'I was a teenage binge drinker but now at 28 I'll be dead within weeks': Tragic alcoholic's warning to youngsters
By Daily Mail Reporter
17th February 2011
A 28-year-old alcoholic who has just months to live has issued a frightening warning to young binge drinkers.
Matthew Stiebrins is a patient at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, and doctors are unsure whether he will make it to his 29th birthday on May 4.
He began drinking bottles of vodka at the age of 15 and his habit has eaten away at his brain and left him with irreversible cirrhosis of the liver.
But as he faces up to death at such a tragically young age, Mr Stiebrins has warned binge drinkers everywhere, including 15-year-old Nicola Weaver, whose case MailOnline covered this week.
The Yorkshire schoolgirl admitted she drinks around 26 pints of cider, ten cans of lager and almost a bottle of vodka every week, but does not think she has a problem.
'This girl doesn't think it will happen to her, but I never thought it would happen to me,' Mr Stiebrins told the Daily Star.
'She needs to realise what she sees as fun may one day become a habit that she won't be able to break.
'And when she gets to that point life will be so precious that she will wish she had never, ever laid eyes on a drink.
His mother, Dawn Titterton, 49, said her son began drinking in his teens, as many youths do, but that his problem wasn't immediately obvious.
'It happened over a period of 10 years but the trouble with cirrohsis is it doesn't show itself straight away,' said Mrs Titteron.
'Matthew's grandmother and aunt were both alcoholics and they died the way Matt will.
'He has a swollen spleen, his lungs are squashed because of the fluid in his stomach.'
Earlier this week we reported on the drinking habit of Nicola Weaver.
Nicola, 15, who lives with her mother and younger siblings in Bridlington, Yorkshire, says her drinking escalated when she turned 14.
She started bunking off school to go drinking with her friends and now goes to college just two days a week.
She spends the other three weekdays downing cans of alcohol with friends and pays for her habit with earnings from her Saturday job at a cafe. She also smokes 20 cigarettes a day.
Her mother is so worried she stopped her from watching TV or using her phone. She even circulated her daughter's picture among the local pubs and bars last summer to stop her from being served, but Nicola is undaunted.
'My behaviour is normal for my age,' said Nicola.
'Drinking's fun and I don't plan to stop. I'd be bored if I didn't drink.
• If you're worried about a friend who drinks too much or think you may need help visit Talk To Frank or Alcohol Concern
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