Vodka, Homework and Me

In recent times, the illiteracy rate in the UK has gone up which is a worrying trend. Also over the past few years the amount of young people, i.e 12- 16 being admitted to hospital with liver failure, sclerosis of the liver and other worrying potentially life threatening ailments.
Helen is 25 and now suffers from alcohol related liver disease.

She started drinking at 13 and by the time she was 18 she was addicted.

She has now been told she has a 50% chance of surviving to 30 if doesn’t stop drinking excessively.

Helen said: “You get addicted to it like a drug addict, like a heroin addict gets addicted.

“People don’t think of it like that but it’s advertised all over the place which I personally think it shouldn’t be for people like me.”

Her doctor is Stephen Hood, a consultant gastroenterologist at Aintree hospital.

He has seen an alarming rise in the number of people coming into his hospital with serious alcohol related liver disease.

“In five years our admission figures for diagnoses related to alcohol problems have increased from 1,400 per year to 2,500.

“The number of admissions for cirrhosis has gone up three times.

“Alcohol consumption has increased and one of the things is the relative cost. As the cost has gone down the consumption has gone up.”

The latest statistics show that in 2006 49 people in their twenties died from liver disease, the highest number on record.

For Helen it is a very real struggle not to become another statistic.

“I want to stop because I’ll be dead next year if I don’t. I’m 25 and I want to reach my 26th birthday.”