I'm
sure I've told you about the self-help group I started called "Can't Drink
Won't Drink." There's about twenty five of these
groups dotted around the UK now, though none with names as good as ours and certainly
no such initiative in Ibiza as far as I'm aware. It is
funded by an award-winning charity called Alcohol Concern who get the money
from a trust and it almost looks like an attempt to create a rival to Alcoholics
Anonymous without the religious fervour. I thought
you might like to see the bit I've written for their next news letter: The
four of us met at a weekly quiz night for ex-drunks held on Tuesdays in a town
called Ashton under Lyne, somewhere near Oldham. The
highlight of this gathering is when they splash out with some of the money the
council gives them and treat us all to chip butties. The only problem is they
don't trust us with knives and forks so we have to tear the muffins apart by hand. We
all came to the conclusion that some of the sad people who go there have ruined
their lives twice. The first time was when they
drank too much for too long. The second was when they fell into the clutches of
do-gooders. We were all very grateful that they
had been there when we needed them. That was when we had all individually decided
that we had to stop drinking; either because of our health or that we had almost
lost everything and wanted to cling on to whatever it was we had left. For
some of us, that was sanity as much as material things; like the Dunhill cigarette
lighter won in a pub bet or the collection of CDs that would be just too painful
to sell - even for a flying pint or two. We all
recognised our condition: that we were just too drink-friendly. We also realised
that there was more to life than ragged chip butties. In
our first year, with the magnificent grant from Alcohol Concern, we've been to
see Bob Dylan and Van Morrison at concerts in Manchester; we've watched Manchester
City soar back to the Premiership; we've been out for the day to a shopping centre
and had lunch in a restaurant; we've watched Ricky Hatton in a big title fight;
we've occasionally lived like normal people choosing to have a day or an evening
out when we like. It's not a lot of money, really.
About a tenner a week each over two years. But the thing is that it is has shown
us there is a real life out there where people who are still able to go to work
and earn a few hundred pounds a week exist all the time. We
lost one of the four and we think it might have been because we all had a drink
on one of our forays. He seemed to have got consumed with guilt. The other three
of us have talked about this and we think that he can't see we are not a teetotal,
prohibition, Bible-thumping group of anti-alcohol reactionaries. We are just three
mature men who recognise they have a problem with drinking inappropriately. Here's
the thing I suppose Alcohol Concern want to hear: we've found a new member who
wants to stop drinking and invited him to join us at the Commonwealth Games in
Manchester (we bought the tickets online for a fiver each months ago). One of
us has seriously started thinking about getting off benefits and earning enough
money to carry on with the kind of lifestyle that enables you to go to concerts
or football matches or go out for a meal (we've had a few of those, including
one where we had the biggest steak and kidney puddings you've ever seen). And
now we're thinking about doing a bit of fund raising to keep it all going. The
strangest thing of this whole experience is that we have suggested to other people
that they should get in touch with Alcohol Concern and set up their own group.
They look at you as though you are talking about going to the Moon. We wouldn't
mind, but they've no idea how big a steak and kidney pudding can really be if
you have the money to pay for it. UK readers might
like to fund out more about the free programme (it's an ongoing project) by getting
in touch with Alcoholic Concern. They are at Waterbridge House, 32-36 Loman Street,
London SE1 OEE. Tel: 020 7928 7377. Contact Jim Asbury, Grant Programmes Co-ordinator
Sinclair
Newton
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