The footage spread quickly. A woman falling flat on her face while pushing a burning wheelie bin towards a line of police officers during far right riots in Middlesbrough after the Southport attack. Within hours, the clip had been shared widely online, replayed across news bulletins and turned into memes.

Among those watching was a retired primary school teacher. “I recognised her straight away,” said Satti Collins. “I just couldn’t believe it.”

The woman in the footage was Stacey Vint, then 34, a mother of five who would be sentenced to 20 months in prison after pleading guilty to violent disorder.

A car burns during the violence in Middlesbrough. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

To many people, she had become a symbol of the unrest. To Collins, she was a former pupil. “She was a lovely little girl – a bit lippy, but that’s all,” she said.

Collins had not seen Vint in more than 25 years. But the recognition stayed with her. She wanted to understand what had happened. “I just wanted to know why she did that,” she said. “I wanted to find her, but I didn’t know how.”

She contacted probation services and was referred to Safer Communities, which delivers restorative justice programmes across the Cleveland police area. Through that process, she was eventually put in touch.

By then, Vint’s life had been shaped by years of addiction and instability. “I didn’t actually care about anything or about what happened to me,” Vint said. “I’d lost custody of my kids, and I was just getting wrecked, taking drugs and drinking all the time.”

She had begun drinking and smoking cannabis at 13. Later, she developed a dependency on cocaine and alcohol. There were long periods when she would stay awake for days, moving between what she describes as “sesh houses”.

When her grandmother, May, died when Vint was 27, things deteriorated further. “I didn’t see a future for myself,” she said. “It was just completely unstoppable by then and I drank and took drugs to block everything out.”

On the day of the unrest, she said she had been awake for several days and had gone out to buy alcohol when she became caught up in the crowd. “Within seconds everything turned to madness,” Vint recalls. “The atmosphere just took over me.”

She was arrested at the scene. Five days later, she appeared at Teesside crown court, where she pleaded guilty. Sentencing her to 20 months in prison, the judge acknowledged her difficult background but said she had chosen to take part in a serious act of public disorder.

She was sent to HMP Low Newton in County Durham. Within days, she stopped using drugs and alcohol. “The first five days were hard … once I got through three days of sweating … I was all right,” she said.

Working in the prison kitchens gave her structure and time to reflect. “I started to understand the impact of my actions,” said Vint. “People were frightened in their homes. Cars smashed up. Windows boarded.

“I had never thought about how my actions affected anyone else.”

The meeting with Collins took place as part of a restorative justice process, which allows those affected by crime to engage in structured conversations with offenders. “I am not racist, far from it,” she said. “But I was still part of something I should not have been. I want to make things right.”

Restaurant owner Luqman Khan and others clear debris from the street outside his restaurant in Middlesbrough the day after the rioting. Photograph: Yelim Lee/AFP/Getty Images

Since her release, Vint has been living in supported accommodation and remains abstinent from drugs and alcohol. She is engaging with support services and has been signed off probation.

She and Collins have remained in contact and have spoken publicly about their experience, including in schools and with police community support officers.

They have addressed representatives from 18 schools at a conference and delivered sessions to police officers about the events and their aftermath. Vint is also rebuilding relationships with her children, who are now back in contact with her.

When her 10-year-old son told her he was proud of her, she said it meant everything. “It was really emotional,” she said. “It takes a lot to make me cry and in front of him I was just trying to hold it all together and make sure he had a lovely time with me, but it was afterwards I thought a lot more about it and thought, bless him for saying that.”

For Collins, the experience has stayed with her. “She is brave and honest, and she has worked so hard to turn her life around. It’s wonderful and she is really making a difference in sharing her story with others.”