In February 1993, Sandra Gregory made the news in a way which is probably every parents’ worst nightmare. She was arrested for drug smuggling in a country where such offences carry the death penalty. In the two years prior to her arrest she had been travelling around Thailand and living in Bangkok. However, unable to work because of recurrent illness, short of money and desperate to return home she was befriended by Robert Lock who, she claims, offered to pay her £1,000 in exchange for hiding drugs for his personal use and carrying them from Bangkok to Tokyo.

She was subsequently found guilty, but the mandatory death sentence was commuted and reduced to 99.9 years and then to 25 years. She was eventually allowed to transfer to a British prison after serving four years in Thailand and in July 2000 was granted a Royal Pardon by the King of Thailand. However, the basic facts of her story do not do justice to what was a powerful and moving evening.

Sandra Gregory is an engaging and honest speaker. Initially she appears flippant, yet beneath this there is a real passion. She exposes her own folly with great candour and is equally forthright about the consequences of her own mistakes.

Yet at no point is she mawkishly sentimental or tries to excuse herself.

Hearing her talk with such honesty about her own naivety and how her impulsiveness led to her acceptance of potentially dangerous situations must have been worrying for any parents in the audience, and yet it is this forthrightness which is her strength and which establishes her credibility with young people – and will hopefully make them aware of the need to learn from her errors rather than commit the same mistakes themselves.

Gill O’Donnell