Jordan Lane has explained the significance of the club’s charity partnership with Alzheimer’s Society ahead of Saturday’s Charity Match Day at the MKM Stadium, with the disease having affected his own family.
The Black & Whites will take to the field this weekend in their 2024 Charity Jersey against St Helens at the MKM Stadium, as the club aims to highlight the importance of early dementia diagnosis.
The shirt features imagery and newspaper headlines from some of the club’s most iconic moments throughout our 159 year history, with the design fading towards the top of the shirt, while players will also play without names on the back of their shirt during the fixture – these elements aim to attention to how people with dementia lose precious memories, even the names of their favourite players
To read more about out 2024 Charity Jersey – click here
To buy yours online in time for Saturday’s game – click here
As part of the launch of the shirt earlier this month, first-team players Jordan Lane and Brad Fash, as well as former player Lee Crooks, visited Hull FC fan Jo, who currently resides at the Beverley Parklands Care Home and is living with the illness.
Jo became the very first supporter to receive the jersey as part of the home’s ‘Inspire24’ project.
Speaking following the launch, Lane explained the significance of the visit and the charity partnership having seen the illness affect his own family.
“To come here and give Jo that shirt is an honor for us. She has been a supporter for many years. She’s got all the shirts, posters, calendars, you name it – she lives and breathes Hull FC, so to give her the very first charity shirt is a great gesture from the club.
“We had Lee Crooks with us on this visit and I think Jo recognised him a little bit which was really lovely. He shared some of the older memories with her and she had a smile on her face.
“My partner’s grandad, Hull KR legend Phil Lowe, recently passed away having lived with dementia. He’d been living with the illness for some time and we’d seen him deteriorate from the man he was.
“It’s an awful disease and one of the worst there is. He was a strong independent bloke, but at the end he was very frail. It was so very sad to watch.
“To experience it as a family was really tough. So to come here today and put a smile on Jo’s face was a lovely experience.
“We can only hope that with the work that charities like Alzheimer’s Society are doing, there’s something coming soon that can really help fight this disease.”
Lane added: “Sometimes it’s difficult to understand the sense of responsibility we have as players, but when we’re meeting special people like this who have lived and breathed the club all their lives, going through some real hardship, it really hits home.”
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