We came across a girl on North Hill, drunk and sitting on the pavement, while a friend was trying to get her up and into a taxi with some other friends. However, she was too drunk to do this, even with our help. Her friend left her with us and went off in the taxi with the others.

We gave her some water and asked her if anyone might be able to come and pick her up – no, mum was at home with her children and she didn’t want mum to know about this anyway. Her partner was “not very nice” – she certainly didn’t want to tell him and she laughed when we asked about friends, as she said we’d just seen how her friends were when she had been left with us. So we walked her around, half carrying her, for over an hour, still trying to sober her up and giving her more water.

As we “walked” she said “I’ll be all right, just leave me” – we told her that wasn’t an option. She also asked for a phone number that she could ring later to talk to someone as she felt friendless, and a failure as a person and as a mother. We gave her Roy’s contact numbers and finally got her sober enough to get safely into a taxi after some two hours in all.