A NORTH-EAST woman whose alcoholism led to her being jailed for sending abusive tweets wants to help Durham students stay safe while drinking.

So-called Twitter troll Isabella Sorley, who was sentenced to 12 weeks in jail for threatening feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez with worse things than rape, has offered to intervene following the death of three Durham University students in the River Wear within 15 months.

Miss Sorley, who has been alcohol-free for six months and has launched a not-for-profit initiative to tackle binge drinking, wants to use her story to warn boozy students of the risks they are running.

“I was lucky I survived. I would wake up on street corners and in hospital and not know how I got there,” the 24-year-old from Newcastle said.

“Students need to re-think their relationship with alcohol. Yes, go out and have a couple – but always remain in control.

“Hopefully sharing my experience with them will help – even if we can help just one person it will be worth it.”

Durham has been shocked into action by the death of students Sope Peters, Luke Pearce and Euan Coulthard since late 2013 and the rescue of a fourth student from the icy river in late January.

New measures announced include breath tests, a city centre drunk tank, a student-led street angels-style support scheme and a major education campaign.

Miss Sorley, who founded social enterprise Rethink Drink with help from the Princes Trust, began drinking heavily while a student in Leeds.

By the time she graduated in 2012, she was drinking up to three bottles of wine, several pints of cider and numerous shots three nights a week, had 20 criminal convictions and was banned from the city centre.

Things only got worse when she returned to Newcastle and she was very drunk when she sent the infamous tweets in July 2013.

“It was the biggest mistake of my life. I was horrified, mortified,” she said.

“I’m not that type of person. I despise bullies.”

But it was not until Miss Sorley was serving a second prison sentence, for assault, in Low Newton Prison, Durham, last September that she kicked the drink and started to turn her life around, with help from the local Drug and Alcohol Recovery Team (Dart), to whom she is very grateful.

Through Rethink Drink, she hopes to tackle youth binge drinking and the peer pressure associated with it.

“I want to enable students to go out and enjoy themselves without there being serious consequences,” she said.

For more information, visit cargocollective.com/isabellasorley, email: issy_5_05@hotmail.co.uk or tweet @issysorley

Meanwhile, an online fundraising campaign to improve riverside safety has reached £797 and an online petition has attracted 15,629 signatures.