MIA Dolan of ITV'S Haunted Homes is coming to Thwaites Empire Theatre on April 1. She spoke to us about her life as a ghost-buster.

PSYCHIC Mia Dolan insists she was just an "ordinary working class girl" brought up on the Isle of Sheppey, until the age of 22, when she experienced her first paranormal moment.

"I married with two kids, and was cooking tea one afternoon when the kids started fighting," she said.

"I went in to break them up and got distracted by the TV.

"All of a sudden I heard a man's voice in my ear saying Your toast's burning you know'.

"I shot into the kitchen and my toast was on fire.

"I convinced myself that I must've smelt the smoke and imagined the voice, but that was just the start.

"Over the next few months I'd hear the same voice in my ear every now and then. I'd be talking to someone and I'd hear She's pregnant' or They're splitting up'.

"I didn't tell anybody at first - you don't tell your friends you're hearing voices do you?

"In the end I went to the doctor and he said I was stressed and gave me medication, which I took religiously for months - but all it did was to make me stoned all the time!

"I went to see a psychiatrist and after about 40 months and every test you could think of I was pronounced sane but strange' and told to get on with it."

And get on with it is exactly what Mia did.

With the help of her spirit guide Eric (the voice in her ear') she learnt how to use her gift and practiced on family and friends.

"When I first started seeing auras around people I didn't know what they were - they looked like the Ready Brek advert!" she laughed.

Gradually word spread and soon Mia was giving readings for a living.

Since then she has built a successful career around her talent for passing on messages from the dead. She's written two best selling books: The Gift and Mia's World, appeared on ITV's Haunted Homes and is considered one of the UK's most sought-after psychics.

Her most unusual and intriguing readings include predictions she made for The Sun and The Daily Mirror about Princess Diana and her experiences at the scenes of the deaths of Jill Dando and Rachel Nickell for The Daily Mail.

During her two-hour show at Thwaites Mia will Mia will demonstrate her unique gift with members of the audience and also talk about her career and the transforming journey she has undertaken on her psychic path.

Of course her extraordinary gift has its low points. Mia's life has been touched by tragic experiences including when she foresaw the murder of her own brother and when her son died while still only a teenager.

"In my first book I talk about how in the early days I spend two or three years trying to get rid of this gift," said Mia.

"But if I lost it now it would be like seeing the world in black and white. Of course sometimes you see things you don't want to see but I've learnt that a good psychic probably withholds about 40 per cent of what they see.

"I used to tell everybody everything, but over the years I've realised going to see a psychic should be a positive experience and I only tell people things if I know it can help them. I would only tell someone of an illness, for instance, if I could see the end in sight."

Mia said people don't have to believe in her gift to come to the show, or even have dead relatives they want to contact.

"If you have an open mind and are curious about this world, come and see what you think," she said.

Mia Dolan, Thwaites Empire Theatre, Sunday, April 1. Tickets available on the door or from box office on 01254 680137.