Having spent his life struggling with his own self-esteem, Martin Preston never felt like he was good enough.
Surrounded by high achievers at Manchester Grammar School, he was an average student, not overly sporty and wasn’t super popular with girls.
So when he had his first sip of alcohol at 14, something inside him changed. Suddenly, he had confidence. He was better at socialising. He felt happier.
“I loved it,” the 39-year-old, who lives in Altrincham, said. “As a teen, it was great fun.”
But that fun wouldn’t last long. Martin quickly became known as the friend who would always take his drinking too far – going out at every opportunity and jumping between friendship groups to ensure he was always at a party.
Eventually, he began using cannabis and dabbled in ecstasy at the weekends.
Things got much worse when Martin almost died just before sitting his GCSEs after contracting meningitis and septicaemia. The meningitis affected his brain, particularly his short-term memory – leaving him feeling frightened most of the time.
Everything finally came to a head once he attended university. Overwhelmed by his studies, Martin swapped lectures for drinking vodka alone in his room.
“I just wanted to be in my own oblivion,” the dad-of-three said. “When I was sober enough, I answered called from my family and made out I was fine – but my family knew I wasn’t coping.”
Having dropped out of university, Martin still wasn’t ready to accept his drinking problem. Thinking he “just liked to get drunk”, he never saw himself as an alcoholic.
A 28-day stint in rehab didn’t help. Within five months, he was drinking again and had started taking cocaine too, liking how it helped hide his drunken state.
“My life was a mess for the next few years,” he said. “I started a job away from home, thinking it’d be a fresh start, but instead I felt lonely and isolated.
“Each night, I’d buy half a litre of vodka, tell myself I’d stop when it was gone, then get in my car to get more. It’s a miracle I never caused an accident.”
Martin lost his job and was forced to move back in with his parents. “There was a lot of chaos, arguments and upset during that time,” he added. “But I somehow felt detached from it.
“I’d go out at night and not know where I’d left my car, or simply wake up having passed out in a bad area of the city.
“In the mornings when I did make it home, I would come downstairs making up a story about who I’d been out with – in truth I’d had so much to drink I had no idea what I’d done.”
After spending years struggling with addiction, it was his younger sister who was finally able to get through to him, telling him she no longer liked him and he was making the family ill.
"She just made me realise how my behaviour was affecting other people and how ill I had become,” Martin continued. “I don’t think she said anything that anyone hadn’t told me before, but now I was finally ready to hear it. I cried for the first time in years.”
At age 21, Martin returned to rehab, this time having a completely different attitude. He left after three months and dedicated the next 18 months of his life to recovery.
He eventually found a job in marketing and remained involved in the AA supporting other people in recovery. Really wanting to dedicate himself to helping others, he decided to become a counsellor.
“I started meeting people, spent time in America and observed the sector,” he added. “America is streets ahead – there’s no shame around addiction, there’s plenty of treatment available, and it’s okay to say you’re in counselling our therapy. It really inspired me.”
Wanting to open a similar rehab clinic in the UK, Martin set about creating it, opening his own rehab centre, Delamere, in Northwich, Cheshire, in January 2020.
“My rehab experience was on one level very punitive and the approach was very prescriptive – we’d clean the toilets, sleep in dormitory style bedrooms, it wasn’t unusual to be shouted at in group therapy, we were told when we left not to make any major decisions, not to go on holiday for a year, not to get into a relationship and so on,” Martin said.
“Delamere is the antithesis of what is so often to be found elsewhere in rehabs in the UK. The starting point is that the courageous decision to seek help is one to be celebrated.
“We believe in providing just the right environment, hence £7m investment in purpose-built clinic, while providing a tailored approach to care which blends traditional talk therapy with more innovative treatments.
“We’re very proud of the work we do with trauma and alongside addiction we also treat work burnout and mental health.”
So far, Delamere has helped almost 1,000 guests, been rated as ‘good’ in all areas by the Care Quality Commission, employed 45 people and set about growth to open more clinics.
“This was the slow and the expensive way to enter the market – it took a year to find the site, 18 months to obtain planning permission and 15 months to open the doors,” Martin, who will have been sober for two decades next year, continued.
“Finding new ways to cope has not been easy. I still work hard on myself.
“I ensure I work on my own self-esteem and find helping other people through tough times is a really useful way for me to remain well – it helps me as much as them as I feel useful and know I’m making a difference.
“Spending time with my family and doing other things that make me happy is also important.
“Above all, I’ve learned it is possible to change, it is possible to grow beyond addiction. I can’t wait to help others see that too.”
For more information on Delamere rehab clinic, visit the website here.
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