BRFC TrustA man who takes his cousin to a weekly dementia group run by a Blackburn Rovers FC charity said it helps to bring back his “spark”.
Remember the Rovers has been running for six years and is designed to reduce social isolation by encouraging participants to rekindle memories of football.
Organisers of the free sessions, every Wednesday morning at the Ewood Park stadium in Blackburn, show past matches on big screens and hold quizzes to encourage conversations.
Stuart has Alzheimer’s and his cousin Alan said his “memories are being locked away in his mind” but by going to the group “maybe we can unpick those locks and open one of those memories, even if its only for a couple of minutes”.
BRFC TrustSpeaking to BBC Radio Lancashire, he added: “The spark is there and we get back Stuart as we know and love him.
“Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but we’re there every week trying to see the lad that we used to know.”
Ben Howard, the Remember the Rovers lead for Blackburn Community Trust, said: “The aim of the quiz is to bring back as many memories as possible for the participants so we try to incorporate loads of video footage and pictures which sparks discussion within the group.
“The games could be from 60 years ago, they could be from two weeks ago.
“It’s an opportunity to get together to talk about the game and share their thoughts.”
‘Fantastic knowledge’
Guest speakers at the group have included former players and members of stuff including Colin Hendry, Mike Newell, Mike Atkins and former coach Tony Parkes.
“There are people who go down to this group who remember football from the late 1940s, where I’m from the 1960s onwards,” said Alan.
“It’s fantastic the knowledge that these people have about Blackburn Rovers Football Club and football in general.
“Stuart’s from the era where Rovers won the Premier League so you show him a picture of Alan Shearer and he knows immediately that’s Shearer, so it does work.
“He’s only in his early sixties, it [Alzheimer’s] hit him really early so the family has to live round that and at the moment we’re managing to cope.”
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