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Campaigners take three-day march in push to end football’s gambling habit
A walk from Edinburgh to Glasgow, with stops at 10 stadiums, is the latest move from a group motivated by painful memories
A lot started to make sense for Peter Keogh in the aftermath of the suicide of his son, Lewis. The 2am requests for an online game of Scrabble, for example, in the months leading up to his death. Lewis, who died in 2013 at the age of 34, was seeking relief from the grip that gambling had on him. “His suicide note said he was too ashamed to talk about it,” says Peter. “We didn’t know he was living with this horrendous addiction.”
Starting on Friday, Lewis’s former partner Jane and her daughter Jilly will form part of a 40-strong group walking from Edinburgh to Glasgow. Recovering gambling addicts, bereaved families and affected others will combine. The effort forms part of The Big Step, a campaign aimed at ending all gambling-related advertising and sponsorship in football, overseen by the Gambling With Lives charity. Peter Keogh and his wife, Sadie, are longtime supporters.
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