Formula 1 legend's daughter opens up about homelessness

Christianne's father - Innes Ireland - won the Grand Prix when she was three years old in 1961

The daughter of a Formula 1 legend has described how she went from jet setting to homelessness before turning her life around.

Christianne Ireland grew up following her father Innes Ireland around race tracks, spending her days with champions like Stirling Moss and Graham Hill.

But in 2016 she said she found herself homeless and addicted to alcohol.

She credits volunteering at a small allotment with saving her life.

Recalling the first years of her life with her father, she said it was like "living in a circus".

"Obviously Stirling was his greatest friend. Frank Williams would pop round and it would be we're going over to Stirling's for supper and I'd be put in the car and off we'd go," she said.

"Everybody's door was open, unlike Formula 1 now."

But after years of owning cars like Aston Martins and travelling the world, she ended up with just one suitcase outside a homeless shelter in Andover, Hampshire.

"It was like falling out of an ivory tower," she said.

Christianne said volunteering in a small allotment saved her life

At the time she was 58 years old, had faced two divorces, was addicted to alcohol and had no choice but to move from her former home in Berkshire.

"From eight in the morning I would have to be out of the hostel. I wasn't streetwise. I didn't know anyone there," she said.

"The main part of my day was making sure I didn't go and have a drink because once that started all hell would be let lose."

As part of her recovery from alcoholism, Christianne was encouraged to volunteer for Hampshire charity Unity. She began helping out at a small allotment in Andover.

"On the days it was really bad and I wanted to go out and pick up a drink all I had to do was put one foot in front of the other and get to the allotment," she explained.

Christianne and her parents lived a jet set lifestyle

The allotment soon gave her a glimmer of hope and after a few months she managed to find a job and rent a flat.

Now the 65-year-old works as a support manager for Unity and helps oversee a food pantry project.

"I grew with the allotment," she said.

Arriving in Andover was one of the toughest periods in Christianne's life. But she also believes losing everything made her a better person.

"In a way I look at it on hindsight as a snake shedding its skin and I then found me," she said.

Christianne is encouraging other people to consider volunteering as a New Year's resolution.

"It's never too late to make a change. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and things will happen," she added.

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