NEW Destroyed by rugby
How England World Cup winner Steve Thompson struggles to remember his children’s names…
Former rugby player Steve Thompson won 73 caps for England, received an MBE and was part of the 2003 World Cup-winning squad. But he can’t remember any of it. Tragically, Steve has earlyonset dementia, caused by chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease brought about by the multiple head impacts he suffered during his playing career. ‘I loved everything about rugby and the physicality was a massive part of it,’ admits Steve. ‘But you’d end up with burst blood vessels all round your eyes where you’d been pushing so hard. Sometimes you’d pass out. I now have dementia and it’s only going to get worse.’
Fighting on
Cameras follow Steve on his campaign to make rugby safer. He’s also joined a legal action against the sport’s governing bodies for the avoidable damage he’s suffered.
Over the year of filming, he struggles to hold down a job, begins to forget the names of his four children and even contemplates taking his own life. Yet he remains determined to stop anyone else suffering.
‘I’ve been getting confused a lot more and my moods have been up and down. Every week a little bit more slips away,’ says Steve. ‘I hope what I’m doing will make it a lot safer for the generations to come.’