Newcastle legend’s daughter calls for action on dementia
LESLEY PRAISES SHEARER FORTV SHOW
FOOTBALL legend Charlie Crowe’s daughter has praised Alan Shearer for speaking out about the potential links between football and dementia.
Lesley Edmondson watched her father succumb to dementia in the decades following an illustrious career in which he helped Newcastle United to the FA Cup in 1951.
Lesley and her mum Ruth have spoken about their belief that Charlie developed Alzheimer’s disease due to LESLEY EDMONDSON tiny head injuries that resulted from heading the old-style football during his playing days.
Since then, a host of other ex-players have been diagnosed with the degenerative disease.
And today, former England captain Shearer will investigate the potentially devastating link between football and the disease in a one-hour BBC documentary.
The programme sees the Match of the Day pundit undergo tests to examine how heading the ball has affected his brain.
Now Lesley has said she is “100% behind” Shearer for raising the profile of the disease.
Shearer was renowned for his heading ability as a player and practised up to 150 times a day in training. He fears that may have damaged his brain as he has “a terrible memory”.
Lesley said: “He’s such a high profile sportsman and it’s wonderful what he’s doing at the moment.”
Charlie Crowe was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1998 and moved to care home Hunter Hall in Wallsend. He died in 2010.
Lesley’s mum Ruth, now 91 and suffering from dementia herself, has previously spo- ken up about being “certain that his dementia would have had something to do with the game”.
She said: “Charlie used to say that heading the leathercase ball when it was wet was like heading a brick, so it can’t have been good for his health.”
Now Lesley has called for more funds to be allocated to researching the disease.
“I think this documentary will get people talking more about it on a regional level, but it will need much more of a national profile before the government decides to pour money into Alzheimer’s.
“The Alzheimer’s Society are entirely self-funding and to me that’s an absolute disgrace.
“When you look at the huge strides that have been made in cancer research, it’s not always the death sentence it used to be.
“You can’t possibly say that about Alzheimer’s – it is a death sentence, there’s no road back, no intervention early enough.
“The government have not picked up this banner and run with it – it’s a sad fact that it’s been left to sportspeople and people in high profile professions.
“Well done to Alan Shearer – I think it’s amazing, and we should all be doing more to raise awareness of this issue.”
On the devastating impact dementia has had on her parents, Lesley said: “It’s heartbreaking how people can be physically fit and become mental and emotional wrecks because of this disease.”
■ Alan Sherer: Dementia, Football and Me is on BBC One at 10.30pm tonight.