Alix Popham ‘We knew our bodies would be in bits. We had no clue our brains were'
about 5 years in The guardian
The former Wales back-rower was diagnosed with early onset dementia this year aged 40 and is frustrated the game he still loves – despite what it has done to him – has not been made safer
Alix Popham calls it D-day. “We were in the middle of bloody lockdown, couldn’t go anywhere, couldn’t see anybody.” So he was at home with his wife, Mel. And the phone rang. “They told us to sit down and then they said: ‘Sorry, it’s not good news.’”
At the age of 40, Popham had been diagnosed with early onset dementia and probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (“probable” because the diagnosis can be confirmed only by a post-mortem). He was surprised to find he felt relieved “because I wasn’t going mad. It wasn’t all in my head. I wasn’t making things up.” Later he felt anger, too, anger that the game he loves, and had given his life to, had, it seems, led to this. Continue reading...
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