A mum who first started drinking aged just 12 has opened up about the impact addiction has had on her life. Zosia Rembowski would often go into school drunk and says she then left school on the week of her 13th birthday.
By her early teens she had already learned how to hide her drinking problem from others, saying she'd mask the smell with mouthwash or chewing gum. The 54-year-old says: "Back then in school, it was nothing like it is now, so nothing was really followed up with.
"I went a couple of times in the following years, just to hand notes in. Notes that I'd written from my mum to keep everything quiet." She worked odd jobs to fuel her addiction, helping out at a chippie and using her earnings to buy alcohol.
