When homeless, Sinead drank up to six litres of cider a day

I was 13 when I had my first drop of alcohol.

I was impressed by the wrong people. They used to walk past and wave a bottle, laughing at me. When I drank they respected me more.

At first, it was just the occasional bottle of alcopops in the park or a back alley. But at 14 I was going into pubs about three times a week and downing about six bottles of Bacardi Breezers.

I would pop in wearing my school uniform. Maybe I was getting served because I was with older people.

Real Story: Teenage alcoholics Monday, 26 July, 2004 19:30 BST on BBC One

After a drinking session, my friends would talk about what a good night they'd had and just leave it at that. But I'd go and buy a few bottles of vodka and hide in my room to drink them.

The buzz I was chasing was not about getting slowly drunk - I just wanted to get completely out of it.

Coming up to my sixteenth birthday, I'd wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning and get out my bottle of White Ice.

I stopped going to school. My teachers had tried talking to me but it got to the the stage where they were letting me into classes drunk.

I'd wake up in an abandoned car and go to beg for money for booze

Then I got onto a trainee scheme with a top hairdressers' in London. But I'd turn up wrecked and just sit there to kill a few hours.

I was stealing money from my family.

I used to make deals with my parents, promising to give up the drink. But within four days my Mum would walk in and I'd be crashed out on her floor with a bottle next to me.

I became violent and punched one of her friends.

My little brother couldn't handle it so she had no choice really but to kick me out .

She rang round some hostels but no-one could take me in so I ended up on the streets.

Hospitalised

It was then, when I didn't care where I ended up at the end of the night, that I realised I was addicted to alcohol.

I'd wake up in an abandoned car and go to beg for money for booze.

If I didn't have enough for bacardi or whisky I'd go onto cheap cider for 59p a can. It got to the point where I was drinking about six litres of cider a day, and anything else I could get.

If it made me sick, I'd throw up and just do it all over again.

Sinead and her mother are trying to put the past behind them

Someone found me unconscious in a block of flats and I was taken to hospital.

In the end my Mum contacted a drugs counsellor who got me a place in rehab.

When I came out, I was pale and withdrawn but started to rebuild my relationship with my family.

Then my old friends started offering me drinks. I think I was just someone they could humiliate.

The shame I felt made me drink again. I couldn't walk past off licences or pubs without going in.

Liver damage

The first step on my road to recovery was telling the people I'd been hanging around with that I didn't want them in my life anymore.

The second was to set myself the goal of cutting down on the amount I was drinking each week.

An organisation called Turning Point helped me to develop my self-confidence. When I'm happier with myself I'm less likely to drink.

I'm also being treated for alcoholic liver damage. In some ways, it 's the best thing that could have happened to me because now I have to stop drinking.

The peer mentoring work I'm doing is another reason to stay sober.