Gulliver opens up on battle with alcoholism: "I was lucky to survive"

Trina Gulliver had to withdraw from the BDO World Championship in early 2020 due to health reasons and wasn't heard from as a result for some time but 'The Golden Girl' has now opened up on her battle with alcohol addiction.

In an interview with Phill Barrs for Winmau TV, Gulliver discussed how she did punditry at the 2019 PDC World Championship for Sky Sports but collapsed and was seriously ill following that.

"Sometimes you have to reach rock bottom to make you stand up and realise really. That's what happened to me, I had to pull out of the World Championship beforehand. I was feeling awful for a long time, I just didn't realise how awful I was feeling. I kind of got used to it, I got used to being in pain," said Gulliver to Winmau TV.

"I just physically wasn't strong enough. I was throwing at the board and I couldn't even reach it. I couldn't reach the treble 20, I had no power in me whatsoever. I went down to seven stone, I was taken into hospital and I was lucky to survive."

Discussing time in hospital

Gulliver discussed that time in hospital and how over Christmas and New Year, she was bed bound as a result.

"First of all they said you're lucky to be here now. I haven't had a drink since December 3, 2019 not that I'm counting. I spent a month in hospital over Christmas and New Year. I couldn't walk, I couldn't get out of bed."

"At it's worst for me, probably between three to four bottles of wine a day everyday. It really took hold of me."

The ten time Ladies World Champion spoke also about how far back it has gone and said that a big turning point was separating from her husband back in 2005 and dealing with her sexuality.

"It was when I separated from my husband. I was drinking then but nowhere near just the general drink. I'd say when I split with my husband and dealt with my sexuality that was major.

"I tried to shut myself off from everybody, I was absolutely petrified. I was thinking I'm going to lose my sponsors, my friends, is my family going to understand. That was added pressure so you try and mask it."

Road to recovery and comeback

For Gulliver though, she admitted she has good and bad days but looks back to her time in hospital as a place she doesn't want to return to.

"It was very much at the beginning, an hour at a time. When I was in hospital, I couldn't even feed myself very well. My coordination was all over the place. It's been really hard, obviously things have got better as it's gone on. There's difficult days still where you just think it would be nice to have a drink but you look at the other side of things and remember where it put me."

Now a comeback to darts is at the forefront of the legendary darter's mind and she was recently announced for the World Seniors with the ambition still there.

"I want to come back to darts, I want to play again but there's no way I will be doing it on the same scale as I was before. There's a lot to be said to not having to pack a case on a Friday to fly off somewhere and come back on a Monday. I'm looking forward to getting that sort of thing back in my life."