A GAMBLING support programme is being set up in Bury, Rochdale and Oldham for women who have been affected by gambling harms.

The programme will be open to women who have either experienced gambling addiction or been affected by it.

Beth Sammut, an organiser of the group, said: “The idea behind it is that there has been a significant rise in women who have been affected by gambling either through addiction or as an affected other.

“Often what we hear is they go to their GP, or they seek help and they’re directed to Gamblers Anonymous or other support services which are often very male centric and whilst they are great there is such a gap there for women.

“So, the patchwork programme has been designed by women and is led by women, the facilitators all have experiences of gambling, so the idea is that the woman are able to build connections and their own support network.

“It’s all women from Rochdale, Bury and Oldham so they can support each other, and they are all local to each other.”

The programme will be made up of 24 weeks and will take place online with every sixth session comprising of a live meetup.

The final live meet will be a celebration for all the women involved.

At the moment, Patchwork is trying to raise awareness about the programme and said many organisations have been really supportive about it.

Beth said: “It’s about making people aware of the support that is out there for them and making sure that other organisations know that they can signpost people to us.”

There will be no real limit to the number of people who can join the programme as it is mainly online.

But the women will be split into two groups, women who have experienced gambling through addiction will be in one group and the affected others will be in another group, the content is very similar, and they will all come together in the live meets.

The sessions are due to start on May 3 and those interested can email hello@patchworkgroup.org.