Iceland in the day, a pub in the evening and a nightclub at weekends that she was shocked to find out she had again fallen pregnant.

She’d had her son at 17, but two years later had been told that a medical issue had rendered her infertile.

Finding out she was expecting again at 26, Emily chose to take this as the sign she had been looking for to transform her life.

She said: “I was still living a bit of the party life and then the day I fell pregnant with Billie everything came to an end. I just stopped everything and it has just been me and her since.

“I had tried for several years with a previous boyfriend to have another child and it hadn’t worked and at that point I’d given up.

“I thought I wasn’t meant to be a mum, that this was all my life could be. I went back to being my destructive self and then I went to prison.

“I came out of prison and then I fell pregnant with Billie after seeing someone for a matter of weeks.”

Emily says she left Billie’s father and carried on being homeless with her daughter.

“Then this place popped up after everything we have been through,” she said.

“After two years of emergency accommodation and a year of sofa surfing, we have finally got our fresh start.”

Emily says being “trapped” in a single room full of their belongings for the last year has had an impact on Billie, but she is already seeing a positive difference in their new home.

“It has caused lots of disruptive behaviour, like ripping up paper and drawing on walls,” she said.

“Since we moved in we haven’t had any problems and she has been so helpful.

“She’s just over the moon to have the space to run around and she just can’t get over how much room she’s got to play.

“Seeing Billie play I just sobbed because she’s able to be a child now. She’s not just locked in a room now and she’s just able to be a kid again – there are no words to describe my happiness for her.”

This September Billie is starting primary school, which is just across the road from their home.

Once her daughter has started in reception class, Emily plans to return to education and continue the training to be a veterinary nurse that she was forced to leave when she fell pregnant as a teenager.

“We’re happy, we’re settled, and I couldn’t thank Hyde Housing anymore for rejecting me and giving me this opportunity with West Kent, because they are the most supportive housing association I’ve ever heard of in my life,” said Emily, who still sees her son, who is now aged 12 and lives with his father.

“All I care about is Billie’s happiness. I just want her to be happy, and that she has a stable, happy environment is everything.”