Being kicked out by her parents forced Kim into a life being bought by men for sex.

Now she’s afraid she has to go back to that life after the pandemic just to keep her child alive.

“Looking back now I know I could have ended up dead,” said Kim, who has agreed to speak to the Reporter about her and her fellow Dumbarton and the Vale sex workers’ fears for their safety.

The coronavirus lockdown plunged many sex workers into poverty as regular “clients” avoided the industry.

Women were left unable to cover the basic costs of living without government support.

Sex workers said they feel vulnerable about their future and think the pandemic will drive sex work into the ground, leaving them with nothing to provide for their families.

Kim has been a sex worker in Dumbarton and the Vale for nearly 10 years. She was forced into the industry when she was made homeless at the age of 18.

She hadn’t eaten for two days when she entered into sex work for the first time, accepting £20 from a middle aged man in an alleyway.

She said: “I was desperate for the money. I honestly didn’t see the point in living. I hated myself as I had no money, no family and nothing to look forward to. It was this or nothing.

“Nobody knows what is going to happen in a situation like that.”

However, now more so than ever Kim is terrified to go back to work, but knows it is the only way of supporting her young baby.

"Living in an area with one of the highest deprivation rates in the country, she said she sees no choice.

“I will do whatever it takes to support my baby, it is what any mother would do,” she told the Reporter.

“I really want to provide a future that doesn’t involve this type of work, but it is the only thing I have got right now that can keep my baby fed and clothed.

"It is even riskier now with the threat of the virus around for us.

“I am aware if I don’t return to work then I won’t be able to feed my child and I am basically close to living in poverty as it is.”

Kim said she has to constantly fight with her local sexual health clinic to get regular HIV testing.

She explained the implications of revealing her job status: “If you reveal to the doctors what you do, they won’t give you the time of day.

"I keep it a secret because I want to stay protected, but that means I have to wait months to get tested. It is a vicious cycle.”

Sex work is legal in Scotland if people work alone and indoors. However, sex workers loitering on streets and working in brothels are criminal offences.

Workers in Scotland have raised concerns with the government throughout the pandemic, with Glasgow-based charity Umbrella Lane saying their network of 500 sex workers needed an emergency fund of £20,000 for the hardest hit.

Some are unable to register as self-employed so are not eligible for government grant.

The charity itself said it was excluded from a £60,000 Scottish Government pledge to support women affected during the pandemic.

The government said they funded a separate network of nine organisations offering support.

As well as the fear of supporting themselves and their families financially, sex workers also face the threat of violence.

Another worker, Anna, used to share a flat with a sex worker who provided services through webcam in Dumbarton.

She says she struggled to receive post-exposure medication after a HIV-positive client which she was unaware of removed his condom during their encounter, despite her instructions to have protected sex.

The client then messaged her afterwards to tell her the news.

“I literally dropped my phone when I received the text message,” she told the Reporter.

“I thought the client just found out from the doctors, but the fact that he knew he had this disease before we did anything and is so willing to deliberately infect others makes my stomach flip.”

She had to visit three different sexual health clinics in West Dunbartonshire and in the city of Glasgow to obtain antiretroviral medication in time, but with no success.

Anna said she couldn’t believe it when one doctor attempted to explain to her that the declared HIV-positive client being from an Asian origin significantly lowered her chances of getting infected.

Charities such as the Terrence Higgins Trust has made it clear that gender, ethnicity and race does not have an impact on the chances of infection, but people from high HIV populated areas are more at risk.

Anna is now fighting to help protect sex workers of their rights in West Dunbartonshire to prevent others going though similar ordeals. She wants more to be done.

She said: “Nobody else is going to fight our cause. Nobody of importance is ever going to understand the brutal experiences we have had just to earn an income.”

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the women.