Foundation supporting families of ex-footballers living with dementia

CONSULTANT neuropathologist Dr Willie Stewart re-examined Astle’s brain in May 2014, and diagnosed chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

The family launched the ‘Justice for Jeff’ campaign which in April 2015 became the Jeff Astle Foundation. The Foundation works to support other families of former footballers living with dementia.

“People talk about the 1966 team, and rightly so because they were so iconic. But I can assure you those five (who developed dementia) in the team are not unique, they really aren’t,” she said.

The Foundation has also led the calls for further, meaningful research into the risks from concussive and sub-concussive injuries to footballers’ long-term brain health.

In 2019, Dr Stewart’s FIELD Study – commissioned two years earlier by the PFA and the FA – concluded footballers were four-and-a-half times more likely to die from neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the general population. Further studies are looking at the cause of that increased risk, but Dawn said: “It isn’t because of the grass, or the oranges at half-time, is it?”

Football has taken steps to improve safety since that study was published, with heading guidelines in training introduced for under-18s in 2020 and for the professional and adult game last year.

Laraine recalls “tears streaming down her face” in sheer relief when former Football Association chairman Greg Clarke told the family about its plans to make children’s football safer.

Battles still lie ahead – Dawn has described football’s concussion protocols as “farcical” and continues to campaign for football-related dementia to be classified as an industrial disease.

Astle is still remembered with huge affection at West Brom, and the family attended Saturday’s match against Peterborough.

Before that, the family faced a difficult day, two decades on from Astle’s death. “It’s a weird day. January 19 is the day my dad died, not the day I was born. He wouldn’t want that, but I can’t help it,” Dawn said. “My dad died because of football, and football did nothing. I still think now they wouldn’t have done anything if we hadn’t done what we’ve done. And players would have continued to die, and children playing on a Saturday or a Sunday would still be at risk.”

The heading guidance introduced and studies instigated over the last two and a half years have undoubtedly been spurred on by the family’s relentless campaigning.