Tim, (not his real name), from Ammanford, was 11 and in his first year in secondary school when he was bullied.

"I remember the first time it happened so well, even now, almost nine years on. I was getting on the bus and someone pulled my jumper. I was one of the smaller boys, very small for my age I suppose, and I was always being teased for that - pokes and prods were par for the course.

The problem was that this tug was particularly sharp and I almost lost my balance. It unnerved me a bit. I turned around to see these two lads looking at me and laughing at my reaction. They frightened me, but I tried not to show it and I got on the bus.

I saw the two boys a couple of times in school during my first week, but they didn't seem to recognise me. I thought I was off the hook until about a fortnight after the first incident when they cornered me in the boys' toilets. I got a taste of what it was like to see the inside of a bog. From then on I seemed to spend my whole life looking out for the bully boys as I called them.

The knock-on effects of this were that I became very withdrawn and I found it hard to get to know other people in my class. I didn't want anyone to find out what was going on so I didnt talk to the other kids and I became a bit of a loner.

The really sad thing about it was that we'd just moved from quite a small village to the outskirts of town because of my father's work. The comprehensive I was going to meant I wasn't in the same school as lots of my friends and looking back I can see that I had no real support network to call on.

Advice

I can also see now that I made a mistake not telling anyone what was going on. I was a good footballer and one of the older boys in the squad saw the two thugs picking on me one day. All it took was a few abusive remarks and they left me alone. I couldn't believe it. I'd thought I had to put up with it. I know now that I didn't and there were other options open to me - I think there are many more for kids in a similar position now and I'd really encourage them to use them.

I met a bully in the first week of university. He tried to intimidate me because of my Welsh accent - but he didn't succeed. A kind of self-defence mechanism has developed in me since my secondary school days and I won't be bullied now. Nor will I tolerate seeing it done to other people.

It wasn't a cool experience, but it was certainly character building."

Tim, Ammanford