SUSAN was just 16 when she started drinking Babycham, gin and tonic and rum and black.

A shy and introverted teenager, the drinks made her feel part of the crowd when she went out with friends.

“When I did drink I’d get very drunk,” recalls the 65-year-old.

More than 15 years later, Susan was married with two children and her fondness for alcohol accelerated.

“I started to sneak out and hide drink. I was drinking lots at home.

“I mostly bought wine, anything I could afford really, although it was usually the cheapest.

“When I went shopping on a Friday I’d buy myself a bottle of Scotch thinking it would last all week but I always finished it by Sunday.”

Susan did manage to stay sober for ten years but during her forties her marriage broke up and when she started living alone again, her old drinking ways returned.

She would hide her booze behind baked beans and under the stairs so friends couldn’t see it.

“I felt terrible all the time. Every morning I would wake up and know I had to go to work in the call centre with a dreadful hangover. I would say to myself ‘I’m not going to do this tonight’ but by lunchtime I’d have forgotten how I felt and buy a bottle of wine on the way home.

“I used to go to lots of different shops to buy my alcohol and make excuses like having a sore throat to justify it.

“As soon as I had the first drink I’d drink the whole lot.”

Just over seven years ago, Susan tried to take her own life with an overdose and ended up in accident and emergency.

Six months later the turning point came when she woke up covered in bruises and mud after being told to leave a friend’s house because she was so drunk. She couldn’t remember how she got home.

She made the call to Alcoholics Anonymous and in June this year it will be seven years since she had a drink.

Susan continues to go to three AA meetings in Southampton every week (there are 27 in total) and has made many friends through the group.

“I feel 100 times better, totally different. I need never pick up that drink again.”

If you think you may have a drink problem you can call Alcoholics Anonymous on 023 8022 3198.