'I drank five bottles of wine EVERY DAY and ended up on life support'

 Patricia Murphy, 45, drank 350 units a week but has been sober 7 months. She is from Chessington, Surrey, and began drinking at 17 after leaving school
Trained as a sales assistant and started drinking because she was shy. At 35 she met her partner Graham, a teetotal engineer in a pub.
The recommended maximum intake of alcohol for women is between two and three units a day, and no more than 14 units a week.
So it is little wonder that Patricia Murphy - who drank up to 350 units every week for 25 years - eventually ended up in hospital on a life support machine with cirrhosis of the liver, or that she is now waiting to be told if she'll need a liver transplant.

She was taken to hospital with cirrhosis and collapsed: while she was on life support. Graham was told there was a five per cent chance she'd survive. A priest came to read her last rites.
'I feel so guilty about the hurt I've caused those closest to me, I'll always regret not having a career or children'

But against all the odds - and after a 10-week stay in hospital - Patricia was released. Despite her ordeal, the first thing she did upon release was buy wine. Luckily, she was disgusted with herself for doing it, and has been sober ever since.

'At the moment, doctors are happy with my progress, but my life expectancy will be affected. My liver is so scarred, it will slowly stop functioning.'

A scan in October will determine whether or not Patricia needs a liver transplant.

So painful that she doesn't even have children.

'I feel so guilty about the hurt I've caused those closest to me, I'll always regret not having a career or children.'
Images of Patricia Murphy when her organs shut down as a result of cirrhosis of the liver and she had developed blood poisoning is shown below :