A former Miss BumBum model has told how she saw her life slipping away from her as she became addicted to the powerful tranquiliser ketamine.

Stunning Deia Cavalheiro, 32, once competed for the Brazilian title to see which model has the perfect rear.

But now she’s told how she nearly died after a boyfriend turned her onto the drug, also known as Special K or just K, during the pandemic.

Influencer Deia had been forced to quit her medical studies in Paraguay when she found her son had cancer and then a close friend committed suicide.

She explained: “It was a sad time. In addition to having to leave college due to financial problems, it was at the same time that I discovered my son had cancer and a friend took her life.

“It was a huge burden on my heart, and I wanted to take away the pain.”

She added: “With the pandemic and everything that was happening, the drug put me in a parallel world.

“I no longer wanted to feel the suffering of reality. Besides everything, the price was very affordable in Paraguay.

“I knew that the ‘K’ would leave me completely numb, I just wanted to forget the things I was going through.”

Friends tried to warn her off and told her she was becoming hooked, and photos taken at the time show her wasted and frighteningly thin.

Deia, who has nearly 56,000 Instagram followers, said,: “I was scared because I felt a feeling of death, which almost led me to a cardiac arrest.

“I just wanted to disappear.”

She added: “It was a moment of great despair because I couldn’t leave Paraguay either.

“It seemed harmless until I could leave Paraguay and so I continued using.

“It took me a year to realise my addiction. I told myself that I didn’t want that in my life.”

Brave Deia sought psychological help, and stayed away from social media.

She said: “The doctors asked me not to stop straight away, as the chance of me looking for other things could be great.

“I was researching methods, but nothing was really effective until I watched a video about people who managed to stop their cocaine addiction.

“I thought I could too, and that was how I had a chance to change my story.”

She then spent five days at a treatment facility where she was given the psychedelic plant-based drug ibogaine, said to have anti-addiction properties.

Deia said: “It was like magic, it simply transformed my life.

“Now, my biggest addiction is training, sport helped me save myself.

“Today I don’t miss a day at the gym, I exchanged one addiction for another, but this one gives me life, while drugs took it away.

“Now I take it seriously, what saved me was the very strong desire to change my situation.

“I never looked for something like that in my life again, and I also never judged other people, because we never know what others are going through.”