Our Titan is no more
Family agony at ex-player’s dementia from years of heading footballs
EXCLUSIVE
THE wife of an ex-footballer hit by dementia is leading the fight for a safer game – driven by the tragic decline of her husband.
Dr Judith Gates’ partner Bill played for Middlesbrough under Jack Charlton and with Nobby Stiles, two of five 1966World Cup heroes stricken by the condition.
Now Judith, 75, wants greater safeguards and support for sufferers of dementia which has ravaged Bill.
She said: “Our Titan is no more. The game that strengthened him is destroying him, brain cell by brain cell.”
Bill, older brother of ex-Ipswich and England ace Eric, was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) – caused by repeated head impacts – in 2014.
Judith has seen the “lights dim” in her 76-year-old partner’s eyes, fuelling her to wake sport up to the “fragility of the brain” with the charity Head for Change.
She said: “I can still conjure up the image of Bill as a footballer in the 1970s. Sitting alongside my two sons, we delighted to see him emerging from the dressing room on to the field, a Titan in our eyes.
“Conversely I am haunted by his image today. Physically fit but his life spark almost extinguished, replaced by bewilderment and confusion. Bill always said he feared he would suffer dementia due to all the balls he headed.”
The condition was back in the spotlight last year when England legends Jack and Nobby died within a few months of each other – and Jack’s younger brother Sir Bobby became the latest 1966 icon to be diagnosed.
Judith added: “Bill was watching in horror as the generation ahead of him suffered from and died from dementia.”
Martin Peters and Ray Wilson are two more members of Sir Alf Ramsey’s golden generation who have died in recent years after suffering from the brain disease.
Judith said: “What makes it more tragic is that Bill and other retired sports people are suffering neurodegenerative disease but in an active body.
“This is the brutality. I hope no future player or family endure ‘the long goodbye’.
“Bill’s losing his sense of self and we are losing a life partner, a caring dad and indulgent grandad and great-grandad.
“I want everyone to recognise the fragility of the brain. I want to tell young players that they are not indestructible.”
Bill, a central defender, made more than 350 appearances for Middlesbrough from 1961 to 1974, an era when the ball was heavier when wet.
He later travelled the world with Coaches Across Continents, a charity started by son Nick, 54, helping youngsters including former child soldiers.
Now Bill and Judith split time between County Durham and the Cayman Islands, where they have full citizenship, and the US.
Judith said: “He retired in 1974 because he was having increasing migraines. He was known for being strong in the air. He was heading up to 100 balls a day, feeling woozy and given smelling salts.We later found out they are the worst thing for the brain.”
Judith has written a paper asking for dementia in football to be designated an industrial disease, insisting it is not a “blame game” but for “the future of the game”.
A 2019 Glasgow University study found ex-professionals were three and a half times more likely to die of dementia than people the same age in the general population.
It was prompted by the case of former West Brom striker Jeff Astle who died in 2002.
The Football Association has pledged limits on heading for under18s. England’s rugby World Cup winner Steve Thompson, 42, and ex-Welsh rugby ace Alix Popham, 41, also have dementia.
Judith added: “We can’t wait decades for reports to confirm absolute causation. Bill said to me: ‘You’re trying to make the world a better place for players and families’. That means the world to me.”
‘I want to tell young players they are not indestructible’