Harrogate Leeds fans raise £2,000 for Alzheimer’s Research with Stan Bowles calendar

Leeds fans in Harrogate have raised more than £2,000 for charity after a chance purchase of a calendar of 1970s footballer Stan Bowles.

Dave Rowson, who is a member of the Harrogate and district branch of Leeds United Supporters Group, held a three-day fundraiser last weekend to raise funds for Alzheimers Research UK.

A charity gig at the Manhattan Snooker Club, a “picture with Stan” day outside the Old Peacock pub at Elland Road and Stan Bowles pairs at the Black Swan Bowling Club in Harrogate helped to raise £2,721 for the cause.

A picture with Stan has become a running theme throughout the fundraising initiative and has seen Leeds favourite, Jermaine Beckford, and Angus Kinnear, managing director of the club, posing for a snap with the calendar.

All of this was a result of Dave making a chance purchase of the calendar of the QPR striker on a trip to Loftus Road in 2020.

“What is the Stan Bowles connection?”

Stood outside the Old Peacock on Saturday, some Leeds supporters would have been forgiven for asking why they were being asked for a picture with a QPR player.

Dave said:

“If I had a pound for every time I answered: ‘What’s the Stan Bowles connection?’”

During Leeds’ trip to QPR last year before covid, a charity worker thrust the calendar into Dave’s chest as he was walking past to collect his match ticket.

Initially Dave accepted the gift and went to walk on, until he was told it cost £2.

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Instead of handing the calendar back, he decided to use it as a means of getting into some of the home fans-only pubs before the game by posing as a QPR fan.

Later, he offered to give the calendar as a gift to a fellow supporter, Sarah, for her birthday.

Dave said:

“She said: ‘‘What am I going to do with that? I am on the train and only got a small handbag, you two look after it for me!’. How ungrateful after all the trouble I had gone to.”

Left with the calendar, Dave decided to take random pictures of Stan with punters in bars on trips out across the country and in Harrogate.

The move snowballed on social media and, as a result, Dave decided to put the calendar and the “picture with Stan” theme to better use.

Footballers and dementia

Bowles, who played for QPR for seven years and was voted the club’s greatest ever player in a 2004 fans poll, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2015. 

He’s among a generation of iconic players, such as Jeff Astle, Nobby Stiles and Jack Charlton, who have been diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s after their playing career.

Recent studies have linked the risk of dementia in former professional footballers with persistent heading of the ball.

In the past week, former Liverpool player Terry McDermott and Manchester United favourite, Denis Law, became the latest retired players to be diagnosed with dementia.

The news that professional footballers are at further risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia as a result of heading the ball has since caused further study and debate over the risk to players.

Dave and the Harrogate branch of Leeds supporters are continuing their fundraising. You can donate on their JustGiving page here.