An escort who says she has slept with 'a million men' has explained why she is walking away from the trade.

Kat Lee, 32, from Manchester, has spent 15 years working as an escort.

But the 'out-call' escort, which is legal, said she is choosing to give up sex work at a time of debate around the reform of prostitution laws.

The M.E.N. , one of our sister titles, asked what she thought about the idea that prostitution should be outlawed.

And our colleagues also asked her what the job was like.

The voices and experiences of women like her aren’t always heard in the debate.

Here's what she has to say:

Kat Lee

“I worked (as an escort) from when I was 18 until I was in my 30s, I must have seen over a million clients.

“I was a teenager when I got into it. It started because of a photoshoot where me and my twin sister were asked to take off our tops and knickers for an adult magazine.

“Later, the photographer said we would be good in adult movies, being twins, and that led to escorting.

“I’m now working as a barmaid and volunteering for various charities because I love to help people.

“It is weird because you’re working seven hours and you think ‘Oh my God, I could have worked one hour for £140 instead of many hours work at £7.’

“When you serve behind the bar and people say ‘have one for yourself’ you’re only allowed to take 20p off them whereas, when I was an escort they would buy me cars and holidays, not give me 20p tips.

“I grew up in Sunderland and we were racially abused in school because my dad is Arabic, but the bullies later booked me as an escort, so I had the last laugh.

“My clientele was mainly regulars in Manchester, people in the north west and businessmen stopping over at Manchester Airport.

“A typical day would start at 9am but I was never off the clock. People want mornings because they want to release themselves before they go to work.

“You just don’t know when you’re going to be busy, but it’s usually dinnertime and after work at about 6pm, as well as Sundays at 3am.

“I would put my clientele into two types. Some who wanted companionship, conversation and for me to be like a girlfriend - and others who would pull your hair and spit on you.

"So I tended not to wear much makeup because you keep having to put more on, and I tied my hair up in a bun. I would spend about an hour getting ready and showered a lot throughout the day.

“I’ve only been in one dangerous situation on the job - when a client spiked my drink and took the money back after I was paid. I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t breathe or anything. I had a driver to get me to jobs and I wouldn’t have got home without him.

“I never caught diseases from clients, but I feel a lot safer in my bar job with CCTV.

“I used to see four to five clients a day. You do get idiot clients who come in drunk.

“One would see me when his wife had gone shopping. Another spoilt me with an Audi convertible and trips to Milan and Paris. I felt like Julia Roberts.

“I never worked from home and always picked a hotel to meet the clients at. I worked at an agency for a bit but I didn’t have any power over whether I wanted to take a job or not.

“If I turned down a client, the agency would fine me £50, so I started to find my own clients. It meant I would be waiting in hotel bars for my next job and I would drink to gain confidence before seeing a client.

Kat Lee

“That led to public disorder offences and ending up in hospital to have my stomach pumped.

“I found the work lonely as other women doing it would dislike me because men booked me more than them.

“I still perform on webcam and stay in touch with regulars, but I’m not sure if I will ever return to escorting.

“It was something that I got into and didn’t mean to. I carried on working and then it became a habit.

“You can’t really get a different job because you’re on Google and you already have the attention.

“I now spend all my time working and volunteering. My boss is fully aware of my past job and is fine with it.

“I think a ban on prostitution would be a good thing. Some people turn to prostitution for drugs or a place to live.

“There’s no jobs or houses so they turn to prostitution to find money to leave home. There are better ways to live.”

Kat Lee

What do t he Women’s Equality Party want?

The Women’s Equality Party and feminist activists have called for an end to prostitution in the UK.

Ireland last year introduced a Sex Buyers Law which criminalises people who pay for sex, and campaigners want similar legislation on the UK’s statute book.

At present, it is not illegal to pay for sex or charge for it - although it is illegal for a sex worker to solicit (tout for business) in a public place, as is ‘kerbcrawling’ (seeking to solicit women for sex in a car), running a brothel, or ‘pimping’ - controlling women working in prostitution.

What is a brothel?

Any premises - for example, private flats, saunas, massage parlours - may be classified as a brothel if they are used by more than one man or woman for the purpose of prostitution, whether on the same day or on different days.

So, if you share premises with someone else and work on alternate days or weeks the premises will still count as a brothel, even though there is never more than one person working at any one time.

Where rooms or flats on one building are let separately to different individuals offering sexual services, the premises as a whole may still count as a brothel if the individuals are effectively working together.

If you are the only person who provides sexual services on premises, with or without the assistance of a non working maid, the premises is not a brothel.

Is it legal?

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the legal situation surrounding brothels in the UK can be confusing.

Exchanging or participating in sexual activities for money or other goods is legal in the UK.

But many of the activities that surround prostitution are illegal.

So, in other words, the act of prostitution is not in itself illegal - but a string of laws criminalises activities around it.

Which laws?

Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, it is an offence to cause or incite prostitution or control it for personal gain.

The 1956 Sexual Offences Act bans running a brothel and it's against the law to loiter or solicit sex on the street.

Kerb-crawling is also banned, providing it can be shown the individual was causing a persistent annoyance.

Adverts placed in phone boxes have been banned since 2001.

Human trafficking, a component of modern prostitution, is also covered by the law.

There are also general laws on public nuisance and decency which can be used to target the sex trade.