Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
DRINK RUINED GOOD TIMES WITH MY DAD
Calum Best tells of George’s booze battle
CALUM Best has opened up about his father George’s alcoholism in a bid to help others battling addiction.
The 38-year-old said: “For every good time I had with my dad there was always a bad time that sadly overshadowed it because of the drinking.”
Calum was named as an ambassador for charity National Association for Children of Alcoholics.
Former Manchester United great George died in 2005 aged 59.
In an interview with Sky News, Calum said he wanted to “make positive changes for people dealing with the same thing I might have dealt with in my youth”.
He added: “My dad was a heavy drinker. I remember coming over to the UK when I was probably
10 or 11 and my dad taking me to a Man
United game.
“And I walked in and he had the ‘Best’ jersey ready. I put it on, I was so proud. And then I remember going to a hotel afterwards that night and him disappearing for a few days.
“I moved from the US to the UK to get to know my dad. And by then I was 19, 20, but my dad was so sadly gone in addiction. First thing in the morning, waking up, 8am, straight to the pub. “And he would be in the pub, The Phene, in King’s Road, I remember it well and he walked in and it was like this, like 60s carpet and this old grimy bar and he would just sit in the corner and mind his business, play cribbage, but I just thought, ‘This is so depressing’. “Having an alcoholic parent you try to figure all sorts of things out. And the answers are limited.
“But you try to understand the problem, you try to figure out how to solve the problem.
“But with an addict it’s really hard to tell them what you think they can do to fix it because the addiction is so strong in some people that it tells them, ‘Don’t listen to what this person has to say’.”