When Rickeesha Binns' incredible voice soared out in Southampton yesterday as she helped open a new drug recovery facility for women it was difficult to imagine her as a down-and-out crack addict.

The 31-year-old's powerful singing — which reduced some audience members to tears — and her immaculate appearance suggested a life far removed from drug dependency.

But four years ago, Ms Binns' situation was so desperate that she contemplated suicide, planning to take her own life by smoking enough crack cocaine to "blow my heart".

"I was tired of the struggle," she told The Royal Gazette. "But every time I brought the pipe to my face I couldn't do it. I started praying and crying. The next day it was arranged for me to go abroad."

Ms Binns' story is a heartbreaking one — her parents both had addictions and in 1995 she lost her mother in a bike accident and her father to AIDS, shortly before the death of her much-loved grandfather.

"I went back to college and was raped," she said. "I found that drinking and smoking marijuana took away the pain. I didn't have to deal with it."

Her addiction to alcohol and crack eventually led to her living on Court Street unable to break free from the "nasty environment" she found herself in.

"I'd just be trying to get help but I could never find it," she said. "There were no facilities here for women except outpatients and research has shown that in order to be successful addicts need six months to a year. We are sick. It's like any disease."

Ms Binns, from St. George's, was lucky to have, unlike most addicts, the financial support of her family. She was saved by a six-month stint at a Fellowship Deliverance Ministries facility in Georgia followed by three months at Pathways Center in the same state.

Apart from a brief two-day relapse last year, she has now been in recovery for four years, been a runner-up in the Bermuda Idol contest and is determined to return to college and forge a career helping people with mental and drug problems.

In the meantime, she wants to shout from the rooftops about the Island's first transitional living centre for female drug addicts — a facility she feels certain could have helped her.

"It's phenomenal," she said. "Words can't describe what I'm experiencing now when I see this."

Earlier, she broke into sobs as she addressed the audience gathered for the official opening of Marlborough Gardens, which will house eight or nine women recovering from addiction.

"I had a family but most of us don't. When I wanted recovery there was nothing here for me. Now I can say to women you have a place where you can go."