My mother accompanied father to AA and then realised she was an alcoholic

Scotland’s drugs minister has told how her mother was persuaded to go to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) with her father, before realising she too had a drinking problem.

Maree Todd was given the post by First Minister John Swinney in June, and has never spoken of her personal link to addiction.

But with her father celebrating four decades of sobriety this year, the minister said she hopes his story will show people “that change can happen”.

In her childhood, Todd’s parents, John and Christina, drank heavily, but when she was 12, the pair decided to get sober.

It was not until a friend from their west Highland village – who was in recovery himself – approached her father to ask him to seek help that the process truly began.

Accepting the invitation to AA, her mother was eventually persuaded