Lived Experience Advisory Panel

Um, okay.

So let's sort of focus a bit more on, on the Lived Experience Advisory Panel then.

So, um, Sue, as you said, you, you've been on the panel for six years as a co-chair.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, and that term sort of coming to an end.

And funnily enough, Matt's the person who's going to be -

Yes

... uh, filling those shoes.

Not just one pair of shoes, but two pairs of shoes he's gotta fill, um, as he'll be taking on the role of, of, of the chair.

So I mean, from both of your perspectives, obviously for the last six years and what you've been on the panel for two years, but now you're taking on the chair role, sort of give us an idea about the LEAP panel.

Who makes, who makes up the panel? How you get involved, how you function, how you work.

Yeah.

Uh, well, I mean, the, the panel has changed a little bit over recent years.

We started with an interim panel which kind of set all the groundwork, and then the, um, the recruitment, uh, drive that I was involved in, uh, which, which built up the wider panel, which has again, changed a little bit in recent years.

But it's basically, it's made up ...

We have a really good mix.

So we have people like myself and Matt who, um, work for third sector organizations.

So I mean, the main point with, um, LEAP members, because we have the requirement for, for our own personal safety to be abstinent from gambling for a period of 12 months before joining, we end up in the circumstance whereby our gambling becomes sort of historic.

Um, so Matt and I work for third sector organizations, so we support people day to day who experience gambling harm, and that kind of gives us, um, a, a, a connection, if you like, to, um, the problems that are still, you know, they're still affecting people today even though our gambling was more, um, in the past.

I mean, yeah.

So the work that ...

So that's ...

I mean, like I said, the panel's made up of a, a, a mix of people.

So there's people like us who work for third sector, and there are people who just have regular day-to-day jobs who've had their own experience of gambling harm and they just applied because they want to be able to contribute.

They wanna be able to help and ensure that people don't have, you know, don't experience the same harms that they did.