Great Giving Day

It's been a very exciting day for the network today as we launch the Sporting Memories charity's JustGiving account in time to start raising much needed funds to support the volunteers helping with projects across the UK. We don't have a media team, nor a fundraising one, just a determination to make every action and every penny count.

The charity and network are entirely self funded and we have a policy of not charging participants, ensuring all sporting memories activities offered are free to all attending. This means hours and hours are spent applying for grants to ensure local groups are established, but are also sustained.

We know the groups can have a real impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of older people, there are so many more aspects to the activity than purely reminiscing about favourite sporting moments. New friendships are formed, trips out get arranged and sports are rediscovered.

Gaining registered charitable status for Sporting Memories means a lot. Anyone who has pursued the path of registration will know the amazing feeling experienced when you finally get the stamp of approval. This will hopefully be the next BIG step forward in taking this work forward and helping to support older people living with dementia, depression & those who are isolated

The real excitement today was seeing the first of our runners taking part in this year's Great North Run, Jamie Weston, set up his justgiving page and immediately get a £10 donation! https://www.justgiving.com/JamieDoesGNR

Also running for Sporting Memories is Katie Mansfield whose Dad was a very keen athlete and keeping the sporting theme her Grandfather captained Leyton Orient in the 1930's (read more here)

Pictured above is Katie's Dad David Searle running a 400M sprint against his great friend Chris Chattaway in 1960. After his retirement David suffered a number of mini strokes and developed vascular dementia. He sadly passed away in 2010 at the age of 73 after contracting pneumonia.

You can sponsor Katie via her justgiving page here:  https://www.justgiving.com/Katie-Mansfield2

We will reveal more runners this week, all of whom have a special target they are aiming to raise funds for (more on that too)

running a 400m sprint against his friend, Chris Chattaway, in 1960 - See more at: http://www.sportingmemoriesnetwork.com/charity/fundraising/#sthash.WXBj3R9Z.dpuf

After he retired Dad suffered a series of mini strokes which eventually led to him developing vascular dementia quite young - he was only 73 when we lost him to pneumonia in 2010. He had lost the power of speech due to the vascular dementia, but always seemed happy, especially when we sat and read his Orient history book with him which had photos of my Granddad in. I wish Sporting Memories had been around when Dad was still with us - I really believe he would have enjoyed to sit with a trained volunteer and reminisce about his sporting history. - See more at: http://www.sportingmemoriesnetwork.com/charity/fundraising/#sthash.WXBj3R9Z.dpuf

After he retired Dad suffered a series of mini strokes which eventually led to him developing vascular dementia quite young - he was only 73 when we lost him to pneumonia in 2010. He had lost the power of speech due to the vascular dementia, but always seemed happy, especially when we sat and read his Orient history book with him which had photos of my Granddad in. I wish Sporting Memories had been around when Dad was still with us - I really believe he would have enjoyed to sit with a trained volunteer and reminisce about his sporting history. - See more at: http://www.sportingmemoriesnetwork.com/charity/fundraising/#sthash.WXBj3R9Z.dpuf

Training, TV & TT Times

Things beginning with T.

Training 

Training at Elland Road

I was always a little nervous and never fully looked forward to delivering training sessions. Will people turn up? Will they engage and react as we planned? Have we all the resources on hand? Will we actually get the correct messages across and will the learning we are trying to pass on be useful?

That has changed somewhat after having the pleasure of working alongside Charlie Murphy in developing and refining the training for the sporting memories projects across England and Scotland over the last five months. There's still the worries of have I brought everything along and will folk turn up of course, but gone are the nerves as to whether the sessions will engage and get people sharing thoughts and ideas. We've recently trained over ninety people in Leeds and last week we brought a group of those back together as part of the action learning model we are now using on projects. I have to confess to having butterflies once more before the session, as this was to explore how or indeed if, people were using the resources following training, what they thought of the training and what they would change.

The energy in the room was just fantastic and the feedback was truly uplifting. A favourite quote was that one delegate would have loved the session to have lasted at least another hour as they enjoyed the practical experiences on reminiscence so much fun. The project in Leeds is being evaluated by Dr Michael Clark of the Personal Social Services Research Unit, London School of Economics and I'm really looking forward to seeing how such a diverse range of people and services (from care homes to leisure centres) develop the use of the approach and what impact it has on those participating in the activities.

