‘I got drunk and humiliated my daughter at her graduation - it was the wake up call I needed’

A mum-of-two decided to tackle her alcohol addiction after ‘humiliating’ her daughter at her university graduation.

Sharnie Yorke, 50, thought downing a bottle of wine every night was normal as "everyone likes a drink at the end of the day". She had started to rely on booze to deal with her feelings about getting divorced and her daughters moving away from home.

Her children, aged 21 and 26, had started to beg her not to drink on nights out. But she finally decided to go sober after the embarrassment she caused at her daughter’s graduation.

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That night, Sharnie drank prosecco and cocktails before falling over in the street, smashing up her face, breaking her arm, and eventually being escorted away from her daughter's flat by police officers.

Sharnie, a healthcare support assistant, from Tenterden, Kent, said: "The graduation was the turning point - it was a huge embarrassment, I had so much regret. My eldest daughter even told me she wouldn't want me looking after my grandson.

"I used to think my drinking was OK - everyone likes a drink of an evening, but not every night. It was clearly an addiction."

In July this year, Sharnie attended her youngest daughter's graduation at the University of Exeter. She made it through the ceremony without a drink but ended up getting "too drunk" afterwards when the family was invited to the pub.

She said: "It was a nice day, we went for a meal after the ceremony, which was nice. We got back to my daughter's flat around 8pm - when our friends, who were also down for the graduation, asked if we wanted to meet at the pub.

"My daughter didn't want to go - but she didn’t want me to go alone."

After drinking prosecco cocktails and glasses of wine all evening, Sharnie remembers being "loud and belligerent".

While on her way back to her daughter's flat, she fell, broke her arm and "smashed up her face".

Her daughter wouldn't let her back in the flat - and called the police and her older sister.

"I remember the ride with the policeman," Sharnie said. "They said I was fine, but I’d upset my daughters.

"I was taken to a hotel room for the night. When I woke up, I was feeling very regretful."

Sharnie was then taken home to Tenterden by a friend - who encouraged her to go to the hospital for an x-ray on her arm. Doctors confirmed it was broken and she'd need to rest for six weeks.

The mum-of-two says it was the "wake-up call she needed".

"It was a huge embarrassment," Sharnie said. "I was just mortified really - I knew [the drinking] needed to stop.”

Sharnie said she was "always a big drinker" - and was raised in a family who liked to drink. She added it was part of growing up and she would go out to "lots" of parties in her late teens and early twenties.

But as she got older, her love of a glass of wine at the end of the day turned into a "compulsion" to drink the entire bottle, seven days a week.

After a divorce, and her children leaving home, Sharnie said she thought the wine "filled a void" in her life.

"I went from having a couple of glasses of wine a night to a full bottle,” she added. "I was drunk, all the time."

Sharnie also said she didn’t like the person she became after a bottle of wine. She’d go from "calm and personable" while sober to "bitter, loud and obnoxious".

But she has not had a drink since the day of the graduation and is 106 days sober.

"The thought of that night alone made me want to never drink again," she said. "Not being able to see my grandson was enough for me to stop.

"I'm more present now - it's nice to wake up feeling fresh. It seems like I might be able to be sober for the rest of my life."