Rotherham United: How club legend John Breckin hopes to inspire dementia sufferers and others with launch of the Millers Memory Club

The Rotherham United legend and honorary life president is involved heavily – alongside his other duties supporting the club and town that he loves – with the Millers Memory Club, an initiative to help ex-footballers suffering from dementia.

Breckin, 68, a tenacious and dependable full-back during an exemplary playing career with his hometown side in the 70s and early 80s, does not suffer from the neurological disorder. Several of his former team-mates do and the numbers are, sadly, growing.

A study earlier this year revealed that professional footballers are up to five times more likely to develop dementia throughout their lifetime than the general public, owing to the repeated heading of footballs – with the art of heading playing a big part in the game in the 60s, 70s and 80s in particular.

Summing up the worrying situation, Breckin said: “Ex-players who have not got it also come to our meetings... To be honest, when we come and get chatting, we think: ‘Who’s next?’

“You hear about the Jack and Bobby Charltons and Jeff Astles and all of the [famous] players come to the forefront [with dementia].

“We lost Rodney Fern – a great player, friend and team-mate – and that hit us really hurt. Then Trevor [Womble] was diagnosed and then there’s Dave Cusack, whose brother brings him to the meetings.

“Jimmy Goodfellow and John Haselden passed away with it and now Dave Watson has come forward with it. There’s Neil Hague and there’s more and more.

“Out of that Rotherham side who played in the first League Cup final in 1961, Lol Morgan has had it for a long time and Roy Lambert has it and has been in a nursing home for years.

“Only six are still alive from the side and three have dementia and more and more ex-players are suffering from it and I am sure every club is like that.”

Yorkshire has a proud tradition of helping people in times of need and that can be seen at Rotherham, with the plight of a number of former players suffering with dementia prompting Breckin and others to offer help.

It started off with Zoom calls during lockdown allowing former players to reminisce and has now extended to monthly ‘Memory Club’ meetings at the AESSEAL New York Stadium.

The football club and local businesses have also rallied around and, in Rotherham, they look after their own.

“The chairman and the club have been brilliant,” Breckin said.

“We are a family and have been in the trenches and have won and lost together.

“If we can just give that bit back.

“That’s what we are about at Rotherham.

“We have a great facility. The response we have had is great.

“We want more players to come forward. It has been a bit of a stigma [for some].

“We get people to come down and talk to the families and we are there for them as well – the wives and the partners.

“In the new year, we will play a few games such as snakes and ladders and have lucky bags and go back in time with football books and programmes.

“The ex-players can take them with them and bring them back and it is just reminiscing.

“It is two or three hours and it’s amazing how they talk, laugh and reminisce.

“If an older player cannot afford to get down, we get a taxi and help with things like that and put a buffet on every now and again.

“We do it once a month for starters and let’s see where it takes us.

“All the other clubs must be the same. I’d like to see players from other clubs and they can meet up at our facility at the New York Stadium and we are lucky.”

Professional Footballers Association representative Paul Raven – a former player with Doncaster Rovers and Rotherham – has helped with funds and Breckin is hopeful that the Millers’ pioneering venture will inspire other clubs across the country to organise similar meetings to provide invaluable support for a group of former players and their families who are struggling.

The problem is particularly acute among former lower-division footballers, whose names are less well known than the Charltons and Astles of this world.

Breckin commented: “It is okay saying ‘well, they are footballers, they have got money’. But these lads didn’t and have all had to have careers after football.

“In those days, they were not on fortunes and they were just working-class lads who came out of pits, factories and industry.

“I remember we used to go into the gym and have an hour on heading. Just against the wall and it was technique, technique and you wanted to improve your game as there is a technique in heading.

“I don’t think anyone of us would change anything; Dave Watson said that. But it is just bringing it home with a few now suffering and these lower-league lads are needing help.

“As they have not earned the big money.

“At Rotherham, we are the first people to do this [Memory Club initiative] and players can come to us and we can pass them on to the people we know, like in the PFA.

“We are the first contact in this area and, if every other club starts doing what we have, we can all get together.”