Mick Lyons’ daughter has opened up on the impact of his dementia that leaves the Everton legend able to recall details about his playing career from several decades ago but sometimes causes him to forget where he’s been earlier that day. The Scouser, now 70, was a home-grown hero for Everton, playing 473 games (sixth on the all-time list) and scoring 59 goals for his beloved Blues between 1971-82, but has lived in Perth, Australia, for many years.
It was on one of her visits to see her father ‘Down Under’ that his daughter Francesca, who is still in Liverpool, started to pick up on the issues that would ultimately lead to Lyons’ diagnosis. She told the ECHO: “He was getting more forgetful and a few of his friends were getting in touch to say that they were a bit worried. I went over in Christmas 2019 to see him and I noticed a few things.
“My dad is a proud man and it’s difficult to have these type of conversations but I started speaking to him about maybe looking into it. Everything became more difficult after that because Covid happened, I couldn’t get to see him and noticed he seemed to be getting a little bit worse with stuff so I got in touch with his doctor over there, sent him an email and explained he was a professional footballer and it’s becoming quite common now for them to be having these type of issues.
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“It was a long process and due to the pandemic it was even longer but eventually he got the diagnosis around October last year. They diagnosed him with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and brain damage from ‘multiple impacts’, the repeated heading of a football, was actually written into the professor’s report.”
Only now, over seven months on from her fears being confirmed, does Francesca finally feel ready to speak about her father’s condition. She said: “It was a struggle. I can say those words to you just about but I couldn’t actually say the words for a long time. Having to tell people, I struggled to say it.
“Even though we suspected what was going on, just getting the diagnosis was so hard. I’ve never had any experience of dementia and I didn’t know anything about it so I got in touch with Dawn, the daughter of Jeff Astle (the former West Bromwich Albion centre-forward who died in 2002 aged 59 with a verdict of ‘Death by industrial injury’ recorded due to a degenerative brain disease caused by heading the ball) and she’s been really good.
“I did look at trying to bring him home but the dementia people who work alongside the PFA advised against it as they believed it was best for dad to stay in his own environment and any disruption could make things worse. I just want to go over there and take care of him.”
While Francesca visits her father when she can, and is pleased to report that physically he is still in good shape, the 9,000-mile distance between them causes obvious concern. She said: “He’s still very fit, he normally goes for a bike ride with his friend every day and they’ll cycle down to the beach which takes a couple of hours all together so he’s probably a lot fitter than me to tell the truth!
“His knees are bad and he struggles with them but when you look at him, he’s still a big, strong, fit man. He’s aware of his condition as well so it can get to him. He can have days when he’s feeling down and it’s all quite confusing for him.
“You don’t know how long you’ve got so you realise how precious time is. I went over to see him last month which was lovely but I noticed a big change from the previous time I’d seen him.
“My brother Michael is out there helping him but with his job he’s not there all the time and my Dad can be on his own for a week at a time. He has all his medications, his tablets and at times he can’t remember whether he’s taken them.
“It’s funny how it works and how it affects the way his brain is with short-term memory. He can remember little details from things that happened way back in his playing career and stuff like that but when I was over there, we could go somewhere in the morning and then the same afternoon, he wouldn’t remember that we’d been there.”
Lyons was a true warrior on the pitch and Ivan Ponting writes of him in his book Everton Player by Player : “If a footballer’s worth was measured solely by his passion for the game and his devotion to one club (he would also play for Sheffield Wednesday and Grimsby Town), then Mick Lyons would be in a class of his own… his most effective station on the field of battle was the last ditch, where his courage and strength, resourcefulness and capacity for toil were priceless assets.” Francesca acknowledges that such qualities from her father ensure he probably wouldn’t have it any other way but it’s as a legacy of such sacrifices that his family are now facing their own fight.
She said: “These types of diagnosis seem to be happening more and more with retired footballers. Obviously there’s more awareness of the issue and more protection in place with ‘if in doubt – sit them out’ in terms of concussion and regular checks, which I would hope they’re actually doing.
“I think the game has changed. It’s not as physical now and the Jeff Astle Foundation has campaigned a lot to stop heading the ball in training. Back in my dad’s day, they’d play head tennis in training.
“If you look at pictures from when my dad was playing, he’d be injured but playing on with the blood pouring down his face. He’d also play with broken ribs and go back on, stuff like that. They’d give him the injection and throw him back on the pitch.
“He was that type of player though, very physical. He always wanted to get stuck in and he’d tell you that he wouldn’t want to change anything from the career he had but it’s devastating for the family around him.
“That’s what they say about this illness, the way it affects the loved ones around them. I don’t think that it will stop with my dad’s generation though and I think more could be getting done as it’s just so common now. Obviously I’m aware about my dad but we’re hearing about it all the time now.”
