Steps to end gambling promotion in football with walking challenge
HUNDREDS OF people whose lives were “destroyed” by online betting walked thousands of miles at the weekend to call for an end to gambling promotion in football.
The Big Step set a cumulative walking target of 1,137 miles over Saturday and yesterday – the total distance between every Premier League, Championship and Scottish Premiership football club associated with a betting company but surpassed that in the first day thanks to four million steps from more than 300 people.
Organised by the charity Gambling With Lives, former gambling addicts, their relatives and MPs joined the walk, with many travelling to football grounds on their route.
Charles Ritchie, the founder of Gambling With Lives, lost his 24-year-old son Jack in 2017 when he took his own life as a result of his addiction.
Mr Ritchie walked to Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough Stadium on Saturday, before a trip to Bramhall Lane, home of Sheffield United, yesterday.
James Grimes, the founder of the Big Step and programme manager at Gambling With Lives, was himself pushed to the brink of suicide by his use of online bets.
“It destroyed every area of my life, and slowly stripped all the things that I built up as a young person,” the 30-year-old from Manchester, who is now three years without a bet, said.
He added: “It took away my selfworth, my confidence, my mental health, and my money obviously.
“There are many others that are walking this weekend who have attempted suicide as well... I haven’t met any in gambling recovery that hasn’t had suicidal thoughts, it does take you to that place.”
The initiative is calling for an end to the sponsorship, promotion and advertising of all gambling in football.
The Big Step was founded in 2019 when just 12 people took part in the walk, but has since grown exponentially – with some, including one 94-year-old, joining virtually from home this year.
MARK STRONG has said his father being absent when he was a boy made him an “incredibly independent” person.
The stage and screen star, pictured, known for roles in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the Kingsman films and TV series Our Friends In The North, said a lack of “authoritarian figure” meant he had to learn important life lessons on his own.
Appearing on Desert Island Discs, the 57-yearold recalled how his Austrian mother had come to London to work as an au pair in the early 1960s where she met his father, an Italian man who has played no part in his life.
The Olivier Award-winner, who was born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia, told host Lauren Laverne that some good things had emerged from the lack of father figure in his life.
He said: “He left when I was a baby so I didn’t really have an awful lot to do with him.
“I am not sure where he is now. The thing perhaps that we have in common is that neither of us seem to have needed each other particularly, which is sad on one hand but on the other what it managed to do was make me incredibly independent.” Looking back at his childhood in north London, he explained how the local community had helped care for him while his mother was working.
He said: “I remember we lived in a one room in Stoke Newington and, bless her, my mum hung a washing line across the room and put a blanket over it so we would have two rooms, that was the idea.” Strong, who has starred in more than 60 films, said his childhood had been partially responsible for his passion for theatre, film and TV.
He said: “Probably being part of a theatre group or being on a film set with a group of people, it is like family.