‘I’VE BEEN GIVEN A SECOND CHANCE ...I WANT TO PUT SOMETHING BACK’

MIKE SOPER traces the roots of the idea back to his days as chairman of Surrey County Cricket Club and a life-changing illness which struck like a thunderbolt. Surrey were struggling and £1.3million in debt when he took control, but he and chief executive Paul Sheldon transformed the mood at the Oval and Surrey were crowned champions in 1999. ‘We managed to get it back on an even keel and everything was going well,’ says Soper. ‘The club was rolling and I was about to go on holiday to the US when I started to get chest pains. ‘I was overweight and the job had been stressful but I was sure it wasn’t my heart. I was 55 and a bit fitter back then. I tried to prove it to my wife Julie by running to the top of the eight hairpin bends on Lombard Street in San Francisco. I made it and my heart was fine but my ribs were killing me.’ The diagnosis on his return was grim. He had an aggressive and advanced prostate cancer. His PSA (prostate-specific antigen) measuring the protein produced by the prostate gland was reading 580. It should be around four for a healthy man in his mid-50s.

‘I said, “Is that serious?” and they said, “It’s more than bloody serious, get yourself to Bournemouth Hospital straight away”. It was the highest reading they had ever seen at the surgery.’ Further exhaustive tests and a biopsy showed it had spread to his rib cage. They gave him six months to live. ‘They showed me x-rays and my ribs were covered in cancer,’ he says. ‘It was November and they wanted to see me again in March. I thought, “Hold on a minute, you’re giving me six months to live and you don’t want to see me until March”. That wasn’t very good.’ Soper called Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister and a close friend, who pulled strings with former US president George Bush and arranged a consultation with Christopher Logothetis, a pioneer in the treatment of prostate cancer in Texas. Professor Logothetis prescribed a course of medication and treatment, which, he surmised, together with some dietary changes, could keep him alive for another five years. The fact he is still alive 20 years on is something of a miracle. ‘It changed my life,’ says Soper. ‘I had been given a second chance and I know it’s hackneyed but I wanted to put something back in.’ He became heavily involved with East Boro, a housing association near his home in Dorset. East Boro were corporate trustees of Cyril Wood Court, a sheltered

housing scheme set up in the 1970s to provide affordable accommodation for artists and musicians. ‘It is an amazing place,’ says Soper, who became chairman at Cyril Wood. ‘There are singers and sculptors, and some of them are 80 and 90 years old. It’s not an old people’s home. They have their own front doors, their own kitchens, but there is a communal area and an artists’ shed where they all have studio space. It gives them a hell of a lot for £400 a month rent. ‘They are not cut adrift. They have care packages, carers for those who need it and they all look after each other. They knock on each other’s front doors. They chat in the communal room.

They have music and sculpture sessions. There’s no loneliness, they’re keeping their bodies and brains active.’ Soper is only aware of one case of dementia and came to wonder why there was nothing like it in sport aside from horseracing’s Racing Homes scheme. He knew about the dementia crisis in football and the high rates of divorce and depression among former cricketers. As a lifelong Crystal Palace supporter, he heard the tales of Kenny Sansom, the former Palace, Arsenal and England star who has fought alcoholism and spent time sleeping rough. ‘I thought, “Right, I’ll form a charity and get it going”,’ says Soper. He founded Reposm and brought in Sheldon in the hope they could recreate their Surrey success. There have been delays in the last year as Soper overcame another series of health issues. Four years ago, he discovered he had lung cancer unlinked to his prostate cancer and was having chemotherapy last October when he was hospitalised with pneumonia. One month later, he was back in hospital when stung in the eye by a bee and again in March with coronavirus. ‘It’ll be the bubonic plague next,’ he quips, seemingly indestructible and more determined than ever to push through Reposm to fruition. ‘It’s a no-brainer,’ Soper insists. ‘A simple idea, at a cost not beyond the realms of what sport can afford. Football has a vast amount of money and the people today are living on the shoulders of the people of the past who found fame but not money. ‘They give to charities and support good causes, but what are they doing to protect people they are mixing with and who might need accommodation in 20 to 30 years’ time? ‘If all the players in the Premier League and the Championship gave a day’s salary and get a tax freeze on it, it’d be enough to build three schemes. It’s my vision to have three or four of these built in the next five years, before I snuff it.’

● Pompey’s forgotten hero — in part 2 in tomorrow’s paper