100,000 Essex children educated on alcohol dangers thanks to alcoHELP

02 April 2014

More than 100,000 children and young people across Essex have been taught about the dangers of drinking, thanks to alcohol education charity alcoHELP.

Last month, alcoHELP celebrated their 10th anniversary, and estimate that in the last decade they have worked with somewhere in the region of 100,000 children and young people.

alcoHELP’s Choices for Life alcohol awareness programme aims to help children and young people better understand the dangers of alcohol, through education on how harmful the drug can be.

The charity has found that in an average class of 30 Year 9 (13-14 year olds) children, 10 are already drinking, and another 10 have the potential to get involved in abusing alcohol. Statistics show that more than 40% of children who start drinking before the age of 13 will go on to abuse alcohol, or become alcoholics at some point in their lives.

Terry Martin, trustee of alcoHELP, says: “It’s amazing to think that we have worked with 100,000 children and young people across Essex over the last decade. Alcohol education is crucial and we give young people the facts and the harsh reality of drinking to excess, based on our own life-changing experiences.

“We estimate that more than 13,000 of the children we have worked with had serious potential to abuse alcohol or become alcoholics, and by making sure that they are better informed, we have given them to tools to make better choices and have a better quality of life, health and well-being.”

The charity was formed in 2004 when, following several years of recovery from addiction to alcohol, Terry joined together with two fellow alcoholics – Debby and Nigel to start alcoHELP. All three of them had a strong desire to ‘give something back’, and raising alcohol awareness in children was the direction they decided on.

Terry Martin, trustee of alcoHELP, added: “We’ve come such a long way since the first session that we ran at Felsted Primary School in 2004.  

“Although our educational message about how dangerous a drug alcohol is has stayed the same, things have changed over the last decade. We are seeing children who have started drinking at a younger age, and the rise of social media has brought about new dangers. Drinking games and dares sent online mean that young people are more likely to drink alone, with no one there to help them if something goes wrong.”