John Gilham

Ten years ago, I never thought I would be taking on a role to help increase awareness of the risks and harm associated with gambling.

 

Now I am an affected other as a consequence of my son Chris, one of Gambling Harm UK's founding Trustees, having suffered from gambling disorder.

 

Since the end of October 2017, he has been on his journey of sustainable recovery from gambling disorder, and I have been on my journey.

 

This journey has enabled me to learn so much, and I only wish I had known then what I know now.

 

Having acquired this knowledge and the coping skills necessary to manage my own life, I am passionate about helping businesses and individuals to understand how they can reduce potential harm to themselves.

 

I am therefore so pleased to join Gambling Harm UK. As its Chief Executive, my role will be to help lead the charity through its next stage of service expansion. This is aimed at helping businesses, and individuals better understand the risks associated with gambling.

 

I believe my lived experience, combined with my career background within the healthcare sector as a Chief Executive and, more recently, in a non-executive capacity, provides me with a unique set of competencies and skills to help others.

 

Having chaired Audit, Finance, Performance, Quality and Risk committees, I can relate gambling risk and impact to each of these areas.

 

Looking at the combined knowledge and skills of the wider Gambling Harm UK team, I can already see how it can help businesses reduce risk whilst improving their employees' well-being.

 

During the last five years, I have also established a network of contacts across a number of charities and service sector agencies that support individuals in their recovery from gambling disorder.

 

In my role with Gambling Harm UK, I will now look at how we can best fit within this sector so that we can all deliver our combined goal, which is to prevent avoidable harm from gambling.