FROM her east Hull home she was watched by millions of viewers giving her views on a life on benefits and paying the Bedroom Tax, which costs her £12 per week.
The 51-year-old has turned down the chance to appear in a Christmas special edition of the show after producers tried to persuade her to come back on TV.
Instead, the singleton will be enjoying a quiet Christmas with her mum and her dog, Molly.
She said: "I'll be having a pensioner's Christmas this year, I'll be spending it with my mum.
"I'll fetch her here, I like it all Christmassy, me – I don't want it all depressing.
"We've never spent a Christmas Eve together so I've told her to come here and we can stay in and have a drink in house."
Leah has recently had her income support benefits stopped and lives off the £61 carers allowance she receives each week.
She said: "I couldn't afford a tree, they are really dear, but I've got a miniature one on the window ledge.
"I've got some tinsel and a few lights, it's all you need.
"But I've not got kids you see.
"It will just be me and the dog. I've bought her all sorts, teddies and that. My mam has bought her a coat.
"As long as I have food for the dog that's all I'm bothered about.
"To everyone else, I'd just say just go out and enjoy yourself, you only live once, you're a long time dead."
Imam Hafiz Salik: 'Happiness and joy to everyone in Hull'
MY MAIN message would be to wish everybody from the local community to have a good Christmas.
I wish everybody in Hull to have a calm, peaceful and a harmonious time.
I would also like to thank the general public, friends and family who have supported me throughout the year and to wish them a merry Christmas as well, especially around the time of the incident where I was blinded in my right eye.
There have been cards, phone calls, messages and emails wishing me well. I really appreciate all the help and support I have received since last year.
People still sometimes come up and ask me how I am.
Myself, I am still in some discomfort in my right eye and around my right eyebrow.
I have had three operations since the incident last December.
It is a long process and I am still very much in recovery from the attack. Apart from that, I am OK. I am doing my job and am still at the mosque.
In the mosque, we will not celebrate Christmas because it is not a religious event for us.
But on Christmas Day I will go to my local community and my neighbours to give them some presents and to convey my message for them.
I hope everybody has happiness and joy over Christmas.
We need to be happy – the problems in the world come and go but hope and happiness have to always remain strong.
To everybody in Hull, merry Christmas.