TT

We occasionally receive invites to attend sports events and in August we headed to Silverstone. Having met with and gained the support of the British Racing Drivers' Club in June, we headed South to the Classic Weekend meeting. On the first evening there was a wonderful dinner to celebrate 50 years since Jim Clark won the British GP for the first time. We were fortunate to be sat on a table with some of the great man's relatives, friends and fans. A chat with one gentleman who had travelled over from the Isle of Man just for the dinner as he had idolised Clark, led to an invite for us to go talk sporting memories on the island later in the year.

It was my first visit and I certainly hope not my last. What a beautiful place. Whilst much of our time was spent in meetings and presentations, our gracious host kicked off our second day on the island with a 37 and 3/4 mile tour of the TT course. How anyone can learn a course that long and that challenging is beyond me. With absolutely no margin for error, no 'run off' and a scary amount of solid walls and houses the current lap record is an average of over 130mph for the whole lap, just incredible. A spectacle I really must try to see one day. The memories recalled by many we met virtually all included one essential ingredient. Castrol R....

A spectacular drive to work on the mountain road!

TV

During my time working on national mental health programmes, I was involved in making several podcasts on various topics working closely with a film crew. Until this week however, I'd never appeared on the other side of the camera and on-screen. Heading across to take part in Estuary TV's weekly sports show 'On the Bench' I started to plan what I'd say and how I'd respond to various questions I'd anticipated.

They are a very professional and friendly crew at the station, after introductions and a briefing it was time for make-up (please make me look ten years younger....) and then into the studio and on to the couch with fellow guest Andy Carr and regular presenter Rachel Chadwick.

Rachel Chadwick, Andy Carr & me!

It was fascinating to see how autocue works and I was put totally at ease by all in the studio, so much so I probably ended up a bit too relaxed and for a rare moment completely forgot what on earth I was meant to be talking about... Thanks to some skilful editing most of the points I actually planned to cover were included! The main talking point was the launch of the Grimsby Town memories game, which is on Thursday 19th December, their home league match v Kidderminster Harriers. More info at: www.sportingmemoriesnetwork.com/memories-games

We are really looking forward to working with the club and community to raise awareness of dementia and to celebrate the history and heritage of The Mariners

12 months of collaboration across the twitter nation

Following on from my last musings of 21 years of nursing and perhaps inspired by the Department of Health's dementia roadshows in Newcastle and Leeds that we had the pleasure of presenting the Sporting Memories work at, a few thoughts on collaboration,  knowledge sharing and a celebration of 12 months of the Replay Websites

I believe it was no coincidence that all the ten minute presentations show casing excellence in developing dementia care across the North East & Yorkshire all included common themes: partnership working, knowledge sharing and collaboration. These encompass an approach and value I hold dear and one that we have built into the very heart of the work we are developing at the Sporting Memories Network 

A quick tot up of people who have attended training sessions for city wide or county wide projects, shows that in the last 9 months alone we have engaged with over one hundred organisations, whose staff and volunteers are now involved in promoting the mental and physical well-being of local older people, including those living with dementia and depression, through sports based reminiscence. This figure is set to double in the next couple of months as the new projects in Leeds & Bristol/South Gloucestershire come to life.

In addition to the involvement of health and social care providers and the 3rd sector, we've been blown away by the response by professional sports clubs, Premiership football clubs, Football League clubs, Super League, Cricket, Rugby Union, Motorsport bodies and individual sports men and women. Over 20 clubs/teams and sports bodies are now working with us, in addition to the 52 supporters listed on the website, over 400 stars, celebrities, journalists and writers have come together to share memories to support older fans. There is a real momentum gathering, reflected in the wonderful conversations we have been able to have with commissioners and senior public figures, who are recognising the multiple benefits of becoming involved in the network. Of course there are always challenges to overcome, it is perhaps natural given the financial climate we are living with, that not every organisation wishes to collaborate or create partnerships, competition for funding is becoming ever more dog eat dog. My own thoughts on this is that through collaborating and involving multiple organisations, the projects we are commissioned to plan and deliver become ever more sustainable if there are multiple stakeholders included and therefore wider community 'ownership' in the work. What also comes from the approach is an amazing exchange of innovative thinking and approaches, a platform to test new ideas and a brilliant opportunity to share success.

Away from the 'day job' of delivering the community projects, there has been a busy summer of sport with memorable victories at Wimbledon, the British and Irish Lions tour and The Ashes being amongst those put into the memory bank.  There are countless opportunities to continue conversations with sports fans about older people, well-being and dementia. One major event in July took place on the doorstep of our Scottish offices. The British Open saw golf fans arriving from across the UK and The World.

