We launch Billy fund
The Sunday Mail, the McNeill family and Alzheimer Scotland team up for charity drive
The Sunday Mail is today proud to launch a major fundraising drive for dementia research in the name of Lisbon Lions skipper Billy McNeill. In February, we revealed that Celtic legend Billy had dementia – which has also afflicted many other footballers and has been linked by researchers to heading the ball. Today, we launch our new fund in his name backed by the McNeill family. With them and our partners at Alzheimer Scotland, we want to raise £100,000 to fund further studies into possible links between dementia and heading. The money will also be used to support the fami lies of former footballers suffering from the brain condition.
Launching the fund, Billy’s wife Liz said: “After the first article, we got messages of support from people from all walks of life as well as the footballing community. It was overwhelming.
“We knew that we were not alone. A lot of families are going through the same thing.
“Bil ly had a great career and a great life playing football and we want to do everything we can to help raise money for further research into dementia.
“And for former players and current players, any research into whether there is a link between heading the ball and the disease needs to be done now.
“That’s why I and the family are happy for Billy’s name to be used to help raise awareness and money for this vital research.”
Billy’s daughter-in-law Dr Yvonne McNeill is a clinical psychologist and became aware early on that his memory was deteriorating.
She helped get him assessed and started on a regime of drugs that slowed the progression of his decline.
Yvonne said: “Research that raises awareness of the possible symptoms in at- risk groups and therefore allows for early intervention is invaluable.”
The Sunday Mail has been backing the families of former players since a
Sti rl ing University repor t in October found that heading the ball can significantly affect a player’s brain function and memory for 24 hours.
We launched our Footbal l ’ s Timebomb campaign, calling for the football authorities to fund more research, in January.
Our hard- hitting front page – headlined “Heads in the Sand” – accused the game’s rulers of turning a blind eye to the risk of dementia.
The families of former players , including Billy, fellow ex- Celtic heroes Bil ly McPhail and John McNamee, Rangers legend Jimmy Millar, former Scotland boss Ally McLeod and ex-Manchester Utd and Dundee Utd defender Frank Kopel, have al l told their poignant stories.
To da y, we reveal another new tragic case as the family of Rangers and Scotland player Eric Caldow add their voice.
The Stirling research revealed a player heading a modern ball 20 times found their memory performance reduced by between 41 and 67 per cent in the 24 hours after the experiment.
It was followed by a University College London study of 13 deceased professionals and one amateur player with dementia who were referred to the Old Age Psychiatry Service in Swansea between 1980 and 2010.
The scientists found the footballers had a far higher rate of chronic traumatic encephalopathy – damage caused by repeated blows – in their brains than average.
They had played football for an average of 26 years and developed dementia around their mid- 60s – an average of 10 years earlier than most people with the condition.
Dr Helen Ling, who led the research, said: “These players had the same pathology as boxers.
“The most pressing question is to ask how common dementia is among retired footballers. “If we can demonstrate the risk is higher than tthe norma l ppopul a t ion, wwe’d need to llook at putting ppreventative sstrategies in pplace.”
Football has bbeen accused of ignoring the issue despite a coroner ruling in 2002 that former West Bromwich Albion and England striker Jeff Astle, who died aged 59 after suffering dementia for f ive years, was killed by an “industrial disease”.
The Sunday Mail told earlier this month how former England striker Alan Shearer had undergone brain tests at Stirling University while filming a BBC documentary to be shown later this year.
Match of the Day pundi t Shearer, 46, had a cutting- edge medical screening, including bio- marker blood tests and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), to investigate how his 18-year career has affected his brain.
Shearer said: “The more I read about it, the more I felt this was a subject that could no longer be ignored.”
At least three of England’s 1966 World Cup winning side have been hit with the devastating illness – Martin Peters, Nobby Stiles and Ray Wilson.
Alzheimer Scotland chief executive Henry Simmons said: “Each time the legends in our great game and other sports tel l their story about living with dementia, it removes a piece of the cloak of discrimination and stigma that has shrouded dementia for far too long.
“At present, there is no conclusive evidence to support a connection between sports and dementia.
“And the sad fact is that because dementia research is so underfunded, we do not even know what causes the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease.
“Vital resources from the Billy McNeill Fund will help us invest in this research.”
The Sunday Mail has pledged to make a major donation to the fund through the Great Scot Awards fund later this year.
And we are encouraging our readers to make donations by going to Alzheimer Scotland’s website at www.alzscot.org
To back the Billy McNeill Fund, simply pledge an amount and click the designation box to “football and dementia research”.