GOING SOBER CHANGED MY LIFE

When Karen Whybrow, 45, quit drinking, she made the most of feeling amazing

Dragging my feet to the kitchen, I swiped the open bottle from the counter and refilled my wine glass. But before taking a sip, I stopped myself. I couldn't carry on like this. It was June 2018 and I'd been drinking more than usual since losing my husband Ben to bowel cancer 10 months earlier. During the day I kept busy, staying strong for our girls, Georgina, then five, and Harriet, 23 months but when they were in bed and I was alone, I'd collapse in a pit of grief, drinking several glasses of wine to numb the pain.

Of course I always felt rubbish the following morning. I'm not going to drink tonight, I'd tell myself, but it never worked. Until that evening in June 2018, two months before the first anniversary of Ben's death. I asked myself, 'What would Ben want?" And I knew he'd tell me to live my life as wholly as possible. So I made a promise to myself to stop drinking once and for all.

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