"I’d long been the classic sociable woman with a well-stocked wine cabinet and a weekend G&T pattern. A glass or two of wine was my prize for any achievement.
"There was the consolation bottle of wine for staff when business was dire. Then the hours in cosy pubs with hub and chums for whom this was always the place – never the coffee-shop or tea-room.
"When told to abstain for medical reasons, I could do it. But drinking had become a habit and when I did drink, I didn’t always know when to stop.
"Yet I have turned this around. Health and the need to lose weight triggered my change, and I now only drink alcohol once a week. I’ve learned to take charge of what I drink, when.
"The trigger was being told that I had fat in my liver. I’d put on a lot of weight, mostly around my tum, during successful breast cancer treatment which saw me taking steroids and stopping HRT – classic factors in weight-gain. My GP said liver fat was common and reversible but suggested I stop drinking or cut down.
"It wasn’t good news and having survived cancer I thought, “What next?”
"Yet, needs must, so I got planning. My liver needed less fat, so I had to burn fat overall. Discovering that obesity could cause secondary cancer was another trigger. I’d managed to abstain during chemo, so hoped I could do it again.
"Four months on, I’d reduced alcohol, lost 10% weight and fitted into old clothes again.
