The party's over: Former WAG Lizzie Cundy reveals how a cancer scare forced her to give up her champagne lifestyle Lizzie is suffering from pre-cancerous conditionÂ Barrett's Oesophagus She believes it has been brought on by her 'out-of-control' drinking Says she turned to alcohol as a means of coping with divorce from footballer Jason CundyÂ By Alexis Parr For Mail On Sunday I'm not invincible: Lizzie says giving up drinking has been tough but she has learnt a harsh lesson For a woman famous for commentating on the pampered existence of footballers' wives, Lizzie Cundy's own life is a cautionary tale for any aspiring WAG. We meet at lunchtime in a West London cafe, yet she is dressed up as if ready for a night out, in drainpipe jeans, thigh-high leather boots and a black leather biker jacket. Tumbling mahogany hair frames her heavily made-up face, which is prettier, softer and less severely Botoxed in real life than photographs frequently suggest. I've often bumped into Lizzie at celebrity parties where she's a fixture, dolled up and teetering on vertiginous heels, a glass of champagne permanently clamped in her expensively manicured hand. She is warm and quick to laugh. Yet I often thinks she looks sad â€" and never more so than during our lunchtime meeting. At 46, Lizzie's alarmingly slender frame seems out of proportion with her surgically enhanced breasts, and she quickly admits: 'I have suffered periods of depression, to be honest.' Her weight is low, she says, because 'when I'm unhappy I find it hard to eat'. Last month, Lizzie revealed the shocking news that she is suffering from the pre-cancerous condition Barrett's Oesophagus, which she believes has been brought on by her 'out-of-control drinking'. 'I was never like my old friend George Best, but the truth is drink had become a problem for me,' she admits. I think it can happen for a lot of women who watch their calorie intake. I forget to eat and not even notice if I'd just had a banana or the odd canape. But a glass of fizz would give me a lift and keep me going while rushing around. While she may once have 'had it all' â€" her ostentatious white wedding in 1994 to former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur footballer Jason Cundy was, of course, covered in depth in Hello! magazine â€" Lizzie concedes that she turned to alcohol as a means of coping with the couple's bitter divorce, which was finalised in December 2012. She was brought up in leafy Richmond upon Thames. Her late father was art director at the Saatchi advertising agency, and her mother ran the Jaeger shop in Regent Street, Central London. Convent school-educated Lizzie abandoned her plans for university and began modelling after being discovered by legendary photographer Norman Parkinson when she was 18. She met Jason the following year, and the couple went on to have two sons â€" Josh, now 19, and James, 12. She nursed Jason through two bouts of testicular cancer, but he left her for opera singer Hannah Pedley in 2010. When their marriage ended, it was Lizzie who had to pay her unfaithful ex-husband a substantial settlement because he claimed to be 'broke'. With two children to raise, the pressure on Lizzie was intense. And drink became a solace. White wedding: Lizzie and footballer Jason Cundy on their big day in 1994. The couple divorced in 2012 'I wasn't staggering around drunk or behaving giddily,' she admits. But I was gradually drinking more and more. Nobody on the showbiz circuit wants to see a sad, moaning person â€" they want a happy Lizzie who is good for a laugh, and I have always tried to be. Lizzie realised all was not well with her health when she began to experience severe heartburn last year. At the time, I was working on Wag! The Musical, doing TV and radio shows [London Style on Sky, and online radio station Fubar] and writing my magazine columns as well as doing the school run,' she recalls. So when I developed a few symptoms â€" recurrent heartburn and a lump in my throat that made it hard to swallow â€" I did something I would never recommend and I put off seeing my doctor. When she finally did visit her GP, it was after a night of 'agony' that kept her from sleeping. 