An alcoholic who began his path to sobriety during lockdown soon set up Tenerife's "first" dry villa.
James Roberts, 46, said that he first noticed his problem with addiction when he was "as young as ten", and would casually gamble during visits to a nearby golf club frequented by his parents. What started as innocent games on the putting green for money against "professionals", would go on to develop into an addiction to work by the time he was 29 and running his own business, and then subsequently, into an addiction to alcohol.
James realised alcohol "did a different thing" to him than his friends and family, and from when he started his travel business in 2005 until before lockdown in late 2019, his dependency on drink got worse. Yet, as a "successful businessman" running his own business and who seemed to have his life in order, "nobody" would say to him that he had an issue.
