Mark Bradshaw (40) “lost everything” including his wife and two sons, and contemplated suicide at the height of his troubles. Since he quit gambling in 2019 he has turned his life around and now helps others struggling with the addiction.

Bradshaw had his first gambling experience aged seven at arcades while holidaying in England. The former athlete, who played for the England under 18s rugby union team, recently went public on social media about his gambling addiction. Originally from Yorkshire, he now lives in Dublin with his partner and young daughter.

“Since I’ve been speaking about my experience, I’ve received about 600 messages from people in Ireland who have a problem with gambling. It is a lot of young Irish fellas. I just want to help as many people as I can, that is my focus,” he said.

He detailed how his gambling problems began to escalate from the age of 18 when he first entered a casino. He was playing rugby professionally in Leeds and began skipping gym sessions in favour of gambling. Soon, he was spending all his wages on gambling.

“From the age of 18 to 36, there was no period when I wasn’t gambling. I just didn’t focus on the rugby. I was erratic and my behaviour was appalling, so my rugby career didn’t work out. I take responsibility and accountability for that now. My mind was always on the next bet, not rugby.”

After the demise of his rugby career, Bradshaw joined the military. “One of the traits of my personality is that I need a level of risk and excitement in my life. For me now, it is about how I control and manage that risk. The military was a good fit really, because of my personality and the fact I was fit and strong. But I lost that career because of my gambling too.”

He agreed to be discharged after the military found out he was charged with an assault; he was found not guilty after a trial. The altercation took place after a race meeting which he had lied to his bosses about in order to attend.

“Like rugby, I left my military career under a cloud. But it was what came next, in terms of the money I began to make, that really allowed my gambling to get out of all control.”

​Bradshaw became a recruitment headhunter, initially working for firms but soon branching out and set up his own high-end agency.

“It was Premier League football wages. One of my first major commissions was for €180,000. I was in my mid-20s and had never been making such significant sums of money. Up until then, I used to just go into the bookies. But then online gambling changed everything — and it is so dangerous. It became the heroin of my world.”

He said he “easily lost upwards of €5m” as he spent hours each day on gambling apps. He had a wife and two sons and said he let them and all the rest of his family down due to his addiction.

He has not seen his sons for the past four years, but he hopes his actions now are proving he is a good man who has turned his life around.

“I was physically present but not mentally there for my boys. Being a gambler is a terrible role model for your kids. I put those boys and my wife at the time through the mill, and they didn’t ask for any of it or deserve any of it. We lost the house, everything, all down to my reckless behaviour because of gambling. Part of all that I am doing now is to show my boys who I really am.”

Bradshaw’s “rock bottom” came just after the collapse of his marriage due to the financial ruin he had been hiding from his wife and family. He decided to go to Portugal alone and was on a ferry to Santander.

“I looked into the sea and I thought, ‘how long would I survive in there? Not long.’ Then I thought of my sons. All they would be left with is knowing they had a father who gave them everything, then took it away because he was a gambling addict. And then he took his own life. I didn’t want that to be my legacy to my sons. That was the beginning of me turning my life around.”

Bradshaw had a recent meeting with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organisation, and is spearheading several projects with the organisation around gambling addiction. ​

He recently ran 100 miles in 24 hours in Dublin to raise awareness of gambling addiction. He has also set himself the challenge of setting new records running up seven of the world’s biggest mountains, including Mount Everest and Kilimanjaro, which is due to be filmed as part of a Netflix show.