Melissa and fellow drug mule Michael McCollum Connelly were arrested in Peru last year after airport security found over £1.5 million worth of drugs in their luggage.
The pair protested their innocence before pleading guilty after being warned they could face 15 years in jail if tried and found guilty of drug smuggling.
The were sentenced to 7 years in a Peruvian prison.
Speaking from her dark cell, 20-year-old Melissa said in a candid video: ‘A year ago today I was having the time of my life and look where I am now, look at what I’m having to put up with, look at what I’ve put myself through.’
‘To anybody out there who… just watch yourself, just be careful, just don’t get yourself in a position like this.’
In the video published byMailOnline she adds: ‘I don’t know how long right now it’s going to take me to get home. I’m worried and I’m scared and I’m lonely and I’ve never been in this position and I don’t know what to do.’
Melissa is sharing a prison cell with fellow drug mule Michaela, but being so far away from home and not knowing when she will be back on British soil is taking its toll.
‘I don’t know how to improve how I’m feeling. I can’t improve my living conditions so I just need to live for the day and obviously hope that this is going to improve at some point.’
Melissa’s hopes to serve the rest of her sentence in the UK were dashed further last week when she and Michaela were moved to a more isolate prison where many foreigners serve long prison sentences.