She stalks Simon Wicks (Nick Berry) who only uses her for sex, and when he pits her against his new fling, Cindy Williams (Michelle Collins), the subsequent fights mean she loses her job at the pub; by August 1988, she is homeless.

Michelle Fowler (Susan Tully) and Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) take pity and allow her to stay with them but after Donna tries to come between them, they throw her out.

His boasting attracts Donna's attention and she takes advantage of his inebriation to seduce him and threatens to tell his wife Sue (Sandy Ratcliff) about the one-night stand unless he pays her regularly.

But by February 1989 that well runs so dry that Donna resorts to prostitution, agreeing to sleep with her drug-dealer, Spike Murphy, in exchange for smack.

Spike brings his sleazy friends along and a vicious gang rape is only stopped by Rod Norman's (Christopher McHallem) chance appearance.

When Donna tells the community that her adoptive parents have been killed in a car crash, the residents of Walford take pity, donating money to help her but are incensed when her mother (Yvonne D'Alpra) arrives shortly after.

Dot Cotton (June Brown) takes her in but everyone else shuns Donna; she promptly spreads rumours that Colin Russell (Michael Cashman) has AIDS and tells Sue about her affair with Ali, effectively destroying their marriage.

In January 2023, Kathy also mentions Donna to Lola Pearce (Danielle Harold) during a heart-to-heart, and again during a conversation with Sonia Fowler in July 2024.

According to Kathy's backstory, which was scripted prior to the events of the programme's beginning, she had been raped as a teenager and gave her baby up for adoption: Donna was this child, now grown.

Cunning and dishonest, she was ready to steal, cheat, and prostitute herself to gain some sort of place in Albert Square society".

"[5] Writer Rupert Smith has classified Donna as a "Lost Girl" who could not "take the rough and tumble of life in the East End... [a] broken blossom [...] tragic and a loon.

[3] Brake stated that, for the first time, EastEnders told a complete drugs story "with the sad tale of Donna's descent into heroin addiction".