At the age of 17, Gilly Flaherty was one of the most exciting young prospects in the women's game.
She'd been scouted by Arsenal's academy and had already made her senior debut against Birmingham City. She was part of a squad that made history by becoming the first English team to win the UEFA Women's Cup.
But, away from the pitch, she was struggling; her mental health deteriorating to the point where she tried to take her own life.
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"I was going through a really difficult period," Flaherty told the ECHO. "I was living away from home, I was really failing with college. I had no interest in doing any of the college work.
"I just wanted to play football and I was also struggling with accepting I was gay. Now obviously there’s Pride and the Rainbow Laces campaign and things like that but back then there wasn’t really anything so it was sort of unknown.
"I had friends that had come out and been kicked out of their homes which was obviously the biggest fear behind it but I really struggled and I didn’t cope with it so for me my answer was trying to take my own life and thankfully it failed."
That moment became something of a turning point for Flaherty, who turned to counselling as a means of combatting her mental health struggles. On the pitch too, the defender's football career started to flourish.
With Arsenal, Flaherty bagged plenty more accolades, helping the Gunners to back-to-back league titles and netting the first-ever Women's Super League goal in 2011. In 2014, she made the switch to Chelsea and played a vital role in securing the club's first major trophy - the FA Women's Cup - in 2015.
A four-year-spell at West Ham followed before Flaherty reunited with former Hammers boss Matt Beard at Liverpool in the summer. But with women's football on a somewhat meteoric upward trajectory, the 31-year-old believes it's just as important to be making her mark off the pitch as it is on it.
"I didn’t speak about my story until I was about 28/29," Flaherty said. "It took me that long to accept it and understand what I’d done and I was in a much better place to share my story.
"We’re so fortunate to be professional footballers and we have a duty of care to people around us who look up to us, so I’m very big on pushing mental health campaigns and subjects like that."
The first-hand experience of battling with mental health is one the biggest reasons Flaherty wanted to get involved with the TalkBanStop campaign - a partnership between GamCare, Gamban and GAMSTOP that endeavours to raise awareness of the support available to anyone struggling with the consequences of gambling.
Flaherty has teamed up with former Arsenal footballer Paul Merson and Youtube star Ellis Platten to endorse the three-step ritual, which involves talking to one of GamCare’s trained advisors, using Gamban’s software to block access to thousands of global gambling sites and and using GAMSTOP to prevent the creation of new gambling accounts.
“I think from sharing my own story regarding mental health I’ve always felt very passionate about speaking up about things that I feel could help people and sort of being that face really," Flaherty said.
"Sometimes it takes a bit of bravery for people to speak up and if they know certain people are speaking up who, I wouldn’t class myself as a celebrity, but people who are in the limelight, it's a great campaign to be around.”
She added: “I’ve seen loved ones and close friends be affected by gambling. One of my good friends lost everything. He lost his marriage, he lost his house due to gambling so I’ve seen it first hand so I wanted to help out and spread the message.”
Since arriving on Merseyside in the summer, Flaherty has become a mainstay at the heart of the Liverpool defence. The Reds secured promotion back to the Women's Super League at the end of last season, and have at times struggled to replicate their stellar Championship form in the top-flight.
But Flaherty is confident last weekend's win over her former club, West Ham, could be a huge turning point for Matt Beard's side.
"It’s always difficult when a team get promoted and they’ve been used to dominating in the Championship," the 31-year-old said.
"The WSL is just a completely different ball-game. The teams are so much stronger and for me it's the most competitive league in the world.
"We’re a good team and we deserve to be higher in the table than what we are. The win on Sunday was a big three points and that will hopefully kick our season on."
As well as being instrumental in Liverpool's collective upturn in form, Flaherty has also reached an impressive personal milestone in recent weeks; overtaking Jill Scott to become the WSL's all-time record appearance holder.
"I think the appearances is something I’ve been keeping an eye on," she said.
"Last season I remember doing an interview and saying 'Jill Scott I’m coming for you' and then she retired at the end of the season. I’m very competitive in that sense and over the last few months I wanted to get the most appearances. I don’t just want to stop at that I want to take it further and play in every WSL game, that’s just my nature."
To find out more about the TalkBanStop campaign, click here or visit www.talkbanstop.com
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