Businessman Russell Hughes tells of battle to beat booze

Jan 17 2010 Sunday Sun

A BUSINESSMAN who drank 40 units of alcohol a day has told how he has overcome his addiction after pioneering treatment.

Russell Hughes turned his life around after regularly consuming the equivalent of 20 pints - or four bottles of wine - a day.

And now Russell, 44, has teamed up with partner Darya, 33, to promote the treatment that saved him from alcoholism.

The dad-of-two was visiting the Ukraine with Darya when he was told about “The Code” – a treatment which involves a detox to rid the system of alcohol, followed by an injection of a chemical compound which block receptors in the brain.

He soon booked himself into a clinic in Riga, Latvia, to undergo the treatment.

He also had an implant of Disulfiram – a drug which footballer George Best is known to have turned to – which causes users to be violently ill if they consume alcohol.

Disulfiram is not available as an implant in the UK.

The treatment proved such a success that he and Darya have now set up Aluston Health, organising trips to a specialist clinic in Latvia.

Russell, who was born in Newcastle but now lives in Sunderland, runs several businesses, and he told how years of entertaining clients turned him into a “functioning alcoholic”.

He said: “I could pay the bills and go to work but behind the scenes there was heartache. I was losing my family, my relationship and my business was suffering.