There is something so vulnerable about writing about your childhood. It is a situation that if I am completely honest, I was not prepared for.

I have almost backed out of writing this so many times in the run up to publication of The Herald’s child poverty series.

That is partly because of the stigma and shame that often follows the label of growing up in poverty.

I know because I have lived it. I have been the child lying awake at night, cold and hungry. Going to bed and waking up the next day, still hungry, was the norm.

I do not have a specific memory in my life of realising my family was poor. Perhaps that means it was just the way things always were.

I do not write this for sympathy. In fact, people who personally know me understand that this is the last thing I would want or need.

But equally, I did not want to – and could not – write about poverty in such an intensive way without demonstrating that this is an issue that I genuinely care about.

Read more from The Herald's child poverty series:

Food bank support for children in Scotland ‘worse than ever'

This is what it's like inside Scotland's busiest food banks

80,000 children currently live in 'very deep poverty'

Families have trusted me with their stories. This week, The Herald will share many of them as part of our series: Scotland’s Forgotten Children: Poverty in Focus.

Some of........

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