I drank 100 glasses of wine a week
Liver op mum speaks out
A WOMAN who binge-drank her way to liver failure at 37 by downing 100 glasses of wine a WEEK has called for a tax on cheap booze to save lives.
Tammy Doyle was given just a 30% chance of survival when her liver packed up last year. She would regularly consume up to five bottles of wine a night and could drink threequarters of a bottle of gin in one go.
Tammy, who started drinking heavily in her late-20s after splitting from her partner, is currently waiting to hear if she will need a transplant after a five-hour emergency operation to repair her liver in July.
But she fears many other people’s drinking habits are spiralling out of control – and could kill them.
She spoke out as Public Health England revealed alcohol-related deaths rose 21% in lockdown.
Tammy, now 39, said: “I’d have a bottle of wine with friends, which would turn into two, then three. That’s how it started. It wasn’t often, but I had no confidence. It was a way for me to cope.”
The PHE figures, released last month, showed that despite pubs and clubs being closed, 12.6 million extra litres of alcohol were sold in 2020/2021 compared to 2019/2020 – a rise of almost 25%.
Alcoholic liver deaths also shot up by more than 20% between 2019 and 2020. Just 3% of 20-34-year-olds die of liver disease a year – but it is the leading cause of death in people aged 35 to 49. Further statistics on Friday suggested the numbers drinking 50 units or more a week jumped from 1.5 million to 2.5m in lockdown.
Tammy, of Stepney, East London, had her first taste of booze aged 11 but managed to keep her alcohol consumption in check until she turned 25.
Things soon spiralled out of control and in 2014, she was bruised and battered after being hit with a baseball bat on a night out. She could not remember who did it.
In 2016, Tammy’s GP told her that if she did not stop drinking, she would die – but the mum-of-one could not do it. In February 2019, she was admitted to Royal London Hospital for a liver detox.
But by February 2020, she had split from her partner and started supplementing her wine habit with cider.
Last July, Tammy was referred to rehab by a local alcohol group – but was so ill when she arrived, she was sent straight to hospital in liver failure.
Tammy, who has now been sober for nine months and applied to be a support worker for addicts, said her last drink was “a turning point”. But she is not shocked by the recent figures. She said: “As a nation, we have a huge problem and we’re in massive denial about it. We need bigger taxes on higher percentage cheap drink.”
Pamela Healy, chief of the British Liver Trust, told how Tammy’s story mirrored those that helplines have been hearing.
She said: “Loneliness, stress and a lack of access to support services have meant many people are drinking more.”
“We need urgent action to tackle the complex underlying causes of excess alcohol consumption to avoid a liver disease epidemic in future.”