The sister of murdered schoolgirl April Jones has revealed it took someone asking her what the youngster would have thought of her alcohol-fuelled destruction that stopped her drinking herself to death.
Jazmin Jones, 21, had her world turned upside down when her little sister was snatched from outside their home in Machynlleth, Wales and murdered.
The bartender, admitted earlier this year she would ‘wake up with cuts and bruises’ after nights of endless drinking.
But she has today revealed it was a childhood friend asking her ‘What would April think?’ that made her see her alcoholism for what it was.
When April Jones (pictured right) was abducted from outside her home in Machynlleth, Wales on October 1 2012 and murdered, her sister Jazmin (pictured left) failed to cope
She told The Sun Online: ‘You’re no longer the same person you were. You don’t have the same normality as the person next to you does.
‘I had so much anger because I went from having a normal life, to suddenly my whole world changing.
‘Everyone focuses on the parents losing a child. I felt so alone.
‘For a long time I was the person who didn’t cry and just kept everything bottled up. I turned to drink to be able to cope and that’s how it all came out.’
After going missing on October 1 2012, Mark Bridger was charged and convicted of her abduction and murder, going to jail for life in May 2013.
In a heartbreaking interview with BBC Wales, Miss Jones confessed she turned to drink to cope with what happened.
The now 21-year-old (pictured) started drinking heavily, admitting it became so out of control that sometimes she would wake up ‘covered in cuts and bruises’
She said: ‘I’d go to the pub and drink all night, to the point I didn’t remember who I was (and) I didn’t remember my name.
‘I’d wake up in the morning with cuts and bruises because i’d fallen over the night before.
‘I was getting so drunk all the time I thought if I carried on I was going to kill myself.’
Thankfully after her friend’s intervention, Miss Jones managed to kick her addiction and started campaigning for tougher laws on sex offenders, with her mother Coral and father Paul.
When Bridger was arrested on October 2, 2012, police discovered images of children being sexually assaulted on his computer.
He confessed to her murder but never revealed what he did with her body.
April (pictured) was snatched while playing outside her house. Mark Bridger was later arrested, charged and jailed for life for her abduction and murder
Jazmin Jones admits that she may well have died like her sister (pictured) if it was not for a friend asking what the little girl would have thought of her behaviour during a drunken row
April’s blood and 17 fragments of skull were later discovered in his house, in Ceinws near Machynlleth.
Miss Jones says she fears she would have died as well if it was not for her friend’s comments.
At her worst she was drinking bottles of vodka, wine, shots of sambuca, tequila and jager in a bid to numb the pain.
Friends and family desperately pleaded with her to quit drinking, but the then 18-year-old would not listen.
Things came to a head when she was arguing with her best friend in the pub.
She said: ‘I lost my temper and was basically just being a b****.
‘My best friend just turned round to me and said ‘what would your sister think of you?’
Mark Bridger (pictured) never told police what he did with the schoolgirl’s body, despite a £8.5million investigation into her death
‘I went absolutely mad at him. I lost it totally, telling him he was an a******* for saying it.
‘I hated him for it.’
After she had sobered up, reality sunk in and she realised the dramatic extent of her problem.
She told The Sun: ‘I wouldn’t stop drinking until silly o’clock in the morning until I was absolutely steaming.
‘The amount of times I got myself into a state where anything could have happened to me.
‘I thought to myself ‘what would April say, what would she think of me? I need to stop this.’
‘At that moment it clicked and I went to my friend and said ‘thank you, you just saved my life.”
‘If I had had carried on, I genuinely don’t know what would have happened.
‘I owe him my life. I would honestly be lost without him.’
After reality sunk in and she sobered up, Miss Jones and her mother Coral (pictured) have been campaigning for tougher sentences for child sex offenders
But it was not just Jazmin Jones who suffered as a result of the family’s loss.
Her mother sunk into a deep depression and admitted she considered suicide, while her daughter was forced to mother her younger brother and her husband supported the family financially.
Miss Jones recalled her memories of April, saying: ‘When she was alive, everything was based around April, there was no denying it.
‘After she died I had to grow up overnight and become a parent to my brother.
‘I no longer had an annoying little sister to annoy me. I had taken it all for granted.
‘I miss that. I know I’m never going to have her annoying me ever again.’
A £8.5million investigation into April’s death never found where her body was.
Bridger, a father-of-six, still claims he killed her ‘by accident’ after hitting her with his car.
The Jones family (pictured) are waiting for ‘April’s Law’ to be put through Parliament
But desperate for justice, the Jones family has fought to toughen up sentences for child sex offenders, keeping on a register for life.
In March, they presented a petition in Parliament which had gained more than 100,000 signatures.
They are now waiting for MPs to take the next steps towards introducing ‘April’s Law’.
Miss Jones added: ‘It’s a day you don’t want to remember.
‘Why should I stop my day to remember something he did in such a selfish act?
‘If April was here she would want me to carry on as normal.
‘I literally have no feelings for him, I don’t have hatred, anger or anything towards him at all.
‘Why should I waste any energy or feelings when he did what he did.’