When referred to hospital due to feelings of exhaustion, 31-year-old BBC journalist Hazel Martin was told that her liver had suffered severe alcohol-related liver fibrosis or extreme scarring due to binge drinking. Martin claimed surprise at the diagnosis, stating that she only drank in sociable situations and didn’t drink alone nor feel alcohol-dependent. However, the amount of alcohol she consumed since her late teens until her late 20s constituted binge drinking and was damaging her liver. After being diagnosed, Martin began researching the UK’s drinking culture and found that young people are not drinking as much while people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s were continuing to drink heavily. The University College London, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge conducted research that shows binge drinking can be three to four times more damaging than drinking the same amount spread over a longer period.
Martin began her research after she was referred to hospital due to feelings of exhaustion. Initially, her GP prescribed her blood tests and a check of her liver function diagnosed that her
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