Whilst our 'on the ground' projects embrace more traditional approaches to collaboration, Twitter continues to offer another vibrant opportunity to connect with those who are determined to make a real difference. It will be 12 months tomorrow since we launched our suite of Replay sites to gather memories of sport. Thanks to the wonderful support of David Coulthard, John Inverdale and Sam Torrance, to name but 3 stars who helped launch the sites, over 2,000 submissions have been made since we switched them on on the first day of Wimbledon 2012. I'm constantly amazed by the generosity of people who offer articles, memories and to help promote the work, it really is truly humbling

Twitter has been central to raising awareness of the sites and network. Everyday the world of twitter has shown fantastic support, with people re-tweeting memories and news stories, helping us raise awareness of memories games or encouraging fans to add more stories. In one day alone, particularly through the efforts of all on Twitter, over 10 million impressions were made across social media of the Replay sites and memories, a statistic that I find simply astounding for a project with its roots firmly in dementia care.

Collaboration across the nation? Not arf.

Carry on Tweeting!
Tony

@Sportsmemnet

www.sportingmemoriesnetwork.com

21 years. Time to reflect

21 years ago this month I set out on a new career, training to be a psychiatric nurse. I'd not particularly bothered with school in my early years nor had school bothered with me, we agreed to mutually part company when I was 13, moving to 'home education' which mostly consisted of playing sports. Exams hadn't been on the agenda either, so I was fortunate that nursing allowed those without academic qualifications to sit the 'DC Test'. Knowing very little about healthcare and even less about psychiatry, my first placement on a ward was only the second time in my life I'd set foot in a hospital (the 1st occasion was a result of concussion from a playground collision whilst playing 'Bulldogs'). I'd somehow come to the conclusion before stepping out as a student nurse that I'd make a great CPN working in forensic services and was pleased to find out my first placement was to be on a busy working age 'acute' ward. Six weeks of working on the ward, it was time to head back to college, to prepare for the next placement. Older Peoples Mental Health, or, as one staff nurse put it, 'enjoy your 6 weeks of wiping wrinkly bums'. Oh joy, not only was I going to be nursing older people, but I'd been allocated a mixed ward, which was staffed by RGNs & RMNs, some beds were medical, some psychiatry. Nightmare.

First day on the ward & something happened that was to shape the rest of my career, I met a 'patient' (that was the term used back then) who had dementia. She was called Grace. Grace was a bit of a handful for the staff, forever wandering around the ward, asking repetitive questions, wanting to know when she was going home. As I was 'an extra pair of hands' on the ward, I was asked to spend a lot of time with Grace, which I did and the more I got to know her, the more fascinated I became. I was hooked.

Training flew past and soon I found myself applying for my first staff nurse post. Bingo, got a job on a dementia care ward, which was about to relocate from an old asylum hospital to one of the new 'CUE' units. Loved it, enjoyed it, experienced the move and six months later spotted an advert for a senior staff nurse post. Got it and dropped so lucky. Within two weeks of starting in post, a colleague had to drop out of a training course at Bradford University about 'Dementia Care Mapping' which was to be co-facilitated by someone called Professor Tom Kitwood. What a course, what a concept. What an inspiring man.

Armed with this new knowledge, my next post was managing a unit in a dementia care home. It remains one of my favourite times looking back. It was a small, 16 bed unit that pretty much relied on dishing out Thioridazine & Diazepam to keep the residents 'quiet & content' or chemically coshed. I was lucky enough to be able to recruit some great care assistants and a couple of new RMN's to replace the old team who chose to move on and we agreed on a vision to work towards. We opened doors to the beautiful rear garden, we ended the routine of night staff getting people up on a morning, meals were available when people were hungry & we all spent time talking, sitting or playing activities with the people living in the unit. Within three months we saw significant reductions in prescribing of medication and after six months we'd eradicated all psychotropic medication. None of it was rocket science.

Possibly the most surreal moment looking back was during my time as a clinical team manager, leading a unit that had an inpatient dementia care facility, day hospital and community teams based in the building. All our staff team on the inpatient unit were trained in dementia care mapping as part of their induction when joining the unit. As a result, we were visited by some of the team from Bradford, who were hosting a delegation from the Japanese government, who arrived accompanied by interpreters and a film crew from their own TV channel! The hilarity at lunch time when we served our guests giant Yorkshire Puddings filled with beef and gravy will live with me forever. It was certainly a dish none of them had encountered before.

