Once Were Lions: The Players’ Stories: Inside the World’s Most Famous Rugby Team. Jeff Connor

when he was afflicted with cancer some years ago, his treatment required the removal of his larynx, and that wonderful voice has been silenced. Yet he still maintains his interest in sport and his former colleagues from his home on the Isle of Wight.

      ‘What has happened to Cliff has been terrible, simply awful, especially when you consider that speaking was his way of life,’ said Dickie Jeeps. ‘But he is still in touch with letters and cards, and they are always so well written.’

      It is always tragic when a physically fit person succumbs to dementia, and that is what happened when Alzheimer’s Disease afflicted one of the most popular of the 1955 Lions. Former England scrum-half John Williams was diagnosed with the disease at the age of 68, and his family have suffered a nightmare ever since.

      His wife Mary went public with the details in a very moving ‘first person’ article in the Daily Mail in an attempt to show how victims of Alzheimer’s are often misunderstood and mistreated. Mrs Williams, who herself has survived a double mastectomy for breast cancer, told how the man the 1955 Lions knew as fun-loving Johnny the prankster had become a violent, forgetful, moody individual who had regressed to childhood. He would hit her, and seconds later act as if nothing had happened. When her son from her first marriage, Jonathan, was killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of 41, Williams would try to understand but seemed incapable of sympathizing—a classic symptom of the disease. Eventually Mary could no longer care for him at home and he had to be hospitalized. She wrote:

       It’s almost impossible to equate the ruggedly handsome, energetic sporting hero I fell in love with and the broken man who cannot even remember his own name. This kind, generous and good man is now held for his own safety in the secure unit of a hospital specializing in patients with mental illnesses.

       My husband, who is now 76, is incontinent and unable to feed or wash himself. The dementia has made him so aggressive towards me and others that for months he was detained under Section 3 of the Mental Health Act—an extreme law giving doctors the authority to hold and treat a patient.

      The Williams family also faced a long and heartbreaking fight to get his care paid for, as was his right under the National Health Service rules. The Lions Trust stepped in with a £10,000 donation to help pay for his care, but Mrs Williams faced losing her home until legal pressure and the Daily Mail