SOPHIE’S TRIBUTE TO DAD KEVIN
AGROUP of friends have teamed up to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK in memory of footballer Kevin Moore.
Among them is the defender’s daughter Sophie, who lost her father to frontotemporal dementia in April 2013 when he was just 55.
Moore played for Grimsby Town between 1976 and 1987. He then transferred to Oldham Athletic in 1987, before going onto Southampton from 1987 to 1994, Bristol Rovers (on loan) in 1992, and Fulham from 1994 to 1996.
Sophie and her old schoolmates are each running 100km over the summer as part of a team in Alzheimer’s Research UK’s latest campaign Running Down Dementia, and have already raised just under £1,000.
The 30-year-old, who works in media as a business director, was left devastated when her dad was diagnosed with the condition in 2007, and saw him change rapidly.
Sophie said: “His symptoms started in his late 40s, around 2005 when I was in my second year of university.
“He’d been made redundant from his job as a training ground manager. It felt like a very odd thing to happen as he’d been in the job years so it was very out of the blue.
“He would occasionally bash his car and more and more frequently when he knew he had to be somewhere he failed to be on time.
“Those were the first warning signs but when I turned 21 and he’d just been diagnosed I moved to Aus- tralia. I knew a few things would change but I was left very shocked ten months later when he came to visit. I felt like I didn’t recognise him as my dad anymore.
“By the time I came back it was quite bad. He went to the day centre at The White House in Curdridge for a while but lived at home in Otterbourne. When his symptoms got worse he moved into the care home permanently.
“My mum Mandy, my brother and I just want to get his story out there as much as possible. He would head the ball a lot during football games and we wonder how much of an effect that had. There needs to be more research into frontotemporal dementia, it’s such a complicated disease.”
Sophie added: “Our team has girls running in London, Surrey, Hampshire, Denmark and New York and we’d love to pass the £1,000 mark.” To donate to the team’s challenge, go to https://running-downdementia.everydayhero.com /uk/ford-girls.