The Sheffield parents who set up the charity Gambling With Lives in honor of their 24-year-old son who took his own life after becoming addicted to gambling will both receive Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) accolades at a Windsor Castle ceremony this week.
ITV journalist and presenter Victoria Whittam shared news of the MBs for Liz and Charles Ritchie via Twitter for the work they have done for families bereaved by gambling-linked suicide:
The couple’s son, Jack Ritchie, became hooked on gambling machines while at school in the sixth form (the junior and senior year of high school in the US) in South Yorkshire. He lated graduated from Hull University and was teaching English in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he died by suicide in 2017.
The Yorkshire couple set up the charity a year later and have long maintained that government failures contributed to Jack’s death in that betting “products licensed by the state” got him addicted.
we gratefully accept these awards as recognition of the families who walk with us”
According The Independant, Liz Ritchie said: “We never wanted to be here, but we gratefully accept these awards as recognition of the families who walk with us to warn others about the dangers of gambling.”