Big Hearts serves as reminder of the power of football

I feel like my head is spinning. Craig Wilson, the chief executive of Big Hearts, is listing off just some of the work that the charity arm of Heart of Midlothian has been doing recently as he shows me around the group’s headquarters in the Wheatfield Stand that once served as a club shop when the Main Stand was redeveloped. Tables for pool, ping-pong and air hockey hug one of the walls, and there’s a television hooked up to a games console in one of the corners.

The room is usually used on Monday and Tuesday afternoons for Big Hearts’ Football Memories programme, aimed at rallying the elderly and those with dementia around the club that they hold dear, but there’s a change of venue. Today, nearly 150 people will be filling into the Gorgie Suite for a slap-up three-course meal, followed by a raffle and some Christmas songs for the Festive Friends Memories lunch.

Craig tells me that they do this every year, bringing the two Football Memories groups together for a bite to eat and a blether in the build-up to Christmas. It’s just one of many initiatives launched by the charity, yet it doesn’t take long for the event to underline to me just how important football clubs are to their local communities.

Supporters’ love for Hearts is hard-wired and deeply ingrained, after all, and an individual’s choice of football team is a formative building block in a person’s character. When memories are slowly chipped away by the monstrous ravages of dementia, more recent events are erased and things that occurred a long time ago are generally the last to be forgotten. For many turning up to Tynecastle Park on Tuesday afternoon, Hearts is one of the few topics that prompts engagement and discussion that is so often lacking elsewhere in their lives.

READ MORE: Put your football knowledge to the test at the Big Hearts Big Quiz

“The Memories groups are about bringing people together, having a lovely time and making connections,” Craig explains. “Some of these guys might not get out of the house very often, they might be living on their own, they might be living in a care home. Getting to come to Tynecastle and be part of something is brilliant for them.

“It fits in with a lot of our work around Christmas time, which is about making people feel connected and part of something that’s important to them. We want to make people feel part of something at Big Hearts.”

I glance at my watch and see that the event is about to get under way, and Craig whisks me along the backroom corridors at Tynecastle. When we arrive at the Gorgie Suite, the doors aren’t meant to open for another 15 minutes but already a steady stream of punters are trickling in. Some volunteers from Stellar Omada, the company that sponsors the away shirt this season, greet them upon entry and take their coats, while others from Big Hearts help people to their seats.

The room is filling up now, and a rumble in my belly serves as a reminder that I’d better find a seat. I spot a table with a few empty chairs on it towards the back of the suite and make a beeline for it, sitting down and introducing myself to the two retired gentlemen sat next to me, Billy and Gordon. They’re relatively new to the Football Memories programme, having only gone along for the first time a few weeks ago, but it has already become a regular staple of their week. Both are season ticket holders and have been for decades, but they suffer from mobility issues and no longer travel to away days.

The next two hours fly in. We talk about Alex Young, Pasquale Bruno and Craig Levein, marveling as we recall their various heroic deeds draped in maroon. We ponder over whether or not Lawrence Shankland is Hearts’ greatest striker since John Robertson;  we think back on the dark days towards the end of Vladimir Romanov’s reign. Away days to the Czech Republic and Estonia are fondly recalled as old stories are shared, and we laugh as Gordon recounts the moment he told his wife that he’s booked a room at the club hotel for Valentine’s Day next year. We talked about the games where Hearts just about escaped with victory; we talked about games where the team were robbed by a dodgy refereeing decision. We talked about football. We talked about life.

The conversation is punctuated by a delicious three-course meal and by the time the last of the apple crumbles have been scoffed, it’s time for a raffle. All sorts of sweets and gifts are on offer, and tickets had already been freely circulated to everyone in the room. I then glance up and notice Gary Locke sitting at the next table, but this should come as little surprise. The former Hearts player and manager is something of a regular, after all.

“Very much so,” Locke said. “I’ve been coming for a few years. My dad has got dementia and he is struggling with it now he’s in a home. I still try and get him along to Football Memories whenever I can. Jimmy Mitchell, who I take to all the away games, he comes as well. It’s brilliant.

“You see a different side of them when they come to Tynecastle. When my dad comes here, there are definitely things that switch on in his brain. He is familiar with Tynecastle where he loved coming every week. He can’t get to games anymore, which is a nightmare, but the fact that he can still come to Tynecastle is brilliant.

“He is at the stage of his dementia where it is really bad. He can’t really speak much and I’m not even sure he still recognises us, but there are wee elements when he comes to Tynecastle where you see him smiling or recognising the place a bit. So for me, it’s fantastic that I can still bring him along.

READ MORE: The importance of Hearts B: Pathway, periodisation, investment and its future

“It’s great for everyone else that comes along as well. Some of them are maybe on their own, maybe they don’t have dementia but they are still quite lonely. Big Hearts have done a fantastic job at the club and this is just one of many events that they do.

“It’s brilliant for me as well because I know quite a lot of the guys that come along. I’ve met them at games in all the years that I’ve supported Hearts, so it’s great to catch up and see that they’re all still doing okay. It’s something that I never miss.

“I love it. I’m younger than most of them but I was at a lot of games as a young kid, so I was at a lot of the games that they like to talk about. The fact that they can get out the house, get a wee bite to eat, a quiz, music – it’s absolutely magical. It’s great to see a smile on their faces because I’m pretty sure that on other days of the week some of them have quite a tough life. Having them in here enjoying themselves means the world.

“Even if my dad wasn’t here I would still pop in. I see that as a part of my role at the club anyway. Big Hearts have got a lot of other programmes that you don’t hear about that are brilliant. Young kids coming in to learn, older adults learning about things like IT – you never hear about it but it’s really positive.”

Locke is soon handed the microphone, and the biggest cheer of the afternoon is reserved for his announcement that his captive audience won’t be subjected to his singing. Soon, though, a young woman named Catherine, a volunteer sitting at one of the tables, picks up the mic and performs a beautiful version of the 12 Days of Christmas as it all turned into a mass sing-song. Only those with a Scrooge-like heart of stone could fail to get swept up in the festive spirit. It’s then the turn of an older gentleman, Dougie, to serenade the crowd. He’s getting on in years but you wouldn’t know it from his masterful singing as carol after carol is bellowed out.

Then, a few hours after it started, the afternoon drew to a close. Everyone leaves with a goodie bag in their hands, a full meal in their bellies and with their hearts full of festive cheer. The Big Hearts team could reflect on another afternoon of good work helping the local community, but this is no time to rest on their laurels. With another free lunch being held the following day, the Big Quiz taking place on Thursday evening, and the charity’s ongoing Winter Appeal, the festive season is almost as busy for Big Hearts as it is for Steven Naismith and his players.

Craig and his coworkers won’t shy away from that challenge, though. Football, as we all know, has an extraordinary ability to pull people together. And if harnessed correctly, it can be an important vehicle in delivering social good. Big Hearts itself has become more and more focused on combating all manner of societal ills as time has worn on, shifting its focus from football training sessions (something that is now organised by the club) to directly providing services and programmes for the local community.

“I think football is the biggest tool that we’ve got,” Craig tells me. “As the charity of the football club, we ask ourselves how we can use football to bring people together.

“Coming to Tynecastle now, with all the changes that have been made, you could be buying a strip or a ticket, you could be attending a conference, you could be going to a hotel shortly. There is no stigma around walking in the building, and that’s a huge advantage for us. It’s not like going down to the local community centre, or your school, or your social work department. But hopefully we can be a conduit for bringing services together and really making people feel like they are a part of something.”

Football clubs are so much more than a squad of players and a stadium. They are 150-year-old institutions that provide culture and identity to an area, a symbol that tens of thousands of people can rally around, and a common cause which means so much to so many. They are a shared mythology that can bring people from all walks of life together, and the services that their charities provide are truly life-changing.

Big Hearts encapsulates the best of football, the tremendous force for good that the beautiful game can be. The charity ensures that the club is exactly where it should be in the local community – as the vibrant, beating heart of Gorgie.

You can find out more and support the Big Hearts Winter Appeal at bighearts.enthuse.com/cf/winter23. Tickets for the Big Hearts Big Quiz, which will be held in the Gorgie Suite on Thursday evening, can be purchased for £10 at register.enthuse.com/ps/event/BigHeartsBigQuiz.