Hélène Poole had it all – or at least, it seemed that way.Balancing a high-powered career in management consulting with raising her three sons, she spent her 30s and 40s in a glamourous whirl of international travel, long lunches with clients and sophisticated industry parties.But beneath the successful veneer, Hélène was struggling with a heavy, suffocating burden: a debilitating drinking problem.Despite thriving at work, she regularly found herself knocking back ten bottles of wine a week – more than six times the recommended weekly limit for women.Alcohol was practically part of her job description. Boozy lunches would lead into post-work cocktails, which were then followed by a late-night wine bar.‘I was drinking from Monday to Friday. And though I’d spent the weekend sobering up, I’d be back to it again the following week,’ says Hélène.It wasn’t until she stepped back from her career in her 40s, moving to France with her children and husband Richard, that the cracks began to appear, however.With less of an opportunity to drink during the week, Hélène would instead spend her weekends binging, as a way to let off steam. As she only drank white wine and champagne, Hélène Poole didn't think she had a problem – but she regularly knocked back more than six times the recommended weekly limit The reckoning came on family holiday in Portugal, when Hélène found herself blacking out at dinner, unable to remember what she’d eaten or said, at just 8pm at nightLunches and BBQs with friends would see Hélène regularly reaching a point where she was slurring her words, repeating herself and tumbling over her own feet.‘In the moment, I found it hilarious,’ she explained. ‘But I would wake up the next morning mortified – having embarrassed myself, and my family.‘I thought because I only was drinking white wine or champagne, and usually only at lunch or dinner – never in the mornings, or behind my family’s back – that I didn’t have a problem. But it was all adding up.’Then Hélène, 55, was diagnosed with cancer, which she believes was linked to her excessive drinking over so many decades.But, shockingly, neither the terrifying diagnosis – nor the brutal treatment that followed – proved enough to convince her to quit.In fact, Hélène’s life-saving chemotherapy had to be delayed for months after she broke her arm falling over blind drunk while taking the bins out.Then came the real reckoning. On family holiday in Portugal, Hélène found herself blacking out at dinner, unable to remember what she’d eaten or said, at just 8pm.‘I knew I needed to make a change,’ she says. ‘So that September, I decided to enrol in online sober coaching. I threw out every bottle of alcohol in my house. And for months, it was agony.’‘But eventually, I got there. And it’s changed my life.’Three years on, Hélène’s life is almost unrecognisable. She and her family have relocated to Switzerland, Richard is retired and Hélène has built a successful business as a sober coach, helping others find their own path to freedom.‘The positives are endless. My sleep is wonderful, my under eyes are no longer puffy, and at 58, I look younger than I did a decade ago,’ she explains.‘Best of all, my relationships are entirely transformed. My boys, who are now 16, 20, and 22, are so proud of me.‘Occasionally, a slight sense of missing out still returns when I watch others drink, but I reconcile it instantly by remembering what happened every single time I took a sip. "Playing the tape forwards" is a very powerful tool to remind yourself where that one glass can take you.’