The wife of a former Notts County and England footballer says the impact of dementia on ex-players is no longer a ‘dirty secret’ after years of campaigning by herself and other families. Penny Watson is one of several people across Nottinghamshire who have been recognised in the New Year Honours List 2025, an award which Mrs Watson says has left her “gobsmacked”.
The Tollerton resident, 74, has received an MBE for services to dementia care in football – an area which she has now been working in for a decade after her husband’s formal diagnosis in 2014. Dave Watson, now 78, started his career in 1966 at Notts County, where he played for an initial two seasons before his career then took him to clubs including Rotherham United, Sunderland and Manchester City.
The Stapleford-born player returned to Notts County towards the end of his career in the 1980s and played for England between 1974 and 1982. It was ahead of being inducted into Sunderland’s Hall of Fame in early 2020 that Mrs Watson first revealed her husband’s battle with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, which she said at the time was “most likely caused by Dave’s many head injuries, including severe concussions, and repeated heading of the ball”.
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Explaining the decision to go public with the news, Mrs Watson said: “We decided to do a public statement so that when Dave went to football matches, the fans would be understanding. He was known as being really good with the fans and for signing autographs and all of that, but that was becoming more challenging.”
Things came to a head when England celebrated their 1,000th game in a special match at Wembley in November 2019, to which England greats ranging from Mr Watson to Peter Shilton and Paul Gascoigne were invited. Mrs Watson said: “Everybody from Wayne Rooney to Sir Geoff Hurst was there and it all became a bit overwhelming for Dave.”
Since going public with the news, Mrs Watson has become increasingly vocal about the issues facing ex-players and their families suffering with dementia. The MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) recipient’s work has included campaigning for dementia cases to be treated as industrial injuries, which would enable ex-players and their families to receive benefits, and convincing the Professional Football Association (PFA) to set up a dedicated department to help those who are suffering.
Mrs Watson’s work has also included being instrumental in securing an industry fund to financially support families adjusting to living with dementia. The award winner added: “It’s absolutely not a dirty secret now.
“It’s not a disease that the players should be ashamed of. They’ve probably got this disease because of their job.
“If you align it to the Armed Forces and imagine that work left you with an injury, you wouldn’t feel ashamed about that. We can’t do anything to stop Dave’s progression now, but we can help him and others to have a good quality of life and we can help those who are coming through now.
“I don’t like injustice and I think having the MBE behind me now will really help. I feel it’s an immense honour to get this and I dedicate it to all those players and their families, and of course to my husband Dave.”
Former teacher who feared stories of Nottinghamshire’s WW1 heroes ‘could have been lost’
Also recognised in the New Year Honours List 2025 is Dr David Nunn from Kimberley, who was determined to properly commemorate those in Nottinghamshire who lost their lives during the First World War. Dr Nunn’s work was instrumental in establishing a public ‘Roll of Honour’ hosted online by Nottinghamshire County Council, containing the names of around 13,600 people from Nottinghamshire who died in the Great War.
Launched to mark the centenary of the conflict’s completion, no list of Nottinghamshire’s First World War dead had ever been compiled before. The work also led to a Great War Memorial being opened at the Victoria Embankment by the Duke of Kent in a special ceremony back in 2019.
David Nunn and his wife Jean at the Ribblehead Viaduct near Carnforth
(Image: Family Handout)
Dr Nunn, who has now received a BEM (British Empire Medal) for his services to the Great War Memorial, said: “It feels like a great honour for me personally, but, more importantly, it’s a recognition of the hard work that a dedicated team of volunteers have been doing for the last 13 and a half years and continue to do.” Dr Nunn was formerly a teacher at the West Bridgford Comprehensive, which he left in 2005 to begin a PhD, researching and writing a thesis on the impact of the Great War on education in Nottingham.
The 75-year-old, whose own parents met at a bomber station in Lincolnshire whilst both were serving in the Second World War, soon became aware of the risk that many stories of those who served in the First World War could end up being lost. Dr Nunn said: “Around a third of the 13,600 people that we identified were not even on any memorials. We found their names in local newspaper articles from the time and so on.
“Everyone is familiar with the stories of people like Albert Ball, but so many stories could have been lost. When the memorial was unveiled in 2019, it felt like we were bringing them home.” Dr Nunn and his team, now comprising around 12 people, have now turned their attention to commemorating Nottinghamshire’s Second World War heroes.
Nurse determined to tackle ‘horrid’ health inequalities faced by the homeless
Suzey Joseph first began her journey to improve the health of some of society’s most vulnerable when working as a nurse on a ward at the Queen’s Medical Centre in the early 2000s. The 62-year-old said: “At that time there were various individuals that were going to be discharged into homelessness.
“I’d never come across that before, so it came as quite a shock.” That experience led Ms Joseph into a career which has seen her work in environments ranging from police custody and the NHS 111 service to understand the health vulnerabilities faced by communities across Nottinghamshire.
Working as a nurse specialist in the homelessness health team with the Nottingham City Care Partnership from 2014 until 2017, Ms Joseph was seconded to homelessness charity Framework until 2020 to take an even more frontline approach to the issues she was dealing with. The BEM recipient, now working as the homelessness health clinical lead for the Nottingham City Care Partnership, has worked to improve the discharge and follow up care of those facing multiple disadvantages.
Suzey Joseph, the homeless health clinical lead at the Nottingham City Care Partnership
(Image: Framework)
The work sees Ms Joseph regularly out on the streets, meeting patients to carry out assessments and treatments. The nurse also tries to understand why the rough sleepers she deals with are struggling to access mainstream healthcare and feeds this information back to partners including the police, councils and probation service.
The work became crucial during the coronavirus pandemic, when despite an effort to get all rough sleepers into hotels, Ms Joseph was still carrying out visits at locations including underneath a railway bridge to deliver Covid swabs. Ms Joseph said: “Health inequalities are horrid and I was in a position to do something about it, so that’s where I wanted to invest my energies.
“I am receiving this accolade, but I do work with some incredible partners and, if they didn’t come along for the ride, then this wouldn’t have happened and the service users themselves over the years have been amazing.” Attention is now turning to a similar service being launched for the whole of Nottinghamshire, with Ms Joseph adding: “Ultimately what I’m trying to do is to empower people to have the resilience and confidence to access mainstream healthcare themselves, that’s what drives me forward.”
The above list of the recipients from Nottinghamshire were put forward by the Government as willing to speak to the media. Read the full list of Nottinghamshire recipients here.