Speak Out: Alice Randell felt there was no way out when she attempted suicide following childhood sexual abuse but says it's important to share how you're feeling when you hit rock bottom

According to the Office of National Statistics, the female suicide rate increased to its highest rate in a decade.

Alice Randell knows better than anyone these shocking statistics ring true - she has tried to take her own life three times.

Now, after spending more than seven months in hospital, she is ready to share her story and encourage others to speak out before it’s too late.

ALICE Randell sits opposite me playing with a plastic band, she needs something in her hands to keep her mind occupied.

I ask to see the scars on her wrists and she takes off her watch to show me.

“People have asked whether I would get a tattoo to cover them,” she says.

“But they are a part of who I am, and I would rather people just ask me about them.”

I do exactly that, and afterwards Miss Randell, 29, from Birch, is the bravest woman I have ever met.

Her life changed when she was 14 years old, a Year 9 pupil at St Helena School - she was sexually abused at a friend’s house.

“It took about four months to actually say anything,” she said.

“I told another friend and my head of year.

“I remember sitting in her office and not being able to say anything so I wrote it all down, I remember it like it was yesterday.”

The case was dropped due to a lack of evidence, but it has had a lifelong effect on Alice’s mental health.

She was bullied at school and fell into depression in her late teens, but after a six-month “blip” her mood lifted.

She got engaged to her partner, Dave Simpson, in August last year, and she was doing well in her job as a student paramedic.

However, following a head injury in September while on a charity walk in Slovenia, she was signed off work and the dark thoughts started coming back.

She said: “With a combination of being off work and not being able to do a lot, things got on top of me and I didn’t see it until it was too late.”

In November last year, she took an overdose at home, while Dave was at work.

“It wasn’t planned, it was impulsive,” she said. “I just woke up and thought I can’t carry on like this.

“After about an hour I started feeling drowsy and messaged one of my friends who is in the ambulance service saying sorry, I’m not going to be around for much longer.”

An ambulance took her to the Linden Centre in Chelmsford, and from there she was transferred to the Lakes in Colchester.

She said: “I woke up in intensive care and was just shocked I was still here.

“I woke up crying, it was a mixture of emotions and I didn’t really feel any better.”

After feeling there was no way out, she was sectioned and was kept in hospital until March this year, undergoing electroconvulsive therapy.

She was due to be married, with great friends and family, but while in a dark place none of it mattered to her.

She overdosed again a couple of days after being discharged, and was kept in hospital again until May.

She said: “After that I was over the moon to be home, albeit anxious because seven months in hospital is a long time.

“You become institutionalised, so the anxiety of being out is horrendous.”

She spoke to a psychologist after leaving the hospital, but all it did was let her skeletons out of the closet one more time, and earlier this month she ended up in hospital again.

“I should have been really happy,” she said. “We had just bought a kitten to join our family.

“I just felt really low, I was wandering around outside in the middle of the night.

Because I was having a psychotic episode I didn’t know where I was.

“I had phoned the out of hours helpline and there was a search for me.

“I just remember waking up in the emergency assessment unit with two police officers.”

Alice took a trip to the bathroom and tried to hang herself.

She was transferred straight to a hospital in Potters Bar, and was only discharged a couple of weeks ago.

She is not receiving any home treatment, which she feels is essential for her recovery.

She said: “I told them I thought I had been sent home too early, but they didn’t take that into account.

“I was feeling doubtful anyway and that just made it even worse.”

Despite it being a bumpy road, she is now running with Team Together, a group helping people with a mental illness, and has continued to volunteer for the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance for five years.

She said: “I am one for keeping my feelings in and not sharing, but now I know it’s so important to speak out and listen to your friends when they say they are there for you.

“I can’t stress enough how important it is to tell people how you are feeling.”

Her wedding, on September 14, will be her “happily ever after”.