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| Lorraine and Claire |
The financial stress, secrecy and emotional strain often affect far more than the person placing the bets, and new figures suggest millions of people across Britain may be living with the fallout.
According to Public Health England, around 1.5 to 2 million adults in Britain may be directly affected by someone else’s gambling.
Women are disproportionately represented among those seeking support, yet many suffer in silence for years before reaching out for help.
One of those women was Lorraine Perrons.
The mother-of-two says her world changed after returning home from a family holiday to discover her husband’s hidden gambling addiction had pushed the family to the brink of financial collapse.
During the trip, Lorraine had noticed her husband repeatedly betting during race nights, but she didn't realise the scale of the problem until she walked through the front door at home.
“What I found completely changed my life,” she says. “When I confronted him, he eventually looked at me and said, ‘I think I’ve got a gambling problem.’”
At the same time as dealing with mounting debts and uncertainty, Lorraine was also preparing to lose her terminally ill father, who died just four months later.
She describes the years that followed as “survival mode” trying to protect her children while coping with grief, exhaustion and ongoing financial instability. Following the eventual separation, she endured a difficult divorce and emergency court hearings linked to mortgages and finances repeatedly breaking down.
“I realised later that I’d spent years living like a shell of myself,” Lorraine says.
Much later, she was diagnosed with Complex PTSD.
Her experiences eventually led her into therapeutic work supporting both gamblers and the loved ones affected by gambling harm. Alongside fellow therapist Claire Jones, she co-founded Gambling Recovery Therapy and Gambling Recovery for All CIC.
Together, the pair have launched a free 12-week online programme called Rebuild and Rise: Reclaim Your Life, designed specifically for women affected by someone else’s gambling.
The trauma-informed course combines emotional support, practical coping strategies, hypnotherapy, psychoeducation and peer support to help women rebuild confidence and emotional wellbeing.
“We wanted to create something genuinely trauma-informed,” says Claire. “Not just advice, but a safe space where women feel understood.”
The first online group begins on 9 June 2026, with funded places available for eligible applicants.
Women interested in applying can do so here:
Rebuild and Rise Application Form https://forms.gle/aMA4fJbgDMSpgoTb9
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