At the launch of Head Safe Football, Hayley McQueen speaks about how she hopes donating her father Gordon’s brain to medical research, following the football legend’s death earlier this year, will help to provide the evidence to make football a safer sport and to enable families to access the help and support they need.
The family of the late football legend Gordon McQueen have spoken of how they hope his death from football-related dementia – and possible CTE – will help to change the future for others.
Former Manchester United, Leeds United and Scotland footballer McQueen passed away in June, following a battle with vascular dementia which saw him decline rapidly in the latter stages.
His family have donated his brain to research, with eminent neuropathologist Dr Willie Stewart currently carrying out tests to establish whether the much-loved defender actually had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) – a neurodegenerative disease linked to the cumulative effect of head impacts.
His daughter Hayley McQueen, a well-known broadcaster and SkySports presenter, spoke of her family’s desire to help change the future at the launch of Head Safe Football – a charity committed to eliminating CTE from football through education and awareness to bring about necessary change.
“It’s now about how we can help others. We have donated dad’s brain to medical research, because we need that evidence, that proof, to help change things,” said Hayley.
“We believe dad’s vascular dementia was from some form of brain damage, so for us to have the evidence of that for our family is really important – but also to provide that evidence for others, and the help and care they need. We need the science to back it up.
“I find it very hard to talk about my dad, but I only hope we can help other daughters, sons and partners.
“Attitudes have to change. I want my dad’s legacy to be that of education on the dangers of heading the ball, particularly with youngsters.
“I have a three-year-old daughter who loves playing football in our back garden, and I want to make people of her generation aware of the risks.”
Evidence continues to irrefutably link CTE with impact sport – the latest study, the largest to date involving 631 deceased sports players, revealed their chances of developing CTE were linked to both how many head impacts they received and how hard the head impacts were.
Further research highlights how CTE can take root at a young age, with a sample of 152 young athletes exposed to repetitive head impacts aged under 30 at the time of death showing that 41.4 per cent had neuropathological evidence of CTE.
Head Safe Football is founded by Dr Judith Gates, previously a co-founder of Head for Change, whose husband and former Middlesbrough defender Bill lives with probable CTE – probable because CTE can currently only be formally diagnosed after death.
Through its Football United vs CTE campaign, it is committed to raising awareness of CTE, and the charity’s logo was inspired by the fact that neurological disease in football is often viewed as being the ‘elephant in the room’ – an inflatable elephant was also present at the charity’s launch.
The barriers in tackling and acknowledging CTE are something the charity is determined to breaking down, to ensure a safer playing environment for everyone involved at all levels and ages of the game.
Launching the charity in the back streets of Ferryhill, where Bill first found his love of football through kickabouts with friends as a young boy, Dr Gates spoke of her determination to change the future.
“While football is a sport enjoyed by billions of fans around the world, played by millions of children and adults at all levels of the game, the risks that these players – and the players they idolise in professional football – are being exposed to remain woefully understood. And this is putting lives at risk, there is no two ways about it,” says Dr Gates.
“Through Head Safe Football, we want to make positive and lasting change, to protect everyone at all levels of the game we all love. This is a topic that many don’t want to talk about – but the reality is that we absolutely must, and we must take action.
“For families like mine, it is too late and we are forced to live with the heartbreaking reality of CTE every day. But for current and future generations, together we can ensure we tackle the elephant in the room and eliminate this cruel brain disease from football.
“Football United vs CTE brings together the whole of football – all ages, genders, levels of ability, absolutely everyone – to create a safer sport for us all.
“Our ambition is to collectively create a world where stakeholders in football acknowledge the elephant in the room and the irrefutable scientific evidence, and make the necessary change that will protect our idols and our loved ones from CTE.”
