A WOMAN who suffered years of domestic abuse and resorted to faking her own death when her husband tried to strangle her has written a book about her survival.

Sharon Ponsford, whose daughter Sharissa recently appeared on Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins, has spent 10 years writing the biography, retelling events in her life with the aim of inspiring others who have or are currently suffering similar violence.

The 49-year-old, who was a military wife, has spent 10 years writing her life story and now it is destined for the shelves in Waterstones.

“I started writing the book as a way of therapy,” she told the Advertiser. “My life didn’t really begin until I was 35 because of everything that has happened to me.

“It left me feeling like I didn’t know who I was.”

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Sharon, from Swindon, saw her attacker - a war veteran - jailed in the wake of the incident.

She suffered physical and mental abuse for years but said it was the love for her two children that finally gave her the willpower to leave the relationship, seeking the support of a women’s refuge.

Her road to recovery was a rocky one. She was seriously hurt when she was hit by a car while crossing the road and underwent six operations over the space of seven years to repair her fractured pelvis, back injury and other broken bones.

She said: “I’ve come to terms with that the choices we make dictate our lives. Some things you have to deal with and go on to the next chapter.

“I coped and got through what I have because there was no other option, it also helped me by sharing my story.”

Sharon, whose early life was damaged by the departure of her father and having to cope with her mother’s alcoholism, explained she was also keen to help other people having to face abuse in the home. “Please do not suffer in silence like I did.

“My life has now began so please let yours begin,” she said.

Her book, My Life Began is available from Greywood Publishing as well as independent bookshops and can be ordered online through Amazon.