Today marks the end of Alcohol Awareness Week and a nurse from Arrowe Park Hospital is offering support and guidance to those across Wirral who may be battling the bottle.

Katherine White, 42, from West Kirby, who has had her own battle with alcohol, set up Beesober Wirral with her friend Kate in August 2020.

Beesober Wirral offers support services, holds events and weekly online zoom calls to help support people across the Wirral to get sober.

Katherine stopped drinking alcohol in July 2018 after she had spent years trying to moderate her alcohol intake.

She said: “Towards the end of my drinking life I had started to drink more at home as I thought that was safer and more enjoyable than when I went out because there was less chance of me making a fool of myself.”

For years Katherine would regularly black out on nights out, forgetting the whole evening.

She would also spend time worrying if she had upset family and friends because she would forget conversations and regularly lose her belongings.

Katherine said: “I would feel terrible for days and weeks after. I did not want to carry on living like that.” 

A year into her sobriety, Katherine began to feel lonely and isolated so decided to join a support group called Beesober in July 2019.

Originally set up in Manchester, Beesober is a support group which offers help to people who are struggling to give up alcohol. 

Katherine said: “I realised alcohol was not only adding to my anxiety and depression in a big way, but it was actually one of the big factors fueling them both.”

After her positive experience at Beesober she decided to set up and become Brand Ambassador for Beesober Wirral.

She now celebrates 28 months of sobriety and hopes to continue to raise awareness around alcohol addiction and offer help to those who are effected.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with topics mentioned in this article and would like to join either Beesober or Beesober Wirral groups you can visit their pages on Instagram, Facebook or click here for their website.