Growing up with an alcoholic mother, I became a coper and a doer

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Camilla Tominey
© Telegraph.co.uk

My mother had been an alcoholic for many years before we could bring ourselves, as a family, to openly acknowledge that she had a serious drink problem.

I still vividly remember the moment we broke our conspiracy of silence when I was about 13. We were on holiday in South Africa, staying at this wonderful hotel in Plettenberg Bay but Mum had refused to leave the room, seemingly preferring the mini-bar for company than her own husband and three children.