Melinda Ferguson is the Features Editor at True Love magazine. Shortlisted for several prestigious awards, including the Revlon Woman of Courage, she devotes her time to writing and speaking publicly about her battle with drug addiction and raising her sons.

Smacked: A Harrowing True Story of Addiction and Survival is the raw account of Melinda’s relationship with heroin and crack cocaine, her headlong tumble into an addiction which robbed her of everything she cared about. Melinda not only survived, but recovered to tell the story of how an intelligent, middle-class young woman from Joburg hit rock bottom, face first, and clawed her way back to redemption. Melinda's much anticipated second book Hooked: secrets and highs of a sober addict, published by Penguin, is expected to hit the shelves in May 2010.

Melinda is an inspiration to anyone who has ever faced hardship and, as Radio 702 John Robbie says: "Melinda Ferguson is a person of rare courage and honesty. You've got to hear this woman's story."

The overriding message of her story is that no matter what happens in one's life, there is always the possibility of change and deliverance from sadness, damage and despair.