Emma Espiner

Literally on that day [we separated], I laced up my running shoes, ran 10km and didn't think about it [drinking] again.

And I often find that I can resolve problems, whether it's a structural problem with a piece of journalism I'm working on, or how to navigate something in my life emotionally or just a challenge or a problem. There's a connection for me between the physicality of running and my mind being able to drift away. I’ve been a conflict-free zone in the workplace for nearly 30 years – that’s probably because I have avoided (or been turned down for!) management positions. It's a bit harder with type one because as I say, it’s a bit of a chemistry experiment. I read a lot of scientific papers online, discussed it a lot with him and then did a lot of my own experimenting. And actually, literally on that day, I laced up my running shoes and ran 10km and didn't think about it [drinking] again. He suggests that for many, as we move through life, “we increase the cost of the bottle of wine and the restaurants we go to are a bit nicer, but the patterns remain”. And we didn't just dream this up, this is the narrative fed to us by advertising and by the cultural momentum of a drug, which is pretty extraordinary really, isn't it? And that I needed to go to the pub and buy a packet of cigarettes. And after about six weeks, I decided to cut out all carbohydrates (more commonly known as sugar, but I didn't even know the difference at that point). Running 10km a day has been his major form of stress management and an alternative to the bottle. "The first thing I thought was that I would go back to drinking.