KATHY began drinking alcohol when she was 16 and out with the girls but it escalated to drinking alone at home and ran to a litre of vodka a day. By her mid-30s, she was found dead from liver failure in a skip on a rubbish dump.

Between those ages lies a tragic story of a young woman who tried to fight her addiction, but ultimately failed.

Her drinking history, however, is not unique. It is something leading British Society of Gastroenterology alcohol expert Dr Kieran Moriarty, who treated her, is seeing increasingly, and in younger men and women.

"Liver disease usually affects middle-aged men who have been drinking heavily for most of their lives," said the Royal Bolton Hospital consultant.

"Recently, there has been a huge increase in the number of people in their 20s and 30s who are dying of liver disease due to excessive alcohol consumption."

When someone drinks alcohol, most of it is broken down by the liver. In people like Kathy with a serious drinking problem, explained Dr Moriarty, a huge amount of damage is done to the liver leading to severe liver disease.

Kathy lived in Bolton and her drinking affected not only her but her family. She had a baby at 24, but her drinking meant she could not look after her child, who lived with her parents from an early age.

By her mid-20s Kathy was suffering from severe liver disease; over a two-year period she had to be admitted to hospital 15 to 20 times for major internal bleeding. Severe alcoholic liver disease can lead to enlarged blood vessels in the stomach and oesophagus which can swell and burst, giving a 50 per cent chance of death.

On many occasions, doctors injected drugs to shrink Kathy’s blood vessels to stop the internal bleeding.

Her liver was so badly damaged, though that she suffered from liver coma which can cause confusion, loss of consciousness and death.

Recalled Dr Moriarty: "I remember when she was on the ward, very ill, and she said to me ‘I just can’t go on – I’m going to give up.’ I told her ‘you may want to give up, but we are not going to give up on you’."

Each time Kathy was admitted to hospital, she wanted to stop drinking because she wanted to be with her child. "She also realised that if she didn’t stop, the alcohol would soon kill her," said Dr Moriarty.

She had treatment at the hospital and counselling to help her see she did not need to rely on alcohol. Sue Hutchinson, sister on the ward where Kathy was treated, said: "She desperately wanted to give up drinking and worked very hard at it. She was so much better afterwards.

"She was a pretty woman and she dressed better, took more care of herself and looked great."

Kathy turned her life around; she got her child back and built up her own business. Even when satisfied customers gave her bottles of spirits at Christmas, she was strong enough to pour the alcohol down the sink.

Everyone was impressed by her determination to succeed.

Kathy had not drunk any alcohol for six years, so when she went on a date she thought that one drink would be all right – but she wasn’t able to stop at one. Through this relationship and while on holiday, her drinking increased.

Back home, she was drinking up to a litre and a half of vodka a day. Her body wasn’t getting enough nutrition and her liver function grew steadily worse. Kathy, however, didn’t believe she had a problem. After all, she’d quit before, hadn’t she?

Kathy’s family tried to help her, but she refused to let them, leading to very strained relationships.

Over 18 months, she was admitted for treatment eight times. She was seen by the hospital’s alcohol specialist nurse and referred to the community alcohol team on discharge, but failed to keep her appointments with them or go to AA meetings.

Kathy’s drinking eventually meant she lost the business she had built up, her home and her child, who went back to her parents. She was able to stay with friends, but was found several times by police wandering the streets and living rough.

She ended up living in a skip away from her home town, and her health quickly deteriorated following an internal bleed.

"This was a very tragic case," said Dr Moriarty. "Binge drinking is particularly worrying now because we are seeing children in their teens with life-threatening conditions. We are also seeing cases of early dementia in men and women in their 30s.

"People don't realise that binge drinking can also lead to high blood pressure and cancer – particularly of the mouth, lips, tongue and gullet and in the colon and breast."

"Education is not working because the problem is availability of alcohol. We need a government bill to prevent supermarkets selling alcohol cheaply as a loss leader.

"If they charged 50p a unit of alcohol, which is not prohibitive, it would cut food bills, make things like fruit and vegetables cheaper, and 70 per cent of the population would improve their health and the heavy drinkers would reduce their drinking and improve their health."

Factfile

• Liver disease accounts for more than 7,500 deaths each year; the number of people dying from cirrhosis has doubled over the last 10 years
• Liver disease is the fifth biggest killer in England and Wales, more than diabetes and road deaths combined
• Recommended alcohol units: Women: two to three a day (one unit equals a small glass of wine) a maximum of 14 units a week; Men: three to four units a day (one unit equals half a pint of beer) a maximum of 21 units a week.
• Always try to have two alcohol-free days a week and, if you do binge drink, have two alcohol-free days afterwards

ALCOHOL SERVICES AND ADVICE

• National Drink Line - tel 0800 917 8282
• Drink Aware - drinkaware.co.uk
• NHS Choices - nhs.uk/

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