Having enjoyed my time as a clinical lead, it was time to try my hand at a new challenge. As luck would have it, a few miles up the road, there was an advert for a project manager to work across 4 PCT's on something called the Dementia Services Collaborative. Improving dementia services by consulting with and working alongside people living with dementia, their carers and staff. What a job! After two years, our team were fortunate to receive a lovely award from the Alzheimer's Society recognising their work. I'd got a taste of how collecting and sharing knowledge could really influence and lead to positive change. A part time post came up working for the National Institute for Mental Health in England on the older people programme in Yorkshire & Humberside. It was just one day a week, meantime an amazing chance came up to join a local team to work on improving the physical environment of a CUE unit that was for men living with dementia. The unit team was to take part in the King's Fund Enhancing the Healing Environment programme and WOW, was that life changing. Led by Sarah Waller, the course was so inspiring. We were taught about the influence colour can have on mood, how good building design can influence care pathways and healing. We visited Tate Modern and had a half day with one of the curators. We were taught to sing, we were videoed, we met table top magicians and a jazz singer who entertained us over dinner one night revealed herself the following day in further learning sessions to be CEO of a PCT! At the end of the course, we had to present our idea for the unit to an audience including Sarah. The team were somewhat reluctant to speak so I hit on the idea of making an automated powerpoint presentation set to music. I'd stumbled into making a digital story without knowing what one was! Set to Underworld's Born Slippy, it seemed to strike a chord with those in the room and it was a real thrill to hear the programme subsequently used it at the launch of future programmes.

A chance opportunity to show the story to the national lead for OPMH led to a new role with NIMHE, which had by now become part of the Care Services Improvement Partnership. Another stroke of luck. Within a week of starting the post, a spare place was available on a course to become an accredited knowledge manager (KM). Using the learning and techniques of KM my geeky side took over and working with the national lead, I had an absolute ball in building a website to share good practice. I was lucky to meet and work alongside some truly inspiring and visionary people, one particular highlight being involved in the launch of the Let's Respect campaign. This was a brilliant learning resource for acute hospitals, covering the 3 D's of Dementia, Depression & Delirium. We hit on the idea of filming interviews with people talking about their experiences of living with these conditions and the Let's Respect series of podcasts were born. At the same time, a group of us began a piece of work which resulted in the first 'product' of the newly announced national dementia strategy. Being on the editorial board of Strengthening the Involvement of people with dementia and their carers was a real learning experience and something I really enjoyed.

One little ditty I enjoyed putting together to try to show how networks, KM and the web could be effective was this 4 minute digital story 

Later Life Networks from Evolution Networking on Vimeo.

When the National Mental Health Development Unit was born, an opportunity appeared to work across all their programmes as knowledge and online lead. Geekdom, mental health, service improvement & a chance to work with a team of people absolutely driven by a determination to make things happen. Two years passed so quickly, in the final six months another chance to join an editorial board, Let's Respect for care homes was published.

My techy geeky side began to come out more and when the unit was closed, an opportunity to work with some great people led to an Australian adventure. Sadly my geekiness meant I only ever visited the country virtually, whilst working with the government in Western Australia on their vision for mental health. Keeping my hand in with dementia care, I'd joined forces with a number of folk who had an interest in the use of Life Stories & following the first national conference, co-founded the Life Story Network. After successfully delivering a government backed training programme on the use of life story to 500 people across England, I stepped down as a director to pursue other interests.

One of those interests included using some of my learning to write my first ever chapter in a publication. I was proud to be asked by Hari Sewell to share some of my thoughts on the use of technology and knowledge management in his book; The Equality ACT 2010 in Mental Health: A Guide to Implementation and Issues for Practice http://www.amazon.co.uk/Equality-2010-Mental-Health-Implementation/dp/1849052840

Thanks to those 6 weeks of 'wiping wrinkly bums' I've had the most amazing journey in a career I've loved. Hopefully that journey will continue to be as enjoyable

www.sportingmemoriesnetwork.com


Tony
Director
Sporting Memories Network CIC

Sporting Memories 2012 - Establishing a social enterprise

The Sporting Memories Network is a social enterprise registered in England, Wales & Scotland, established to promote and develop the use of sporting memories to improve the well-being of older people through conversation and reminiscence.

As 2012 draws to a close, it's only natural to look back at the highs & lows of the last 12 months, these are some of my own reflections on our 1st calendar year of operation.

January starts brightly, March ends with a thud.

Having toasted the successful registration of the Sporting Memories Network Community Interest Company over a dram or two at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Edinburgh in November 2011, our first year has been absolutely jam packed with all the emotions that come with trying to build a social enterprise and network from nothing.

