Cricket fans living with dementia can get free tickets to watch a County Championship match at Kia Oval this weekend.
People living with dementia and their families are invited to watch Day One of the fixture between Surrey County Cricket Club and Kent County Cricket Club on Sunday, June 26.
Afzal Shaikh, 86, from Mole Valley in Surrey, is an avid cricket fan living with dementia and will be there with his wife Zohra and family.
Zohra said: “Afzal was a keen cricketer during university in Pakistan while studying medicine. He has been playing cricket here since 1963 and kept going until he turned 70.
“He helped form a cricket team with other medics and NHS staff when he was working at hospitals in Peterborough. They called themselves the Grim Reapers.
“He sought a diagnosis because he was having problems remembering which patients he had seen each day at work. For instance, seeing patients in the morning and ringing them up in the afternoon.”
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“My husband was later diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2014. We have a local cricket club behind our house and pre-Covid, we were both scorers for them, although his attention span wasn’t up to scoring the entire match so he would sit there for long periods while I did it. The sport has been a lifeline passion of his.
“I cannot remember when my husband last went to a sports stadium, probably 30 years ago as going out is very difficult. We are very excited to be at the match.”
Along with Alzheimer’s Society, Surrey County Cricket Club is hoping to make the sport more accessible to people with dementia as part of the Sport United Against Dementia (SUAD) campaign.
Richard Thompson, Chairman of both Alzheimer’s Society’s SUAD and Surrey County Cricket Club, knows first-hand the impact dementia can have on a loved one. He said: “Dementia is the UK’s biggest killer. The impact on families is devastating.
“What we are trying to do with this day is to open our doors to families living with dementia, offering them a supportive environment, thereby allowing people to once more enjoy a day at the cricket.”
In the UK, 900,000 people live with dementia, enough to fill the Oval 22 times. In London alone, 79,000 people have the condition.
Alzheimer’s society, a charity founded in 1979, supports people living with dementia and their families through expert advice, support services, and lobbying the government on issues like social care.
Those affected by dementia can get free tickets by emailing: tpeters@surreycricket.com
Show support for the cause by wearing a ‘Forget Me Not’ badge: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/forget-me-not-appeal