Families donate brains

A GROWING number of families of players affected by dementia have expressed their willingness to donate the brains of their loved ones to assist research after their death.

The Jeff Astle Foundation has been contacted by families of more than 300 ex-players, including an increasing number ready to contribute to the creation of a ‘bank’ of donated brains to help investigate the link between football and dementia. Ernie Moss, 68, Chesterfield’s all-time top scorer, has been suffering with suspected chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) since his late fifties and can no longer speak or complete routine tasks.

Moss’s daughter Nikki Trueman said: “As a family we would like to donate his brain because it is only going to help others.

“It’s a heartbreaking, horrendous and harrowing thing to have to do but I think that’s what we’ll find.

“All of us – my mum, my sister and me – had decided separately that it is something that needs to be done.”

A BBC documentary called ‘Alan Shearer: Dementia, Football and Me’, aired last night, showed parts of the brain of ex-West Brom forward Jeff Astle, who died in 2002 aged 59 from CTE and whose family have long campaigned to raise awareness around brain injury in football.