From ITN's Evening News to a Seafront Bench

Ed Mitchell trained as a financial journalist with Reuters and then moved into television, presenting business programmes in several countries. At his peak he earned six-figure salaries and presented ITN's main evening news. He lost his job in 2000 after being drunk on work premises, and at his worst he was drinking around 150 units of alcohol a week.

By 2007 his life had unravelled. He had built up debts of about 250,000 pounds across 25 credit cards, lost his house and his marriage, and had no work. In autumn that year he began sleeping on a bench in a covered seating area behind a nightclub on the seafront at Hove. He stayed there for four months and was declared bankrupt in November 2007. He relied on food, clothing and help from local charities, including Off the Fence and the Brighton Housing Trust's First Base.

The change came in December 2007, when a local newspaper told his story. A businessman, Dan Butcher, read it and paid for a stay at the Priory Hospital in Roehampton to help him stop drinking.

Roughly ten years later, Great British Life found him living in a rented flat above a shop in Shoreham. He had written a book, From Headlines to Hard Times, which sold well, and he worked as a freelance writer. He also trained broadcast presenters for television stations in Delhi, Dhaka and Lagos and had presented a business programme on Share Radio in London.

In 2012 he married Mandy, a former drinking partner who later stopped drinking. He said he had relapsed at times and was two months sober when interviewed.