A MUM-OF-THREE has shared her harrowing account of losing her three children to her alcohol addiction in a bid to help others.

Former teacher Anna Elston has told how she should be dead but she battled against the odds to overcome her problems and regain the care of her three sons Jack, 15, Eddie, 10, and Dylan, nine.

Today Anna refuses to take her family Christmas for granted and has chosen to speak out to spread hope that recovery is possible.

She said: “Today I value my life because I came so close to death. Every day is precious with my children. We’re often told that addiction is a family illness. I like to think of it as a family recovery.”

The 44-year-old from Christchurch said her condition deteriorated after son Dylan was born at 25 weeks weighing just 1bs 2oz.

“I found myself on my first day in a residential treatment centre for alcohol addiction with a broken marriage, post-natal depression, recovering from a caesarean, with my 10 week old baby son on life support in hospital and my other two sons, aged five and nine months, were about to be taken into foster care.

“I had always been a heavy drinker and didn’t suffer from hangovers, which was my downfall as I could still function and work for many years. It was only when social services got involved and there was the possibility of my children being taken that I tried to stop and realised I couldn’t.”

Anna went into treatment in April 2007 but when the court said her children still had to go into care, she relapsed just two days later.

“I had lost my role as a mum and had nothing else at that time. I meant to just drink that one night, but everything I was told in treatment came true and it was the start of three months of chaos. I had learned that my anti-depressants were highly toxic with no antidote, so one evening I took the lot and stopped breathing before paramedics arrived.

“When I came off life support, I was angry that I couldn’t even do that right. But then I realised that I didn’t really want to die, I just didn’t want to feel that way anymore.

“The children’s legal guardian told me that I’d have to pull a rabbit out of a hat to have a chance of my children being returned to me. Shocked and scared, it was in that moment that I became truly determined that I would do everything I could to get them back.”

Anna had her last drink on 14 August 2007.

Determined, she drove 900 miles a month to visit her children, attend court hearings, hospital appointments and reviews.

She explained: “You can’t take away the fact you’re a mum, so you can’t live a normal life without them. Trying to maintain sobriety and not squash my feelings was hard.

“Dates like Christmas and Mother’s Day were a killer. But so was just going to the park or hearing a baby cry.

“My eldest Jack wouldn’t come to the phone on Christmas Day; he was hurting and angry with me.

“I always had the vision of my children being returned to me, but nobody could give me any certainty."

Only around 0.5 per cent of addicted parents who lost their children to the care system ever get them back but Anna says she was one of the lucky ones and the court agreed they could return after eight months sobriety.

She said: “I can’t change what has happened, but now I can ensure that I make healthy choices without alcohol clouding my judgement. We have an amazing relationship now and are very close.”

After three years in recovery, Anna retrained so she was able to help others avoid and overcome similar issues. She achieved a first class degree in BSc (Hons) Addictions Counselling and took a job as coordinator for the Resilience Programme – a drug and alcohol awareness and prevention programme run in schools jointly by Addaction and the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

Last year, Anna gave a speech to the Duchess of Cambridge about her journey and her three boys presented her with a posy of flowers.

Anna has now been presented with the Marsh Christian Trust Award for an exceptional individual in the field of recovery at Addaction’s National Conference 2016.

But Anna maintains her biggest achievement is having her family together.

For information go to addaction.org.uk