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Be gambleaware.org. Hi, this is Rattled and Chook. I'm Meredith, and I'm going to tell you a bedtime story.

Ed Hedges grew up in a small village in Essex County, in the east of England, the kind of place that outsiders might call idyllic.

It had the cobblestones, the neat rows of houses, the quiet English countryside charm.

But for Ed, childhood there was anything but gentle.

He was the kind of boy kids singled out, chubby, asthmatic, dyslexic, ADHD. All of it made him

stand out in ways children don't forgive. Day after day he was mocked and

bullied, often led by one boy who lived just four doors down. And the cruelty wasn't fleeting.

It stretched on for years, so much a part of his life that it became the rhythm of growing up. At home, there was also

little comfort. His father was a man a few words, imposing in stature with one finger missing from

each hand, a quiet presence who never really talked about feelings.

His mother tried to bridge that silence,

but the household wasn't one where emotions found easy expression.

Ed learned to carry things inside, to swallow what he couldn't say.

What saved him was humor. Slowly he figured out how to take all the

pain, the awkwardness, and turn it into something people could laugh at. Comedy became his shield,

his release, and eventually his career. Ed started gigging at 17, leaving his village for the big city of London,

performing stand-up in pubs, clubs, and festivals across the UK. On stage, he was the one in control.

He could retell the humiliations of his youth and twist them into something powerful, something funny.

...