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The devastated wife of a former professional footballer who is battling Alzheimer’s believes he may have developed the disease after repeatedly heading a ball.
Former Norwich City captain Duncan Forbes, 72, who was known for his tough tackling was diagnosed with the condition in 2007.
His wife Janette, 68, was recently forced to put him into residential care because she was no longer able to look after him at their home in Thorpe St Andrew near Norwich, Norfolk.
Duncan Forbes in his Norwich City heyday: His wife believes that repeatedly heading the ball has lead to his Alzheimer's disease diagnosis
She now believed that heading the ball during his 23-year playing career as a central defender contributed to his Alzheimer’s.
Mrs Forbes said: 'I do not think heading footballs helped. He used to head medicine balls in training because if you could head one of those, you could head a football further - that is like being punched.
Janette Forbes faced the devastating decision of moving her husband Duncan to a care home earlier this month
Heading the ball: Duncan Forbes has moved into a Norwich care home
'Duncan had been playing since he was a kid and I don’t think he played with the really heavy leather balls with laces, but they were heavier than the ones they play with today.
'The authorities would never admit it because it would open the floodgates, but I think there are a lot of ex professional players with Alzheimer’s.'
Forbes was born in Edinburgh, started his career at Colchester United and played for Norwich City for 13 years, making 295 appearances and scoring ten goals between 1968 and 1981.
The father-of-two and grandfather of five was then a member of the club’s commercial staff for seven years and chief scout for another 13 years until he retired in 2001.
Mrs Forbes said he started showing signs of the disease eight-years-ago when he became forgetful although his doctor said at first it simply down to him getting older.
She realised something was seriously wrong when he could not remember who Norwich City had played two days earlier six-years-ago.
Mrs Forbes said: 'It was a Monday morning and Norwich had played on the Saturday. I can’t remember if it was at home or away and Duncan did not know they had played.
'When he was young he would read the four divisions scores and he could tell anyone the scores after reading them once. This time he did not know that Norwich had played at all.'
Mrs Forbes said she did not immediately tell friends about her husband’s condition because of the stigma surrounding dementia, and also told how she initially found it difficult to get the help and support she needed.
She said: 'There was no back-up and I felt I had been cast adrift in a sea and I found that I had to find things out for myself.
Norwich City and Scottish football legend Duncan Forbes
'At first I struggled along and when we met people in the city, I prompted him about football, but eventually I had to tell people about the Alzheimer’s. Because of the stigma surrounding dementia, I did not tell people to start with, but it is not his fault.
'Duncan did not realise what Alzheimer’s was. Even if we saw a programme on television about it, he did not relate that it was the same thing he was going through.
'The last three years got really bad and we started doing less and less.'
She added: 'Up until five years ago we went on holiday to see our son in Spain and we stopped going to Scotland 18 months ago because we had a problem on the plane and he wanted to get off before the plane stopped.
'I stopped taking him to the football about two years ago because it was difficult and at half time he thought it was finished. He sometimes watches the games and he can still kick a ball about, but cannot turn around when the ball goes behind him.'
This week, in a bid to help others in her situation, Mrs Forbes opened a new Age UK shop and advice centre in Norwich.
She hopes that it will encourage dementia sufferers and their carers to receive more support, but says that the decision to put her husband in a care home ten days ago was extremely difficult.
She said: 'Some days he is better, but he has gone downhill since last Christmas.
'I think he knows who I am, but I do not know if he knows who his sons are.'
She added: 'He cannot hold a conversation. In the care home he still goes up to people and shakes people’s hands and is still friendly and he was always a people person. There is still a little bit there.
'He was not a smoker and was not a big drinker and kept himself fit and healthy. If someone like him can get Alzheimer’s it could happen to anyone.'
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