“Stella is just like a tiny bird. This is my first impression of her. A quiet little sparrow of a girl.” In her brand new series ‘Thrown Away Children’, Louise Allen shares the harrowing stories she is exposed to as a foster mother. The first in the series, Stella’s Story, tells the astonishing true story of a young girl scarred by an abusive past. Named after the lager that christened her at birth, Stella’s life is characterised instability and neglect. Her teenage mother abandons her in the first few weeks of her life, and left in the ‘care’ of her father, she ends up lying deserted in a house with no food, no water, no clothes, and no warmth. For little Stella, it seems as if she’s been discarded for good. Constantly shifted back and forth between caregivers, she eventually lands in the care of foster carer Louise, who is determined to change her life for the better. Things seem to be going well – but when Stella has a startling response to having her photo taken, it becomes clear the scars of her abuse run deeper than anyone could have ever guessed. Often painful, but ultimately uplifting, this is a story of rebuilding a childhood from the ground up, and the heroism of one woman helping her recover.