100-year-old Pascall doll Easter egg is a sweet lot at auction
Calls for disease linked to heading ball to be seen as industrial injury
A CHOCOLATE Easter egg made almost a century ago is set to fetch hundreds of pounds at auction.
The treasured Pascall egg, which makes up the body of a doll, was given to two-year-old Christine Metcalfe by her aunt in 1924. She loved the present so much that she “couldn’t bear to eat it” – and kept it for the rest of her life.
Christine tucked the egg away in a chest of drawers in the bedroom of her north London home.
It went on to survive World War II and 10 house moves but for the last 30 years of Christine’s life, it remained at her home in Hulland Ward, Derbyshire.
The unusual egg was rediscovered after she died on Christmas Eve 2019, aged 97. It is now being sold by
Hansons Auctioneers and is expected to fetch £300. Owner Charles Hanson said: “This is the sweetest find. You can still smell the chocolate.
“The chocolate egg is the body, which is dressed in a paper costume with a doll’s head on top.”
PRESSURE is being put on the Scottish Government to use new welfare powers to help former professional footballers with dementia linked to heading a ball.
Senior politicians and trade unionists want diseases like Alzheimer’s in ex-pros to be recognised as an industrial injury.
Glasgow Labour councillor Martin McElroy, who is leading the campaign, said: “The Scottish Government has the opportunity to right this historic wrong, and to ensure former players get the support they need.”
Research published in 2019 showed that former professional players are three-and-a-half times more likely to die of dementia.
Glasgow University experts, led by Dr Willie Stewart, investigated concerns that heading a football could be linked to brain trauma.
Dr Stewart said the risk ranged from a five-fold increase in Alzheimer’s, a four-fold increase in motor neurone disease, and a two-fold increase in Parkinson’s.
As a result, the Scottish Football Association recommended no heading practice for primary kids. McElroy, standing for Holyrood in the Glasgow Provan seat, is urging the Government to use the industrial injuries disablement benefit power that was devolved to help ex-players.
The payments for people who become ill or disabled due to a disease or accident at work will be replaced by a new scheme. In a letter to Nicola Sturgeon,
McElroy wrote: “We have the opportunity to make welfare policy to deliver justice to these players and their families.”
Fraser Wishart, of professional footballers’ union PFA Scotland, said: “We fully support the campaign. Players are given hero status while playing. They shouldn’t be forgotten in later life.” The GMB trade union, which represents coaches and managers, has launched a survey to identify how many former players are potentially impacted.
Chief Gary Smith said: “These are industrial injuries suffered in the course of doing a job. The Scottish Government have the chance to support former pros who have done so much for the beautiful game in Scotland.”