The year started optimistically. As we embarked on the mammoth task of writing a training manual and establishing and gathering all the resources needed for the network to thrive, we were also being assessed for our suitability for a major national grant that would see us test out sporting reminiscence across 3 regions and several different community settings in England in what would be a flag ship project. Having made it to the final 80 of over 1500 bids that had been submitted to the grant fund, we waited to hear the results of the 4 hour long assessment and interview that was carried out by an external consultancy specialising in measuring the capability, skill set and our capacity to deliver large scale projects.

A copy of the assessment report that would be included in the dossier given to the final funding panel arrived in our inbox. 14 green lights out of 14. The only recommendation from the assessment being we build in some time with our expert advisors during the project to ensure we don’t miss any further opportunities! The most pleasing score in the whole document was being awarded a massive 95% on the project being able to be sustained beyond the lifetime of the initial project. It felt like a real endorsement and reassurance that our vision could be achieved, that the combination of our experience and skills, along with our business model and eye for detail could deliver a meaningful enterprise that was worthwhile and the provided a positive service to communities. Whilst we ploughed on creating the resources required to achieve our vision of embedding the use of sports reminiscence across the UK, we always had an ear out for the phone, waiting to hear of the final decision.

We know the positive impact sports reminiscence has for participants who have dementia, the chance to demonstrate this across communities was an exciting prospect. Talk about waiting for the bell.

Finally the call came through, the judges were impressed with our bid, with the reports on our skills and capacity and……had decided to fund other projects, not the network’s.

Our hearts sank with a very loud thud. What a hammer blow. No matter how much we had steeled ourselves for disappointment, nothing really prepared us for this set back. Sure we had done well as a new social enterprise to get that far against many long established national organisations and the feedback and assessment confirmed our model and plan was a solid and achievable approach, but whichever way we looked at it, this was a major setback on our journey to achieving our vision and goals.

Ouch.

Without any significant start up capital available, achieving our goals for the first year was going to be a tougher challenge than we had already prepared for.

To be continued....

Tony Jameson-Allen 

The Football Memories Game - Raising Awareness of Dementia

15th September 2012  Huddersfield Town v Derby County npower Championship

An exchange on twitter with Sean Jarvis, Commercial Director of newly promoted npower Championship side Huddersfield Town led to an initial meet with the West Yorkshire club to explore how we might join forces to raise awareness of dementia at one of their forthcoming home games.

Having recently launched the Huddersfield Town Foundation, which is aiming to serve up 200,000 meals to local school breakfast clubs, the club looked to support their fans at the other end of the age spectrum and a plan came together.

With a huge amount of time and energy from all at the club, promotion for the football memories game was launched. Former Town players supplied memories for media articles, plans for the match were covered by local and regional newspapers and fans quickly engaged in pre match chatter on Twitter. Along with bringing their favourite football memories along to pin on the Memory Board, fans were asked to come to the game in their all time favourite Huddersfield Town shirt. Many a dilemma was discussed on twitter, leading to a few to discover that through the passage of time, favoured shirts had either been shrunk in the wash or (possibly more likely) waist lines had expanded a touch! 

Fans were also asked ahead of the game to vote on the picture for the front cover of the match-day programme ‘Give us an H’. Town legend Andy Booth was the overwhelming choice and we had the honour of being greeted by the man himself on our arrival at the ground.

A surprise was in store immediately as one of our guests for the day, Roger Jones of Age UK, presented us with a football signed by 3 of England’s World Cup winners of 1966- Nobby Stiles, George Cohen and a player who started his career at Huddersfield Town, Ray Wilson. Wilson was signed by Bill Shankly in the 1950’s when he turned professional and went on to have a tremendous career, as of course did Shankly!

We were also joined at the game by Shaun Campbell, the driving force behind the Arthur Wharton foundation. Arthur was the world’s first black professional footballer and also the first holder of the world record for the 100-yard sprint. Shaun and the foundation have been energetic supporters of the work of the SMN and we share many common aims and goals as organisations.

SMN directors Chris Wilkins and Michael White were then called to the stage in the impressive hospitality suite by former player Trevor Cherry who presented the pair with a HTAFC shirt signed by all the players, whilst I had the chance for chats with the chairman Dean Hoyle, Commercial Director Sean Jarvis, reminisced about Neil Warnock with Town legend Andy Booth and had a lovely chat with Look North presenter and all round sports fan Harry Gration.

