Mark

I was shy and quiet at school where I found the academic work difficult. At home I was bullied on the estate where I lived because I was a choir boy in the local catholic church and I became isolated and fearful of going out, in case something worse happened.

But this all changed when I started drinking alcohol with a group of boys from my neighborhood and I saw a chance to be accepted. Alcohol made me more confident, and I loved it. But it had a very negative effect on my schoolwork and my behaviour and I left school with much lower grades than I was expected to get. My drinking escalated over the years, and I became an alcoholic. I found it very hard to stop and I lost my family, my house and everything I loved, but finally after 40 years I asked for help and made the decision to stop drinking, and now I have been sober for 5 years.

My life is 100 times better than it was. I am now a peer support mentor for the NHS Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Services and a Smart Recovery Facilitator.

I am a member of the Five Lives team because I think it is important to explain the dangers of alcohol to students, so they have a better understanding of the whole subject in order to make more informed choices in the future.