Bedridden: Mr Howard sits beside Beverley. He wants her to die at home but she must stay in the care home (Picture: Sarah Washbourn)

This picture of a dying young mother of four shows the true damage of chronic alcohol abuse.

Beverley Pickorer regularly has epileptic seizures and is bed-bound. Her jaundiced skin is paper thin and her teeth are rotting.

The 35-year-old developed liver disease after a decade of alcoholism. At her worst, she drank 24 cans of lager and a bottle of pear cider in the morning, carried on drinking in a nearby pub and had another 16 cans of lager when she went home.

Her four children, aged between six and 15, have been taken into care while she faces certain death.


Her partner, Anthony Howard, said: ‘I’ve been looking after her for five-and-a-half years and she’s constantly been in and out of hospital with liver cirrhosis.



‘She’s the youngest person in this care home. All she can do every day is stay in bed.’

A series of troubled relationships caused Ms Pickorer, from Sheffield, to turn to booze. She has received palliative care at Haythorne Place Care Home since last May.

Now, her boyfriend is asking the NHS to allow her to return home to die.

Mr Howard said: ‘We made an agreement that when she dies she would die in my arms at home but the NHS has said this would be too expensive.’