Former Arsenal and England defender Martin Keown has taken part in a charity walk around the outfield at Lord's to raise money for Alzheimer's Society.
Keown joined nearly 100 other people in walking a century of laps at the historic London cricket ground, covering a distance of more than 31 miles.
The cause is deeply personal for the former footballer. Keown's mother, Angela, has lived with Alzheimer's disease for more than 20 years and currently resides in a care home. The impact of her diagnosis was so significant that Keown passed up an opportunity to join the coaching staff under former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger at the end of his playing career, choosing instead to help his father care for her.
Accompanied by his wife, Nicola, Keown spoke during the walk about his own fears regarding the disease. After a 21-year professional career, he is acutely aware of the established links between heading a football and the later onset of dementia, having experienced dizziness and double vision towards the end of his playing days after heading a ball travelling at speed.
"The game you love has kind of taken away vital time ahead of me to spend with my loved ones," Keown said. "It's like a paradox, isn't it? But I made those choices. I didn't know the outcome that playing football would be so problematic. But I don't regret it."
Raising awareness of a growing crisis
Keown stressed that the risk of dementia extends far beyond the football pitch. In the United Kingdom, Alzheimer's disease and dementia are the leading causes of death, accounting for nearly 77,000 fatalities every year without a known cure. One in three people born in the UK will develop dementia during their lifetime, while one third of those living with the condition currently do so without a formal diagnosis.
"We need to create an awareness of what's happening with dementia and Alzheimer's," Keown said. "How poorly it's funded and how, if you have a loved one in this terrible plight, how you get some help on this journey. Because it's a very difficult journey."
He also dispelled the misconception that dementia only affects the elderly. "It's not just something you get when you're old, let's be clear about that," he said. "When I go to visit my mum, I see quite young people. I wonder is it a carer or a patient and, invariably, it's a patient."
The toll on family carers
A major focus of Keown's advocacy is the heavy burden placed on family members who become primary carers. He shared the story of his father, a former manager who completely retrained himself to take care of his wife at home.
"My dad said it was the biggest fight of his life to keep my mum at home. It really was," Keown said. "He learned to cook. He learned to sew. This was a guy that was in management and he just completely retrained himself. It was unbelievable."
Keown highlighted the difficult decisions families face, recalling his own dilemma when leaving professional football. "Who is caring for the carer? My father said 'Look, we supported you for 22 years as a player'. I had a real dilemma but I needed to commit to my family," he said. "The most amount of care is coming from a loved one and you cannot put a price on that."
The progression of the disease brought dangerous daily challenges for Keown's parents. "My mum, believe it or not, could still iron," he said. "She was one of the quickest ironers. She could still remember. She didn't want that taken away but then she'd leave the iron on and would burn herself. It was becoming dangerous but she could still remember. You hear of people with dementia still being able to play piano."
Keown described the solemn reality of watching a loved one decline, noting the cruelty of seeing people work their entire lives for a retirement they cannot enjoy.
"When you've got a loved one, you just get drowned in it all," he said. "It becomes so solemn and you wonder what's life for, what you're battling for. You see someone work their whole life for their retirement and the minute they get there, they're just looking out of the window like a mannequin."
Despite the difficult reality, Keown insisted that it must serve as motivation to help others. "It can demotivate you but we need to make sure that doesn't happen to other people," he said. "That's where the motivation has to be, doesn't it? All of this walking takes us a step closer to finding a cure."
