Al Anon – which helps the families and friends of alcoholics – has been running Alateen groups for teenagers across the world and in the UK since 1964.

Now the organisation is opening an Alateen group in Oxfordshire.

Specifically for 12 to 17-year olds, Alateen groups, like adult Al-Anon groups, are strictly anonymous and help youngsters to learn they are not responsible for their relative’s or friend’s drinking or behaviour.

Using the same 12-step recovery programme used by AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and Al-Anon, youngsters gain an understanding of the illness and feel the benefits of realising they are not alone.

And by sharing their experiences, they find solutions to their problems and hope for the future.

Karen (not her real name) grew up as the child of an alcoholic.

Now 40, and living in Woodstock, she will be working as a sponsor within the Oxford Alateen group.

She said: “Oxfordshire needs an Alateen group because so many families are affected by the disease of alcoholism and young people need to get support to cope with the various ways the disease manifests itself in a family.

“It can be through violence and emotional abandonment, and teenagers can become at risk of the disease themselves.”

Karen credits Alateen with saving her life as a teenager.

She said: “I felt it was my fault that the three father figures I had growing up in London were all alcoholics and mistreated me and my family.

“But I attended Alateen meetings from 1985-1991 and then moved on to Al-Anon and became a sponsor of an Alateen group a few years later. I’m a teacher now but it is only because of the AlAnon/ Alateen programme that I realised I didn’t cause the disease and the outcomes of it.”

Alateen was started in 1957 by a teenager in California whose father was in AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and whose mother was in Al-Anon.

Stuart, 35, one of the leaders of the Oxford Alateen group, knows what it’s like to grow up with an alcoholic father.

He said: “My father was an alcoholic. He committed suicide when I was 19 and my mother was institutionalised for the four months leading up to my GCSEs.

“Generally my world was a place of paranoia, fear, and turmoil, and when I joined the local Alateen meeting in Cardiff, I did it in the hope I could sort my head out.”

Stuart went on to university where he gained a doctorate studying the Northern Lights, and after living and working all over Scandinavia, the USA and Australia, settled in Oxfordshire.

Alateen worker Nicky said: “The Oxford Alateen group is great news for youngsters affected by alcoholism in Oxfordshire.

“Up until now the nearest meeting was in Beaconsfield.

“But several of us in Oxford have felt strongly that we want to provide this support here.”

She added: “It seems it is very hard to learn what sort of behaviour is acceptable when living in the chaos of one or other parent drinking.

“In Alateen they come to understand the importance of stability just through knowing that someone will be there every week to listen to them.”

For details of the new Alateen meetings, which start on Monday in Oxford, call the General Service Office on 020 7407 0215.