Sarah becomes rebellious at the age of 15, splitting from her boyfriend Todd Grimshaw (Bruno Langley) in 2002 and moving on to Aiden Critchley (Dean Ashton), who takes her joyriding and crashes the car, leaving Sarah with severe head injuries. She survives and dumps Aiden, disgusted that he had left her for dead in the wreckage. Sarah reconciles with Todd and they move into the flat over the bookies, causing problems between Gail and Sarah, particularly when Sarah tells her that she is pregnant, in late 2003. She is unsure about having the baby, but Todd convinces her to go ahead and they get engaged, despite their families' disapproval. However, Sarah is unaware that Todd is struggling with his emerging homosexual feelings and begins an affair with Karl Foster (Chris Finch). When Sarah finds out in May 2004, she dumps him and suffers a placental abruption shortly afterwards. She has to have an emergency caesarean and her baby son, Billy, dies soon after he is born in June 2004. Sarah blames Todd and refuses to allow him to attend their son's funeral but Todd ignores her and goes regardless.