As a teenager Tom Gozney was hooked on drink and drugs - now he is charge of a £100m company

CHRISTMAS and the new year is a time for love, family, and celebration. But it can also be a time of great struggle for those battling drink and drug addiction.

No one knows that more than Tom Gozney, the Lymington pizza oven entrepreneur who has built a global company with a nine-figure valuation.

Despite his success now, there were times as a teenager when Tom, gripped by alcohol and drugs, feared he had no future at all.

He is now speaking out about his addiction in the hope it will help others.

Tom (35) said: “Christmas is a really challenging time for people with drug and drink dependencies.

“For so many years there has been a stigma about speaking out about it. Talking about your mental health hasn’t been encouraged.

“But for me the biggest first step to getting help was to put my hand in the air and say: “I’m helpless here. I can’t change this on my own.

“Very quickly there was support around me and my life changed forever. It can for others too. I know it’s not easy.

“But reach out, say, ‘I need help’.”

Earlier this year Tom’s Gozney stone oven brand launched a special edition of his home version, the Roccbox, stamped with the date of his first day of sobriety.

Celebrating the 15-year anniversary of that moment, it was done in partnership with the charity With You which offers support to people struggling with addictions.

Tom started drinking when he was just a teenager.

He said: “I was just quite wild. I was dyslexic and didn’t achieve well in school. As a result, I had low self-esteem and felt like I didn’t fit in.

“When I was about 14 I met a group of lads outside school and started smoking weed with them. I found comfort with them as I was a little bit lost.

“I was doing drugs and partying and it all just got chaotic quite quickly. I was expelled from school and progressed onto harder drugs.

“Alcohol and drugs were what I built my character on, they became my identity.”

At first he “found it fun and exciting” but quickly realised that what he was doing had “stopped being a choice for me”.

Tom said: “I would try and stop, and I couldn’t.

“I was in a desperately unhappy place towards the end of my 10 years of addiction.”

A night out in Bournemouth when he was 21 proved to be the turning point for Tom.

He said: “I was viciously attacked by a gang of guys. My teeth were knocked out and my skull cracked.

“The trauma of experiencing that sent me out of control with my using.

“I was drinking every day, starting in the morning. Drugs and drink were almost like a medication for the internal problems I was dealing with.

“They enabled me to function. Helped me deal with the guilt of what I was putting my parents through. Mask my emotions.”

He says he “spiralled down very quickly”, adding: “I hit bottom, I was absolutely done with it. That’s when I first asked for help and within two weeks I was in a rehab clinic where I stayed for almost a year.

“It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life but the most rewarding.”

He left when he was 21 and has been clean ever since.

He said: “I am not ashamed of my recovery; I am proud of it. I put it before everything.

“The life that I have built – my company, my marriage, my family. All of it would go if my recovery went.

“I am so much happier than I was when I was using. We had our fun times when we were kids but the buzz we used to chase – I get that times 10 from growing a business.

“Since talking publicly about my addiction I have received loads of messages from people saying that my story has really helped them and given them hope.

“That has been absolutely overwhelming for me. If my story helps anyone, that is an amazing win for me.”