As the clock struck 5pm on Friday, Kathryn Elliot left her desk and hurried to meet her girlfriends for a drink.

At the bar, she ordered a crisp glass of chardonnay – her go-to. While the group of 20-somethings caught up and shared gossip, Kathryn knew one thing: she was heading for a big night.

Her willpower around alcohol was non-existent, and stopping at just one drink was  something she’d simply never been able to do.

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‘I wasn’t addicted to alcohol but I had a social problem with binge drinking,’ Kathryn tells the Daily Mail.

‘We drank to get drunk. For so long, my relationship with alcohol was problematic and unhealthy.’

Alcohol played a significant role in Kathryn’s life from a young age. Growing up in the 1980s, she and her friends drank almost every weekend.

The 53-year-old, from Melbourne, says: ‘Binge drinking culture was huge and, in a way, still is today in Australia. It was so normalised back then, no one questioned it.

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‘As a girl, I was told I was really good at drinking and keeping up with my male friends. It was positive reinforcement: If you can drink a lot, handle your alcohol and hold your pace, then that’s a good thing.’

Her drinking habits got worse in her 20s. She would drink to the point of blackout and wake up unable to remember anything about her night or how she got home.

But she never saw it as a major problem.

She had a good job in PR and always kept things professional in the office. But on weekends with friends, she became a different person.

After getting married and having three children, Kathryn’s drinking continued.

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‘I did slow down, but I didn’t have an off switch when I drank,’ she says.

On a typical night out, she could easily put away a bottle of white wine, plus a few cocktails – between 15 to 20 standard drinks.

Despite this, Kathryn wasn’t a daily drinker and had successfully participated in Dry July, which convinced her she didn’t have a problem.

Yet each time she had her first drink at a social event, she’d lose control.

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In Australia, one standard drink contains 10g of alcohol. Health experts recommend no than four standard drinks a day and no than 10 standard drinks a week.

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But no amount of alcohol is deemed entirely ‘safe’.

In 2014, Kathryn was a bridesmaid at her brother’s wedding but ended up ruining the happy occasion.

‘I drank quickly, didn’t eat much food, and the day was a disaster. I woke up the next morning thinking I had a nightmare but it was real,’ she said.

‘I ruined the night for my mother as I said some unkind things to her when it wasn’t the right time nor place. I had also fallen over and grazed my hand.

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‘In the morning I woke up to texts from my mum asking, “Are you okay?” In that moment, I realised I was on a slippery downhill slope.’

A few years later, in April 2019, Kathryn, her then-husband and their three sons went on holiday together.

Yet again, she had too many drinks one night.

‘I woke up the next morning with a throbbing sensation at the back of my head – but it wasn’t just a headache,’ she said.

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‘I had drunk so many espresso martinis very quickly and was completely wiped out. I couldn’t remember getting home and I fell back and hit my head.’

‘My kids saw me drunk and my husband at the time had to help me into bed. When I woke up the next morning, I felt so ashamed and embarrassed because of what the kids saw.

‘I just thought, “It’s my responsibility to do something about this.” These instances weren’t happening every weekend at the time – they were barely happening every month – but I knew there was a problem that had been going on for decades.’

On that day, in July 2019, Kathryn decided to stop drinking for good.

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‘I think when you give yourself a time limit, an opportunity, to return to drinking – you’re not fully committed. For me, that was a huge mindset shift,’ she says.

Fifty-five days after cutting alcohol out of her life at 46, Kathryn’s world was turned upside down while she was getting ready for work.

‘I was in the shower and for some reason, I had this thought zoom into my head which said, “You need to check your body,”‘ Kathryn recalls.

‘When I got out of the shower, I could see in the mirror there was this dimpling skin on the right side of my right breast. I touched it and felt a large lump. My stomach dropped.

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‘I screamed out to my husband who came running upstairs. I’m not one to jump to conclusions, but I said it could be breast cancer. I immediately went to see my GP.’

The doctor inspected the lump, took a biopsy and she had an answer within days: Kathryn was diagnosed with stage 2B breast cancer.

It hadn’t spread thankfully, but it was an aggressive form of cancer.

‘It’s like your life isn’t your own any ,’ Kathryn says of the diagnosis.

‘I never thought it would happen to me. Your mind thinks you’re going to die straight away.’

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The lump was Kathryn’s only symptom, and she had no family history of breast cancer.

But she did have a history of binge drinking – going back decades.

After her diagnosis, she began to investigate the link between alcohol and breast cancer – and found the evidence was indisputable.

‘I thought, “Oh, my goodness, why didn’t I know this earlier?” I spoke to other women in my circles and they didn’t have a clue either,’ Kathryn says.

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With this knowledge, Kathryn was certain she’d never drink again.

She soon began five weeks of chemotherapy to shrink the tumour, before having surgery to remove the cancerous tissue surrounding it. Four weeks of radiotherapy completed her treatment.

Kathryn’s cancer is now in remission, and she is six and a half years sober.

She now works as an Alcohol Mindset Coach where she helps other women combat their own drinking problems.

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Kathryn hopes sharing her story will help others understand the dangers of alcohol.

‘Alcohol becomes significantly harmful for women in their 40s and 50s as oestrogen declines, metabolism slows, and the body’s ability to process alcohol drops,’ she explains.

‘Even “moderate” intake raises the risk of breast cancer, liver disease, heart disease, mood disorders, sleep disruption and weight gain.

‘Yet many mid-life women are drinking as they juggle stress, careers, ageing parents and menopause symptoms.’

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Kathryn also shared her tips for those who want to cut down their alcohol intake.

She suggests delaying the first alcoholic beverage until dinner, and then alternating between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks after that.

‘Play the tape forward – imagine how fresh you’ll feel in the morning without a hangover. I’ve never met anyone who regrets not drinking,’ she says.

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