At 16 years old, Tony Kelly took a step towards his childhood dream when he was signed to Bristol City as an apprentice footballer. By the time he was 22 he was a fully-fledged professional, scoring winning goals against Liverpool FC. What happened along the way, was to eventually leave Tony bankrupt and homeless.

In this episode, Tony shines a light on his struggle with gambling, how he found his way back to himself, and the work he does now to support others, by setting up Red Card Gambling.

He credits family, faith, and counselling, as fundamental parts of his recovery process.

Tony wrote to me after we spoke, "Let's go with, 'Owning Your Addiction. That's the best way to recover, in my opinion; acceptance and ownership."

For information about the work of Tony and his team at Red Card Gambling, including support, training, resources, and other projects, please visit

https://redcardgambling.org/

To see his winning goal against Liverpool https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zdYR8rvAVY

To learn more about Tony's friends at Gambling With Lives https://www.gamblingwithlives.org/

Please remember to like and subscribe, so you can always be part of the conversation.

This episode was recorded on Teams

Produced by Leto Blackwell

Created by the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society

Website: www.ncps.com

Subtitles are auto generated

We Made It Weird #19