When I went to the Houses of Parliament last week to see MP Liam Byrne and Caroline Flint launch their All Party Parliamentary Group Manifesto to help children of alcohol dependent parents, I was filled with optimism.
At last, there was serious action taking place to help the silent 2.6 million children in this country who are growing up with alcohol dependent parents, not to mention the countless tens of millions adult COAs.
Express journalist Camilla Tominey was there too and she listened to the various speakers who poured their own stories out from their hearts. I spoke to her afterwards and told her about the very young callers who ring amid pure chaos to ask one our incredible NACOA volunteers to read them a bedtime story, because all around them, hell is raining down.
Camilla was in tears, as am I every time I relay that story.
She promised she would do something to help raise awareness of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, the incredible charity I’m so proud to have been a Trustee for, for a decade.
Nacoa survives on a shoestring. There’s no government funding, no corridors of staff, it’s run on kind donations, on sponsorship money from people who do wonderful, bonkers sporting events and a mass of volunteer energy, empathy and a common understanding that if we are able to help, we help.
Today’s front page of the Sunday Express says it all. Camilla delivered just like she promised. (Thank you Camilla). There’s no sensationalism, just bare fact and that’s shocking enough. It’s all over page 26 too, along with Sunday Express Opinion, which says they, ‘Wholeheartedly support the Manifesto for Change from our Patron Liam Byrne’.
Here’s the kicker: until funding slides into place Nacoa’s phones are ringing off the wall and the requests for posters, leaflets and other help is now exponential.
If you want to do something to help, please consider becoming a member of Nacoa. It’s just £25 to join and every penny of that supports the COAs that desperately need help. Just visit Nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/become-a-member.html
I have been on the radio talking about being a child of an alcoholic:
Thank you xxxxx
Tracey West
The ‘secrecy and shame’ of having alcoholic parents
