TOWN MP and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has pledged £500,000 to improve a helpline that reads bedtime stories to children affected by alcoholism.

The National Association for Children of Alcoholics (Nacoa) offers helpline support to children whose parents are struggling with alcoholism, and received 36,000 emails and calls last year, providing more than 10,000 hours of support to children.

Part of the charity’s service involves comforting children at bedtime, and its counsellors were called so often by some children that they now keep their favourite stories by the telephone.

Mr Hunt, the MP for South West Surrey, pledged the extra money, to be paid over three years, to allow the charity to support even more children.

He has also announced a new Children of Alcoholics Strategy to improve care for affected youngsters following a campaign by Nacoa, backed by shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth and Labour MPs Liam Byrne and Caroline Flint – both children of alcoholics.

No UK local authority currently has a strategy to support the estimated 2.6 million children of alcoholics, and in Mr Hunt’s own constituency, Surrey County Council was again rebuked by Ofsted in December for “taking too long to address critical weaknesses” in children’s services.

Responding to the funding announcement, the charity’s chief executive Hilary Henriques said it was “absolutely fantastic news for all children of alcoholics across the country”.

She added: “Drink is one of the hidden sufferings in families and for far too long the problems experienced by the children have been ignored, fuelling their feelings of isolation and shame.”

Research shows children of alcoholics are twice as likely to have problems at school, three times as likely to consider suicide and five times more likely to develop an eating disorder. They are also four times more likely to become alcoholics themselves.