It’s estimated there is at least one gambling suicide a day in the UK. Gambling with Lives, a charity that supports families bereaved by gambling suicide and works to prevent gambling harm.

So, why am I supporting this cause, most of you on here will already know, but for those that don’t I was a long standing gambling addict for close to 40 years before I had my last bet on the 28th October 2021, and now currently battling the road that is recovery..

The truth is that gambling is never seen as a “serious” addiction – you don’t show physical changes in the most part, everyone does it, its fun, there are no outward signs and nobody could ever tell, however nobody will ever get told, family, friends or anyone else, addiction is the partnership of you and the thing that never lets you down, the thing you can trust in all moments to deliver what you need.

This makes it even worse, it’s a dirty, horrible secret, you cant share, you live a normal life whilst having this overwhelming urge to destroy your life with your private and insular secret – its just a bit of fun, right, no, not when it has hold of you, its not about money, its not about fun, it’s about self destruction.

The simple fact, is that by the time I was ready to be married or have children, I was already too far into the love of my life of addiction, to allow myself to have anyone else to care and love for, but for those that have those loved ones, the close families, the dependents they care about, imagine having a secret that was not only ruining your life, but theirs, and then by the time you are at the place where you have dug a hole so deep, and there are no escape routes, no ladders, no lights, when you look at the destruction you have caused to the ones you love, the children who look at you with love and you know, that you are in a place of no return – then there is only one place left, there is only one way that you can see your out, because you literally have nowhere to turn, you are too embarrassed and feel a failure.

Gambling addiction is more than serious, it is life taking – and I want to raise money by doing something that is ultra extreme to try and do two things.

1) Show those struggling that there is a life and solution and a purpose with a real life experience.

2) If we cant help them, then help those they leave behind who have to pick up the thousands of shattered pieces, who would have been there to help if only you could have found the balls to speak.

Whatever you think of addicts, any thoughts that it is a choice that people make (nobody wakes up one day and say I am going to become an addict) or any negative thoughts at all, the fact is that the people left behind deserve all the support and help possible, and for those living, nobody deserves to die by taking their own life.

Please click on this link and show support in any way you can