Sat urday 31 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •National^35
Amelia HillG
ary Mabbutt , the
former Tottenham
Hotspur club captain
and England player,
looked thoughtful.
“A Spurs player with
a name starting with Q? Barbara,
can you think of anyone?” Barbara
Greensmith hesitated.
Mabbutt turned to Hirok Moitra,
sitting on his other side. “Hirok, any
ideas?” There was a long silence.
Then Moitra suddenly announced,
“ Andy Quy .”
Moitra’s daughter, Rebecca,
gasped with surprise: “He can’t
necessarily remember what
happened last week but that’s a
memory from two decades ago.” She
beamed : “Well done, Dad!”
It is moments like these that make
the dementia workshop held by the
Tottenham Hotspur Foundation ,
the football club’s charitable arm, in
partnership with Sporting Memories
Foundation , worthwhile.
“My parents were both diagnosed
with dementia,” Mabbutt said later.
“The club does so much work with
youngsters but people are getting
older and it’s our responsibility to
help them too.
“I know from my personal
experience how important it is to
keep the brains alert of those living
with dementia. Sport is so important
to so many people and can trigger all
sorts of memories. ”
There is now widespread
agreement that the beautiful game
can be good for one’s mind, as well▼ The former Tottenham Hotspur
club captain Gary Mabbutt helps
out at a dementia workshop
PHOTOGRAPH: ALICIA CANTER/THE GUARDIANTackling dementia
Sporting memories
spur brain activity
as one’s body. “For people in old
age and dealing with dementia,
rewatching matches can rekindle
past memories, connect people with
their past and keep the brain active,”
said NHS England’s clinical director
for dementia, Alistair Burns.
“The power of sport can stimulate
emotion which can be revived many
years after the event,” he added.
“Emotional memory can be more
powerful than memory for personal
events, so as people in later life relive
exciting or tense moments, this can
stimulate memories, potentially
strengthening brain activity.”
Amanda White , the London
coordinator of the Sporting
Memories Foundation, agreed:
“People who can’t remember what
they did yesterday will suddenly
remember the fi rst football match
they were taken to, then they’ll
remember something else about
their parents. Or they’ll remember
taking their own children to a match
for the fi rst time, and that will trigger
another memory,” she said. “It’snot only great for them but for their
families too, who can reconnect with
their parent through these memories
and enthusiasms.”
At the Spurs event in Percy House ,
the home of the club’s foundation
in north London , Barbara and
Hirok pore over a table of Spurs
memorabilia, including the FA
Cup that Spurs won in 1991 under
Mabbutt’s captaincy, old books and
original football cartoons.
Mabbutt has also brought along
two football shirts, one of which was
worn by him in the fi rst match in
South Africa at which black players
were allowed to wear their country’s
shirt. This triggers a short chat about
racism and politics.
“It’s amazing what comes out
of these football-themed games
and discussions,” said White. “One
workshop led to a discussion about
the suff ragette movement because
the conversation moved from
football to racing to Emily Davison .”
Sporting Memories works with
clubs across the UK. Tony Jameson-
Allen , a qualifi ed mental health
nurse and manager of a number of
long-term dementia care facilities, is
co-founder of the charity.
“Be it Kenneth Wolstenholme’s
iconic commentary as Sir Geoff
Hurst scored his hat-trick, Nobby
Stiles doing a jig of delight or Bobby
Moore being hoisted on to the team’s
shoulders holding aloft the Jules
Rimet trophy, these great moments
can bring back wonderful, positive
memories that can be used to unite
generations to tackle three of the
biggest challenges facing an ageing
population: dementia, depression
and loneliness,” he said.
The Alzheimer’s Society is
supportive of the charity’s work.
The programme’s partnership
project manager, Emma Bould,
said: “Football clubs like Tottenham
are for many at the heart of our
communities, bringing people
together from all walks of life. While
these reminiscence sessions can’t
turn back dementia, they do turn
back the clock, helping people with
dementia stay connected – as old
sporting memories can.”Dissidents were
‘energised’ by
McKee murder,
says police chief
PA MediaDissident republicans have been ener-
gised by their murder of journalist
Lyra McKee, enjoying the publicity
the killing generated, a police com-
mander has claimed.
Assistant Chief Constable Bar-
bara Gray , the offi cer in charge of the
Police Service of Northern Ireland’s
anti- terror response, said the New IRA
derived “sick and sad” pleasure in the
reaction to the shooting, motivating
them to intensify their activities.
Gray expressed regret that the pub-
lic outcry following the murder of the
29-year-old, as she observed rioting in
Londonderry in April, did not act as awatershed for the dissidents to recon-
sider their adherence to violence.
She claimed the reverse has been
true, saying the killing in Derry’s Creg-
gan area was a factor in the recent spike
in dissident murder bids in the region.
“They enjoyed and were energised
by the coverage they got following the
murder of Lyra McKee – that actually
buoyed them,” she said.
“Certainly they weren’t reaching
towards any cessation of violence or
stepping back from what they did .”
She added: “ Overall I am absolutely
convinced that it actually energised
them in a very sick and sad way, it has
energised their eff orts I believe.”Gary Mabbutt
won the Uefa
Cup and the FA
Cup during his
Spurs career▲ Outrage at Lyra McKee’s murder is
said to have failed to stem violenceRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws