Liverpool legends John Barnes and John Aldridge were in attendance as the club launched a first of its kind app to support people living with dementia.
Liverpool FC Memories allows fans to explore a digital scrapbook of the club’s illustrious history through a package which aims to help spark conversations between people living with dementia and their loved ones.
The resource was launched in collaboration with Forever Reds, the LFC Foundation and the National Museum’s House of Memories Programme, with club icons Barnes, Aldridge and Becky Easton involved in the creation process.
Speaking about the launch of the app, Barnes said: “It’s very important, because football has got a high profile and a long reach.
“Dementia in boxing and other sports will probably be more prevalent, but football is the medium everybody understands, so for Liverpool to be the first club to have something like LFC Memories is fantastic.
“The people who are helped by this scheme aren’t just former players, they’re normal members of the community who live across the road in some of the care homes, so it’s from the point of view of corporate social responsibility that the club give back to the community because they’ve given so much to us.”
The interactive app features pictures, videos and audio of famous European nights, Anfield traditions, historic moments in the club’s history and more.
Aldridge, chair of the Forever Reds former players’ association, has visited care homes to meet those suffering with dementia. He said: “It was very heartening. One of the people who was being cared for saw me and started singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone!’ That was really nice for everyone concerned, and they love the app as well.
“It’s very close to home. We have some proper legends who have problems with it (dementia) now that we look after, and whatever we can do with the club to help we will do.”
Former Liverpool Women’s player Easton worked alongside Barnes to decide which memories should feature in the app and spoke about the process of bringing it together.
She said: “When me and John got asked to be involved it was a no brainer. My nanny Joan has got dementia, so I thought we can do things to help people like her.
“The table was just full of memorabilia and programmes, and we spoke about which were the most important and popular memories.
“I hope it helps the carers. From experience with my nan, it’s quite hard to take her off granddad’s hands and do things.
“I’ve done it before with music with Elvis Presley or The Beatles songs and that has helped calm her down for an hour and made her happy. She still remembers all the words!”
Alongside Forever Reds, we've launched a collection of LFC memories with @NML_Muse on the House of Memories app 🙌
It's designed to spark conversation between people living with dementia and their loved ones from across the globe 📷
Read more: https://t.co/bOkunXgic2 pic.twitter.com/xcC7HR7Mp1
— LFC Foundation (@LFCFoundation) December 7, 2023
The original My House of Memories app has been running for several years and Carol Rogers, the programme’s director, hopes that by collaborating with Liverpool and using football to spark memories, more awareness will be raised about the illness.
She said: “We began talking to the LFC Foundation before COVID. We approached them to say we’d love to do something with your fanbase and your museum archive to create a dementia-friendly resource for the foundation and most importantly for the wide network of people who are passionate about Liverpool FC and football in general.
“What we see when people use the app is it connects people together in a moment that might not have happened without a prompt around football or music or the city you live in. I wanted to start with one of our two great clubs and to start with Liverpool is an absolute privilege.
“We hope it’s the beginning of a movement of positive conversations about dementia within the football community. We see it as a first step to recognise as a society we can do more to help people living with dementia and I think the club and the foundation are absolutely at the forefront of that.”
The Liverpool FC Memories app package is available through the My House of Memories app and is free to download across the world.
Listen to Mersey Sport Live’s audio report of the event>>>
