The Chair led a gamblers’ anonymous meeting held at the Victoria Street Community Centre where Ed Bailey was one of the participants. He had suffered with a gambling addiction for many years which had lost the Bailey family their previous home in Alderley Edge but for some time he had managed to keep his yearnings under control. Despite business successes in the middle of 2023 with housing developments he worked on with his brother Ronnie, from September onwards he had given in to his urges and been gambling again after one of their projects had suffered a setback, causing cash flow problems.
With his debts racking up and his visiting and censorious father Sarge putting him under immense pressure, he attended the meeting. The chair listened to the confessions of one member named John, and then gently invited Ed to speak. He told the group that he had thought he had his addition licked and but now felt that he had never been so frightened in his life.