Like Abbie, Kiki would also gamble on her phone, often for more than 24 hours until she ran out of money.
The 40-year-old said her gambling addiction made her feel suicidal.
“I didn’t care whether I lived or died. It was like a slow and painful death,” Kiki told the BBC.
“I used to pray to die and just think ‘I can’t wait for this to be over’.
“Your mindset was just to do anything that you needed to do to still enable you to gamble.
“I was going without food shopping, I didn’t have gas, the only reason why I had electric and wi-fi is because I needed that to gamble.”
Kiki noticed her gambling habit became worse during the week before her period.
“Impulsivity and compulsive behaviours are more likely to shine bright in the week before my period – and that’s when I’d make even worse decisions around that week,” said Kiki from Woolwich in south-east London.
“I think there is a big connection between poor decision-making and impulsive behaviour during your menstrual cycle.”
Kiki said she reached her “catastrophic point and rock bottom” when she stole a considerable amount of money from her former partner’s bank account to gamble with.
“I wrote letters to the train driver, to the passengers, and apologised for the trauma that I was about to cause them by ending my life at the train station,” she said.
Instead, Kiki called the GamCare National Helpline – an organisation that provides free support for anyone affected by gambling harms.
“I knew that my death would have caused more trauma on other people and I just couldn’t do it,” she said.