Where your money goes

Check out our fundraising pages and set up your own, make a donation or sign up to volunteer. Read more about our latest appeals

There are presently over 110 Sporting Memories Clubs and Groups running in England, Scotland and Wales, with over 1,200 members attending. In 2017, there were 57,600 individual attendances recorded by our volunteers, staff and partners who delivered sporting memories sessions. Attendee ages ranged from 48 years old to 97 years old. Sporting Memories clubs are provided free of charge to members. Occasionally venues ask for a small discretionary contribution towards refreshments of £1.

Each club is run by volunteers or the venue's staff who have been trained by Sporting Memories Network and have been provided with The Sporting Memories guide to sports reminiscence, Replay Sporting Memories reminiscence cards and each club receives two copies of the weekly Sporting Pink newspaper.

Last year we conducted our biggest survey yet of club members in England. 26 clubs took part and our members told us that as a result of attending each week they:

• Get out of their houses more
• Feel valued and listened to
• Feel more connected to their community
• Have made new friends
• Become more active 

A study of 17 clubs by Glasgow Caledonian University in 2017 found 100% of the members would recommend their Sporting Memories club to a friend and 100% of respondents (109) reported that they got out of the house more.

The impact of our work is designed to begin to address three of the biggest challenges facing an ageing population: dementia, depression and loneliness. Sporting Memories clubs reach some of the most isolated and lonely older people, helping reconnect them to their communities, to their love of sport and helping them to reconnect with, or make new friends. Many club members around the UK have previously played sport either professionally or as keen amateurs. Matt Tees is one such member, who previously played professional football for clubs including Grimsby Town, Charlton Athletic and Luton Town.

Where does your money go?

• £100 trains a volunteer to help at a Sporting Memories Club
• £50 helps provide more sports equipment to a Sporting Memories Club
• £30 buys a pack of Replay Sporting Memories reminiscence cards for a club
• £20 provides a month's supply of the weekly Sporting Pink newspaper for a club
• £10 helps recruit more volunteers
• £5   helps pay a volunteer's travel to run a club 

Copies of the latest Annual Accounts for The Sporting Memories Foundation can be downloaded from the Charity Commission (Click to download) and full information on The Sporting Memories Foundation Scotland is available on the Scottish Charity Regulator, OSCR's website (Click to view)

The Sporting Memories Foundation publishes a regular newsletter (Click to download) You can sign up to receive regular updates at the base of this page.

Join The Squad to Fundraise or Volunteer for Sporting Memories 

There are 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK. 1 in 4 of us will experience mental illness during our lifetime. 1,000,000 people over the age of 75 say TV is their only form of regular company. In 2015 the Chief Medical Officer for England and Wales stated that loneliness has the same impact on health and longevity as the equivalence of smoking 15 cigarettes per day.

Our ambition is to make Sporting Memories available to every older person who wishes to attend a club or who would benefit from one to one sessions, be it in their own homes or in care homes and hospitals.

You can help us achieve this. Join the Squad today and help us tackle dementia, depression and loneliness. 

Check out our fundraising pages and set up your own, make a donation or sign up to volunteer . Read more about our latest appeals