About me

I’m a mum in my 40s to three teenage girls - and someone who used to drink far too much.

I started drinking at 14, growing up in ’90s UK, and from pretty early on I struggled with moderation. I was never someone who could “just have one.”

Alcohol became a coping mechanism during a four-year abusive relationship in my late teens, something I didn't fully process for many years. Numbing felt easier than feeling.

In my 20s, I drank and partied like everyone else, taking pride in being the last one standing. In 2005, I moved to New Zealand, started a family and tried to “grow up.”

My daughters were born in 2007, 2009 and 2010 - three under three! - and the exhaustion was real. I fell straight into the “mummy wine” culture, convincing myself I'd earned a wine (or five) once the kids were in bed.

Then, in 2018, something shifted.

My nine-year-old daughter told me she hated the way my voice sounded when I'd been drinking.

I wish I could say I stopped there and then.

I didn't.

It took another four years of stopping, starting, making rules, trying to moderate and convincing myself that this time would be different before I finally stopped drinking on 5 March 2022.

And that's a big part of why I do this work now.

I know what it's like to know something needs to change and still not be able to make that change stick.

Sobriety has changed my life in ways I couldn't have imagined back then - and, most importantly, it's changed my relationship with my girls.

Now I help other women step out of that same exhausting cycle and discover what life can look like when alcohol isn't taking up so much mental space.