Pete Big Brother winner Pete Bennett has revealed how his mother saved him as he prepared to throw himself to his death as a teenager.

The reality-TV star writes in his new book �Pete: My Story� how he teetered on the brink of oblivion as he prepared to take a 100 foot plunge from the window of his tower block flat.

Depressed by his Tourette�s condition and the ensuing bullying at school the singer had decided to finally end all the pain.

He writes, "I saw an opportunity to solve all our problems if I acted quickly and decisively. I pulled myself up on the edge of the balcony and paused, taking a few seconds to prepare myself for a final flight."

�People say suicide is a coward's way out, but it takes a fair bit of courage to throw your self into the unknown."

Fortunately for Pete, not to mention future Big Brother viewers, his mother coming onto the balcony just in time.

He recalls, "She saw me sitting there, plucking up the final ounce of courage to do it. If I'd had one of my big Tourette's tics at that moment I'd have been propelled over the side in a second anyway.

"But Mum gasped, �Oh my God, what are you doing?' I sobbed, �I want to kill myself, Mum. I'm nothing but a f***ing freak now.' But when I saw her face and heard her pleading I realised I was being selfish. If I jumped I wouldn't be lightening her burden. I had to keep going. I had to find a way to beat Tourette's."

Or find a way of turning it into a defining characteristic on national television