The theme of each feature in the match-day programme was football memories. Town manager Simon Grayson and club chairman Dean Hoyle shared their top football moments in their programme notes. New signing James Vaughan was the focus for the in-depth player interview. James shared several standout moments of his career and reminisced about his childhood and youth.

Also contained in the programme were facts and figures about dementia, including practical advice on what to do if fans were concerned about their own memory or that of a loved one, along with signposts to organisations providing help and advice.

Bright sunshine bathed the John Smith’s Stadium and as fans began to arrive, the gusty West Yorkshire wind proved something of a challenge for the club staff and volunteers from the game’s co-sponsors Sporting Memories Network, Meridian Healthcare and BUPA as the Gazebo erected by the ticket office threatened to take off into the bright blue yonder.

Along with a memory board for fans to pin their favourite memories to, there were old games to play such as hopscotch and a very popular old style sweet stall which was doing a roaring trade in supplying fans, all for a donation to Town’s nominated charity.

A lovely touch came from a Derby County fan who arrived at the Gazebo with 5 of his all time favourite football shirts to add to the display, one being his prized Robbie Savage number 8 shirt.

2:50pm and guests and directors from the Sporting Memories Network were invited to join the other sponsors in the semi-circle to welcome the teams out on to the pitch. Within 60 seconds of the kick off, Town scored, the stadium erupted and the seeds of another home win and 3 points had been sown. 

Half-time saw a selection of fans lined up on the centre circle in a bright array of favourite old shirts, whilst guest of honour, current Yorkshire County Cricket captain, Andrew Gale, who is a big Town fan did the honours drawing the lottery numbers. Andy Booth had his memory tested in a Huddersfield Town history quiz too.

90 minutes and Town had secured 3 points. 

Back to the hospitality suite to be regaled with footballing memories by former England striker Frank Worthington. A terrific description of ‘The greatest goal that was ever scored’ was followed by a number of other fond memories of his time at Huddersfield and beyond.

One last surprise was in store as I was invited up on stage to present the Man of the Match champagne to the on loan signing and former Liverpool FC academy player Adam Hammill. Despite being put on the spot with a brief interview, it was easy to answer why the SMN had got involved with Huddersfield Town. 

Huddersfield Town is a club building a great relationship within their local community through the vision and drive of their directors and staff. 

It was an honour to have worked with Town on a game that was dedicated to raising awareness of dementia and to team up with them for the first football memories match in England. 

Thanks to Sue, Robyn, Jamie, Sean and all the team at the John Smith’s stadium.

Tony Jameson-Allen

Founding Director

Sporting Memories Network

Read all the HTAFC memories from fans and players here

Lest We Forget 3

I spent a very pleasant evening at the Arthaus Gallery in Richmond, North Yorkshire last night.

Attending the launch of artist Mackenzie Thorpe's latest work, Lest We Forget, this  stunning new picture is to tour the country before being auctioned at the Royal British Legion's Poppy Ball on November 9th in London. All proceeds from the auction will go to the legion. There is a limited edition print of the picture too, with just 550 available. Full details are on www.mackenziethorpe.net

The evening was a superb experience, with Mackenzie delivering a passionate, heartfelt and truly moving talk about the background to Lest We Forget. He also gave everyone present an amazing insight into other new pieces and sculptures, describing the materials used and the intricate techniques he employs. If you ever have the chance to hear Mackenzie speak at an event, get yourself along and find out what that goldfish in the jar that appears in many of his pieces of work represents.

Mackenzie's signature in our guide

Mackenzie and wife Susan are supporters of the Sporting Memories Network and have lent 4 pictures from The Game of Life collection for our football memories work. When Grandad was a Lad is on the first page of our new training guide, which I was astounded to find was out on display in the gallery. Wendy Bowker, manager of the gallery, had not only kindly arranged for Mackenzie to sign the guide but also acted as stand in photographer during an incredibly busy night for all involved, capturing this lovely picture below.

Susan and Mackenzie Thorpe, me, Amanda Jameson-Allen, Shaun and Fiona Campbell

Also in attendance (pictured above) were Shaun and Fiona Campbell, Shaun being another network supporter, who is the energy and inspiration behind the Arthur Wharton Foundation. Arthur was the world's first black professional footballer, the first holder of the world record for the 100 yard sprint, a British cycling champion, professional cricketer and played both codes of rugby. Shaun is determined that this remarkable sportsman is not forgotten and a statue in Arthur's honour is to be unveiled.

Lest We Forget