Document:Without my brother John-Paul, I wouldn't be here

From Wikispooks
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Flintoff GM2G.jpg
Global March To Gaza (11 June 2025)
"I know there’s a real chance I’ll face danger or difficulties when I get to Egypt on the way to Gaza. But before I go, I want to express my gratitude to the one person who made it possible for me to take any kind of stand at all: my brother, John-Paul. Without him, I wouldn’t be here."

Disclaimer (#3)Document.png blog post  by Crispin Flintoff dated 9 June 2025
Subjects: The Crispin Flintoff Show, GM2G
Source: Facebook (Link)

★ Start a Discussion about this document
Without my brother John-Paul, I wouldn't be here



I know there’s a real chance I’ll face danger or difficulties when I get to Egypt on the way to Gaza. But before I go, I want to express my gratitude to the one person who made it possible for me to take any kind of stand at all: my brother, John-Paul. Without him, I wouldn’t be here.

From my teenage years into my early thirties, I drank myself to sleep nearly every day. I also numbed myself further with constant cannabis use. Over time, I became an inarticulate, anti-social wreck.

Even though I grew up in a family where politics was always discussed, I felt completely apathetic. I couldn’t see the point in anything beyond getting wasted.

Eventually, it all became too much.

One Saturday evening in October 2002, I had a blackout while wandering around Shepherd’s Bush Green. It lasted several hours. I was walking and talking, but my brain had essentially shut down. I ‘came to’ mid-conversation with a gang who were clearly about to beat me up. I had no idea how I’d got there. The experience really shook me.

Throughout my twenties, I’d had recurring thoughts of suicide - especially after my best friend took his own life. That grey October Sunday morning, I messaged everyone in my phone to say I was going to end it.

Only one person replied: my brother.

He came to see me. He told me honestly that I’d always had a problem with alcohol and that maybe it was time to stop. Before he left, he wrote down a number on a post-it note and handed it to me.

To cut a long story short, the following Friday I woke up, called that number - and I haven’t had a drink since. About three months later, I stopped smoking cannabis too.

My life began to turn around, slowly.

There were still challenges - like losing my job or nearly being killed in the Tavistock Square bus bombing - but I never went back to drinking.

I found my voice in stand-up comedy. I became a father of two. I began getting involved in politics. Like many recovering alcoholics, I’ve thrown myself into everything obsessively. Over the years, I put on around 250 fundraising gigs for Labour (pre-Starmer) - more than anyone else in the party’s history.

That same drive led me to produce weekly Zoom shows for over five years. And who taught me how to use Zoom in the first place? My brother. Today, I have a YouTube channel with nearly 60,000 subscribers and will be reporting on a risky trip to Rafah. I’ve even bought my desert outfit! The fact that I’ve come this far from that night in Shepherd’s Bush is incredible to me.

And none of it - absolutely none of it - would have happened without my brother, John-Paul. And knowing him as I do, I’m sure he wouldn’t want to take credit for it at all!