At first, Jackie's unusual and dangerous work had been opposed from both sides - by the churches and the Triads. Many church members believed Christianity was only for "respectable" people.

Jackie promised herself very early on that she would never ask for money for her work. But money started flooding in. She quit her school job and was offered monthly payments to support her work. She accompanied one of the boys from her house to court, and sometime later found was sent a large sum of money from the legal aid department, even though Jackie had never asked for legal aid, and tried to send it back.

Jackie's efforts to show and tell the love of Jesus eventually had an amazing degree of success. She also received help from some of the most unlikely places.

She won the trust and approval of the very groups she opposed: the Triads. After Jackie's youth club was destroyed by vandals one night, a Triad boss sent guards to watch the building and make sure it didn't happen again. This same gang boss later arranged a meeting with Jackie.

He told her that he didn't want his gang members to be addicts any more than she did. She had succeeded where he had failed and therefore he would support her as she helped to free get his men off drugs.

Jackie's response was uncompromising. She told him simply that she wouldn't help the boys escape their addictions purely for them to become gangsters again. If they were to be followers of Jesus, they had to leave the gangs altogether. To her astonishment, the gang boss still offered to guard her house, and renounced all claim on those boys who chose to become Christians. It was unprecedented in Hong Kong gang culture, where people were bound to the Triads for their entire lives.

As Jackie's work grew, she found herself able to open a second house. By the time a third home was needed, Jackie, with the help of a couple of American missionaries, set up the St Stephen's Society, which continues its work in Hong Kong and south-east Asia today.

The society has become one of the most successful drug rehabilitation programmes in the world, rescuing hundreds of young people from a life of misery on the streets.