Dementia battle blow
SETBACK IN ATTEMPTS TO GET INDUSTRIAL DISEASE DESIGNATION
The woman leading the fight to have dementia in football designated an industrial disease has assembled eight pieces of scientific evidence supporting the claim, but still needs the help of former players and their families, Sportsmail can reveal.
Dr Judith Gates, wife of the former Middlesbrough defender Bill Gates, has written a highly detailed policy paper for the industrial injury Advisory Council (iiAC) which seeks to address the reasons why in 2005 the body refused the designation, which is part of the Daily Mail’s seven-point charter for change.
Despite being able to cite the substantial peer-reviewed study last year in which Glasgow University’s Dr Willie stewart demonstrated a link between dementia and heading footballs, the iiAC’s initial response — seen by Sportsmail — suggests the battle is by no means won.
The iiAC has told Dr Gates that members of its working group feel that Dr stewart’s work, published in The Lancet, was a ‘single study’ and that ‘clear and consistent evidence across a number of studies’ is still needed.
The group also said that there was no examination of whether other factors might have caused footballers’ dementia, despite Dr stewart demonstrating that players were three and a half times more likely to die from neurodegenerative conditions.
The working group’s initial observations, which also reveal one member wants to await the results of more academic research, does not mean that Dr Gates’s dossier of British, italian and American studies will be rejected. But Dr Gates, whose husband was diagnosed with cognitive impairment six years ago, said a forensic, co-ordinated campaign was needed.
‘We know of one player who has written to his MP looking for support for the industrial disease designation,’ she told Sportsmail. ‘if more players’ families could do the same, it would have more effect.
‘We do believe we have satisfied the burden of proof. The argument that “we want to know more” could go on ad infinitum.
‘You could get another longitudinal study and then get a demand for yet more information and by that time you’re 10, 15 years down the line. it’s a superb side- step away from taking action to effect change. We know the heavy footballs are now coated not to absorb water, but we also know they’re the same weight. We do know they come at a greater velocity and that the impact is the same.’
The blows her husband took to his head as a Middlesbrough centre half of the 1960s and 1970s were so relentless that he was suffering regular migraines in his 20s, retired from the game at 30 and was still in his 60s when diagnosed.
‘if you look at the regular press from that time it was “Gates was strong in the air”,’ his wife added. ‘if you talk about his training, he headed about 100 balls a day. he took an awful lot of doses of smelling salts and headed much more in training than the game.
‘ he talked to the Middlesbrough club doctor but it was very much “this is par for the course. This goes with the territory”.’
At 76, her husband is now struggling.
‘every day i see some of him slip away,’ his wife said. Yet she is markedly reluctant to dwell on what he and their family have gone through.
‘What i am not willing to do is exploit the diminishing of the capacities of my husband in public to get shock horror,’ she said. ‘After the diagnosis, we came together as a family and looked at how we could have a constructive tive approach. approach Be part of the solution. look at the problem. look at it with clear eyes and see what you can do about it.’
her husband has benefited hugely from involvement with coaches in Africa and india, as part of the Coaches Across Continents organisation that their son, Nick, founded. The family divide their time between Co Durham, the Cayman islands — where they have full citizenship — and the Us.
Dr Gates, whose doctorate is in education, is also bringing together scientists, families and experts in the field to form a new foundation called head For Change, to bring a breakthrough in the way football helps current and former players and furthers research.
‘The Daily Mail campaigning work in the past few weeks has demonstrated a groundswell of public opinion,’ she said. ‘The challenge now is to translate that into the evidence that governing organisations claim they require. ‘industrial disease is in the Daily Mail’s charter but we can’t just assume that will happen. We have to make the case. it’s how can it be pushed further?
‘if i were in that group of players in their 50s, like my husband once was, i would be really worried. it’s often overlooked that this illness affects former players who are physically so fit that they live longer with it.
‘it’s not like dementia in a frail, elderly person. My husband has the healthiest cardiovascular system imaginable for a 76-year-old.
‘But this can’t just be more news about how bad it is. We have to do something about it, rather than see more generations suffer. it’s got to be, “What next?”’