And I'm helping other alcoholics recover from the illness.
Kieron Brady was a Sunderland and Republic of Ireland footballer in the late 1980s and early 1990s. If you speak to any Sunderland fans who saw him playing for their club, they will tell you what a brilliant player he was. He only made 33 appearances for the first team but he achieved legendary status.
Sunderland favourite Michael Gray, a former teammate of Kieron’s, describes him as the most talented player he’s ever seen. Sadly for Kieron, he developed a career-ending blood disorder. He was forced to retire from football at the age of just 21.
Over subsequent years Kieron began to rely on alcohol and around the age of 35 he accepted there was a serious problem. Thankfully, Kieron is made of stern stuff. He facedup to his problems, sought advice, got help and hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol for over eleven years. June 13th saw his 11th sober birthday.’
Kieron is now putting all of his experience of dealing with being an alcoholic into good use.
“It was tough, but I knew I had to sort myself out and that I could not do it without assistance” said Kieron who now works as a consultant for the SP Bespoke company which specialises in helping people with addictions. “The best way to help an alcoholic in my experience, is for another alcoholic to speak to them and provide guidance. They are more likely to pay attention if they know they’re speaking to someone who has faced exactly the same problem.”
Kieron received help from specialists. That was when he realised he could also help other alcoholics.
“The vast majority of alcoholics are just normal, everyday people who deteriorate in time as the illness progresses, with more regular drinking until it becomes a habit…a need…a desire which they can’t do without. For many of those people, they will be anonymous members of society. The majority do not satisfy the broad public perception of an alcoholic.
However, alcoholics come from all walks of life and some will be well known. Perhaps they are sports people, film or TV stars, or from the world of business and finance. For many of those people, they have a reputation which they’d rather protect. Rolling-up to a very public meeting to discuss their alcoholic addiction would be something they’d like to avoid. They are probably very reserved and reluctant to ask for help. They wouldn’t want some sort of stigma.”
Kieron and SP Bespoke can help that latter group of people. He or one of the other consultants will go to meet the alcoholic in the privacy of their own home. It will be up to the client who else attends the meeting. Perhaps they’d like other family members to be involved. However, if they’d prefer a private, one-to-one session, that is what SP Bespoke will do.
As well as dealing with alcohol, SP Bespoke also specialises in other addictions such as drugs, gambling and sex. They will help individuals deal with the issues, symptoms and consequences.
Kieron is now sober, but perhaps you know someone in business who needs help. Perhaps you are a business owner and already know that either you need personal help or that possibly one of your employees needs help.
The best place to start is by going onto the SP Bespoke website… wwwspbespoke.com You’ll find details of how they can help plus relevant contact numbers. Kieron Brady kicked his alcoholism. You can too.
