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Dementia in football: Wife of former Middlesbrough player Bill Gates sets up support group
Judith Gates, wife of former Middlesbrough player Bill Gates who played with late England star Nobby Stiles tells SSN: "We have a duty, we have a responsibility to protect present and future players to say this must stop now"
[Edited]
Judith Gates, wife of former Middlesbrough player Bill Gates who played with late England star Nobby Stiles tells SSN: "We have a duty, we have a responsibility to protect present and future players to say this must stop now"
By Rebecca Williams, Sky Sports News
Image: Bill Gates (top-left) played with late England star Nobby Stiles (bottom-right) at Middlesbrough in the 1970s
The wife of a former Middlesbrough player, who has been diagnosed with dementia, is setting up a support group for other families in a similar position.
Judith Gates' husband, Bill, played for the club in the sixties and seventies. He was managed by Jack Charlton and played alongside the likes of Nobby Stiles and Willie Maddren, who have all died of degenerative brain conditions.
Judith has now submitted an application for dementia to be considered an industrial disease and has in recent years carried out much of her own research.
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"He thought very carefully about retiring and he chose to retire at the age of thirty. The reasons behind it were that he was recognising that the headaches were getting worse, the migraines were getting worse.
"It was a big decision because Middlesbrough were going up into the first division and he would have dearly loved to have continued with them under contract, but the headaches were so bad."
Image: Nobby Stiles passed away in October this year after suffering with dementia during the latter part of his life
Judith is keen to find a solution and is in touch with many of Bill's peers from his playing days.
Also See:
- Dementia in football: Nikki Trueman calls for more support from FA and PFA
- PFA addressing football's possible link to dementia
- Current players support plans to reduce heading in training, says PFA official
- Frank Lampard: Chelsea boss considers training changes amid dementia in football concerns
"We have a duty, we have a responsibility to protect present and future players to say this must stop now because everybody involved must come together to be part of the solution and protect the future".
Judith is in touch with other families, like Hilary Maddren, whose husband Willie died of motor neurone disease twenty years ago, aged 49.
Maddren was a one-club man. He made 293 appearances for Middlesbrough and later went back to manage them for two years in the eighties.
Hilary says that although her husband never knew exactly what had caused his MND, he always believed it had a link to football.
Image: Willie Maddren (top centre) played with Graeme Souness (bottom-right) at Middlesbrough
"A number of times while heading the ball during a game he would have a migraine come on as a result of heading the ball or a clash of heads because again, I think it's not so much the heading the ball but quite often the clash of heads while you're heading the ball…" she said.
"He would continue playing the match while he had a migraine, knowing that he could quite often not see when the ball was coming or where some of the players were and he would continue the game like that.
"It was just a given thing. He wouldn't dream of coming off."
Middlesbrough is just one example of a club where a number of former players have gone on to develop degenerative brain injuries. But up and down the country it now seems to be a similar picture.
The latest research suggests ex-footballers are three and a half times more likely to die from neurological diseases than the average person.
Image: Sir Bobby Charlton has been recently diagnosed with dementia
In the sixties and seventies, English clubs placed great focus on heading the ball, both in games and in training. That is something David Mills, who played upfront alongside Bill and Willie, remembers well.
"It's not something you thought about as a young player," Mills told Sky Sports News.
"Heading was just an aspect of the game. It was quite significant in those days. You had a lot of strong, physical centre forwards and centre halves.
"The game was played quite often with the ball travelling backwards and forwards in the air, quite considerably. Lots of crosses, lots of contact with the head. But it was just accepted.
Nobody had the knowledge in those days that we have now as to what the possibilities might be."
At clubs up and down the country, the trophies of years gone by are still on display. But for so many former players the memories are fading.
The Football Association is now calling for greater research and the players' union, the PFA is calling for restrictions on heading in training.