text: 1995–2004 On her sixteenth birthday, Cindy sleeps with Lee Stanley (Nathan Valente). She soon finds that she is pregnant but, scared, tries to hide it. Stan offers to stand by Cindy throughout the pregnancy but she rejects him. Not long after, Stan is killed in a car crash,  along with his friend Ollie Benson (Paul Leyshon). Cindy gives birth in secret on Christmas Day 1997 and abandons her daughter at a nearby hospital. Her father, Gordon (Bernard Latham) tells Cindy she has responsibilities and forces her to look after the baby, who she names Holly (Katie Hynes). After giving birth to Holly, she is devastated to find out that her sister Dawn (Lisa Williamson) has died of leukemia. Cindy grows depressed and attempts to suffocate Holly; however, her sister Jude (Davinia Taylor) stops her from proceeding and makes her realise that she truly loves her daughter.
  After uneasy years of caring for Holly, Cindy and local decorator Sean Tate (Daniel Pape) begin dating. Secretly, though, Sean mistreats Holly. He is caught, locking her in a fridge by Cindy's brother Max Cunningham (Matt Littler). The social services get involved in Cindy's motherhood when Holly is burnt by a firework. Cindy sees no other option but to leave the country with Holly and Sean to get the social services off of her back. However, Holly does not have a passport and therefore, Sean immediately dumps a stranded Cindy and leaves the pair. Cindy returns to the village and begins to adapt to the life of a single mother.