Patrick Foster

Motivational Speaker | Mental Health Advocate | ‘The Power of Addiction’

Patrick Foster is a motivational speaker, mental health advocate, and the founder of GAM-Ed, an education provider grounded in lived experience and dedicated to bringing human-centred learning into workplaces and schools.

Patrick helps organisations understand the hidden human cost of high-performance including burnout, pressure, emotional exhaustion, unhealthy coping strategies, and fear-driven success.

Modern workplace culture often rewards the very behaviours that quietly lead to burnout and breakdown: perfectionism, relentless ambition, constant availability, emotional suppression, and identity tied to achievement. Many of the people who appear to be coping best are often struggling most silently because success is not proof that someone is okay.

His mission is to break the silence that too often surrounds mental health and addiction. Patrick creates space for honest conversations, reminding people that reaching out for help is not a sign of weakness, but of extraordinary strength. He emphasises that the first step toward change is recognising that something isn’t right—and understanding that challenges don’t have to be faced alone.

Booking is easy with Great British Talent. To find out availability and fees for Patrick Foster or any other talent for your corporate event or project, contact our Great British Talent agents via [email protected], or call us on +44 1753 439289.

Alternatively, fill out our talent enquiry form here . We’ll aim to respond within the hour. Our knowledgeable team of experts can handle all aspects of your booking to ensure it runs flawlessly.

Type Of Speaker

Education Health & Wellbeing Men's Health Mental Health Resilience Speaker Virtual Speakers

More About Patrick Foster

Patrick Foster | His Story

A former professional cricketer, insurance broker, and independent schoolteacher, Patrick Foster appeared to have everything in place. Despite an idyllic upbringing and early success, he developed a pathological gambling addiction that consumed his life. By March 2018, he was on the verge of taking his own life. With the right help and incredible support, Patrick rebuilt his life from the ground up, gaining clarity about addiction and its profound impact on himself and those around him. That journey gave him a renewed sense of purpose: to use his lived experience to help others and support organisations in building open, compassionate, and connected cultures.

Patrick Foster hire former professional cricketer gambling addiction speaker book at agent Great British Speakers

Patrick Foster | The Message

In his talks, Patrick goes beyond sharing his personal story. He explores the broader impact of addiction and mental health struggles—not only on individuals but also on families, colleagues, and communities. He provides practical tools to recognise warning signs, support those who may be struggling, and foster environments where empathy and understanding thrive.

Patrick highlights the challenge organisations face in differentiating between everyday emotions such as stress or anxiety and deeper, more complex mental health issues. He stresses the importance of equipping people with the awareness and skills to recognise this difference, ensuring serious mental health conditions are treated with the attention and care they deserve.

His talks explore burnout behind achievement, emotional suppression in leadership, unhealthy coping strategies, psychological safety, resilience, and sustainable high performance. While the subject matter is serious, his delivery is also uplifting, motivating, viscerally funny, and brought vividly to life through honest and relatable storytelling.

Patrick Foster | Flipping the Narrative

Patrick also demonstrates how addiction can be reframed. While addiction often carries negative connotations, the traits that can fuel it—intensity, focus, ambition, and resilience—can, when channelled with self-awareness, become extraordinary strengths. Many successful people share this wiring, and learning to harness it positively can unlock remarkable purpose and potential.

Patrick Foster | Why It Matters

Mental health challenges do not discriminate. Privilege, success, and status offer no protection—pressure and expectation can make struggles even harder. Many who appear to be thriving are silently struggling beneath the surface. Through honest storytelling and lived experience, Patrick helps break stigma, build understanding, and create lasting change.

Patrick Foster find anti gambling addiction professional cricketer speaker book at agent Great British Speakers

Patrick Foster | Collaboration & Purpose

Beyond speaking, Patrick is committed to supporting worthy causes and collaborating on projects that make a tangible difference. Organisations or CSR teams interested in meaningful partnerships that use lived experience as a force for good are invited to connect with him.

Patrick Foster | Speaker

Alongside the emotional impact, Patrick’s talks are highly practical, giving leaders and teams real, implementable tools to improve communication, resilience, leadership awareness, and sustainable approaches to performance. He helps organisations move from burnout-driven performance to sustainable high performance, from silent struggle to psychologically safe communication, and from cultures where people merely survive pressure to cultures where teams can genuinely thrive within it.

Patrick helps organisations better understand the hidden pressures and behavioural patterns that often sit behind high-performing cultures and how to build environments where both people and performance thrive together. He delivers emotionally powerful, commercially relevant, and deeply relatable talks exploring burnout behind achievement, fear-driven performance, emotional suppression in leadership, unhealthy coping strategies, psychological safety, resilience, and high performance.

Patrick Foster | Speaking Topics

The Human Cost of High Performance: What burnout, pressure, perfectionism, and fear-driven success are really doing to modern workplaces and how organisations can create healthier, more sustainable performance cultures.

Sustainable High Performance: How leaders and organisations build resilient cultures where people can thrive under pressure, sustain success long term, and perform at a high level without sacrificing wellbeing or identity.

Patrick Foster | Might Bite: The Secret Life of a Gambling Addict
Patrick is also the author of the bestselling book Might Bite: The Secret Life of a Gambling Addict, a brutally honest account of more than a decade living with a gambling addiction that nearly destroyed everything he cared about. The book exposes the hidden reality of addiction—the lies, the shame, and the isolation—while also offering hope and the possibility of recovery. Might Bite provides a raw, unfiltered look at how addiction takes hold and demonstrates that, with honesty and support, it is possible to rebuild a life of meaning, integrity, and purpose.

Call +44 1753 439 289 or email Great British Speakers today to book Patrick Foster or your corporate event.

Contact us

Testimonials

Thank you for your time yesterday. I have received some really positive feedback today from your session, and we have sent out the recording of the session to the whole company along with all the information you sent over yesterday. That was a moving and inspiring story as you have clearly turned your life around and it touched a lot of our staff. Yesterday was one of our highest number of attendees for our lunch and learns which is fantastic. It clearly shows the importance of your message and I am delighted you got it across to such a wide audience.
Chief of Staff @ Apollo Underwriting

Patrick Foster’s story is compelling and important. He holds every audience – whether younger pupils, sixth formers or parents – spellbound with the power of the message he conveys. Gambling addiction, and indeed all forms of addiction, are a very real risk for the pupils in our care. I think that we have made great strides in forewarning them and giving them protective factors through hearing his message. Top-notch INSET and PSHE, and a charming person to meet and have around the school for a day.
Headmaster, Eastbourne College

Patrick Foster’s talk on Addiction and Mental Health was truly eye-opening. His willingness to share his personal journey in such a raw and authentic way created a powerful and impactful session. It offered invaluable insights for anyone experiencing addiction and mental health issues, as well as for those who want to better support someone going through it. We left with practical ideas on how we, as an organisation, can do more to foster a culture where support is at the centre for anyone facing these challenges. Thank you, Patrick, for all that you are doing to raise awareness and support those who really need it—you are making such a difference.
Health, Wellbeing & Engagement Specialist, Peabody

Yesterday was one of our highest number of attendees for our lunch and learns which is fantastic. It clearly shows the importance of your message.
Associate Director, HSBC

His willingness to share his personal journey in such a raw and authentic way created a powerful and impactful session.
Senior Performance Lifestyle & Player Support Manager, Manchester City FC

Patrick Foster is a trailblazer.
Marcus Trescothick