Terry Marsden is Grandad to a member of our Community Cohesion team and a regular attendee at our Sporting Memories sessions.
Born and raised in Blackpool, Terry started his life working at Play Shoe before joining the National Service in the Transport Division of the Army where he served in Cyprus, keeping the peace between Greek and Turkish factions.
After his National Service, he moved into employment at British Nuclear Fuels Ltd as a process worker but soon moved to the internal fire brigade where he drove the fire engines and ambulances.
As a youth, Terry was a huge Blackpool fan, he would head to Blackpool beach whenever Sir Stanley Matthews was training there. Often Stanley would finish his training session and join in with a football game alongside the children. All the kids loved this, and Terry tells stories about it to this day!
At age 15, Terry headed to Wembley with thousands of other Blackpool fans to watch Mortenson and Matthews create history in the 1953 FA Cup Final against Bolton Wanderers.
In 1960 he married a local woman, Margaret, and started a family in Blackpool. They now have four grown grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Over the years Terry has spent his time socialising at the Bloomfield Workingmen Club where he was a member of the darts, dominoes, and whist teams. Until recently he enjoyed playing golf in his spare time both at Blackpool Park Golf Club and Ingol.
Terry was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2020 and then COPD in 2021, both of which have negatively impacted his well-being and his ability to do the things he loves. His wife, Margaret has now had to solely take on the day-to-day running of the house, repairs, shopping cleaning etc, alongside caring for her husband and taking care of her own health concerns.
Since being diagnosed, Terry began attending our Sporting Memories sessions at Bloomfield Road, where he has spent time with new people, something that has been incredibly difficult for him during the pandemic. The sessions give him something to look forward to each week, at a place he loves (Bloomfield Road), doing something he enjoys.
Terry’s wife, Margaret, has benefitted from him attending the sessions too, she is now able to spend time working on her own mental health, making her daily chores more manageable.
Sporting Memories is aimed at older sports fans and the group predominately cover football and Blackpool FC during their sessions, although we sometimes incorporate other sports in the conversation. This social group provides the opportunity to meet new people, share stories and memories and discuss opinions.
If you’d like to find out more or get involved in our Sporting Memories group get in touch via email: info@bfcct.co.uk or call 01253 348691.