'I was having stabbing stomach pains and crawling around the floor of my house in the middle of the night,' she says. I thought I was having a heart attack, so I called the GP. The doctor carried out a gastroscopy, which involved feeding a camera on a wire down her throat and into the stomach. He discovered that Lizzie had stomach ulcers. She was advised to cut down on drinking and was prescribed antibiotics. However, the pain and lump in her throat continued to be a problem, and last Christmas Lizzie returned to the clinic for a second round of tests. They revealed she was suffering from chronic acid reflux and pre-cancerous changes. Out on the town: With Tamara Ecclestone at a showbiz party last year 'It's frightening. My doctor warned me, 'Carry on drinking, and you will die.' ' Barrett's Oesophagus can develop in one in ten patients who suffer recurrent bouts of heartburn, where digestive acids rise up from the stomach into the oesophagus (the tube that runs from the stomach to the throat), causing a burning sensation. A valve at the bottom of the oesophagus opens to allow food to pass through into the stomach when we swallow. In some people this valve is faulty and can lead to acid reflux or heartburn. Barrett's Oesophagus is usually treated simply with lifestyle changes, such as eliminating caffeine, alcohol and spicy foods, and eating smaller meals, but some patients will need to take medications that stop acid production. If a biopsy shows that there are continuing changes in the cells lining the gullet, a procedure called radiofrequency ablation is offered â€" a probe called an electrode is used to kill the abnormal cells with an electrical current. About one in 200 people with Barrett's Oesophagus go on to develop cancer of the oesophagus, Britain's fifth-biggest cause of cancer deaths â€" 7,000 people die of the disease every year. Lizzie has none of the usual risk factors for the condition â€" it is most common in men, the over-50s, smokers and those who are overweight. But she believes her case was triggered by her 'champagne lifestyle', and the diagnosis has been a wake-up call. 'It would be fair to say that there are a number of factors that can make acid reflux worse, including being overweight, certain foods, smoking and excessive alcohol,' says Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, a consultant gastroenterologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. 'If ignored, long-term and persistent acid and bile exposure of the oesophagus can cause Barrett's Oesophagus.' Since her diagnosis, Lizzie avoids large meals, and has cut out spicy meals and acidic foods such as citrus fruits. She also takes the antacid medication Omeprazole, and has to return to her gastroenterologist for check-ups every three months. Dealing with her drinking has been a harder challenge. Despite being advised to cut out alcohol by her doctors, over the months, as her symptoms alleviated, Lizzie told herself she could have 'the odd one' but her heartburn returned with a vengeance. 'Maybe it's more to do with the fact I was not eating enough, so the acid from the drink was going straight into my throat and stomach lining without any food to soak it up,' she says. Little did I know the damage I was doing to my insides. While Lizzie still attends A-list events â€" earlier this month she mingled with heart-throb actor Gerard Butler at the Hunger Games after-party at the Chiltern Firehouse â€" her glass will now contain sparkling elderflower juice. I have to abstain from alcohol completely because of the damage the booze has done to my throat. If I carry on, I risk losing my voice, then I will have no radio show, no career, and no income. I'm a single mother with two sons who depend on me,' she says. 'I don't mind admitting giving up drink is hard. I get cravings. But I know I can do it. All this has taught me something: I'm tough, but I'm not invincible.' Urinetown The Musical gala event DRINKS: 4 glasses of champagne Scottish Fashion Awards reception and dinner DRINKS: 2 glasses of champagne 1 glass of white wine Business meeting at Millennium Hotel, Mayfair; Party at The Avenue, St James's Street, London DRINKS: 1 glass of white wine (large), 3 glasses of champagne Beauty product event at Haymarket Hotel; Disney Shop party in Soho DRINKS: 3 glasses of champagne The Perfume Shop Awards at Vanilla, Central London At home DRINKS: 2 glasses of white wine (large) DRINKS: 3 glasses of white wine Lizzie's right to admit addiction, says Barney Calman, Health EditorÂ Does unwinding with a couple of glasses of wine every night really mean you have a problem? If you admit to doing so, and don't stop within a couple of weeks, your GP might soon be suggesting you take anti-addiction drug nalmefene â€" once reserved for serious drinkers to help them get over the physical shock of going cold turkey. The reason is financial. It may save the NHS billions in the long run by averting treatment for alcohol-induced illnesses such as obesity (look at how many extra calories Lizzie consumed in a week), diabetes and liver disease. Yes, we may know someone who lived to be 104 while drinking a gin and tonic every lunchtime, but they're the lucky ones. Whether or not Lizzie's cancer scare was the result of drinking, it was a wake-up call to the fact that she was papering over emotional problems in her life with drink. The first step in tackling addiction is admitting you are out of control. But the key to overcoming it is recognising the reason you got there in the first place.