Penny Lancaster: Bullies beat me until I bled and pelted me with eggs
Penny Lancaster has revealed school bullies once rammed a bicycle into the back of her legs until they beld.
The Loose Women star is taking part in the Diana Award’s Anti-Bullying Programme Back2School campaign and breaks down in tears in a moving video, obtained by the Telegraph in which she shares her memories of being bullied through secondary school.
Lancaster, 48, recalled: “It went from calling names, things being thrown at me, my hair pulled, to being smacked, to being followed home.
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“One day, two girls from an older year and a boy on a bike [followed me], the girls were teasing me and they had the boy ram his bike up the back of my legs until they bled. Of course I ran home crying to my mum.”
In another incident she revealed she was pelted with eggs and flour by a group of girls on her last day of school.
The model - who has two sons with 74-year-old rock star husband Sir Rod Stewart - revealed she once went to school with the word ‘Spam’ written on her head in defiance of the bullies.
Lancaster explained: “The bullying started with just name calling. I was different because I was taller than not just the girls but the boys - ‘Penny long legs’...
“They used to come up me and slap me on the head and call me ‘Spam head’. And I got fed up with that so one day I went into shcool and I wrote on my head the word ‘Spam’ as if to say, ‘I know. You can stop now.’ And they did.”
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The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant breaks down in tears early on in the video clip, simply from lookin at a picture of herself in her school uniform.
She said: “I didn’t think I was going to cry...
“When I looked at the photo it does take you back. Some days were tough.”
Peter Andre also shares his painful memories of being bullied as part of the new campaign which encourages people to share their own experiences on social media to show any victim of bullying that they are not alone.
The Diana Award encourages a mentoring programme, in which children are given the chance to turn to an older pupil for support.