Shrewsbury legend inspires African trek

Llarni Bates, senior legal assistant at Shrewsbury-based Wace Morgan, will be taking on Kilimanjaro and has been preparing with regular hikes up Snowdon as well as climbing local hills – getting up at 4am some days to scale the Wrekin twice before work.

Her dad, Shrewsbury Town's legendary striker and manager Chic, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimers when he was in his early 60s.

Llarni had noticed a change in his behaviour over the eight previous years but it took x-rays and scans to finally receive a diagnosis.

She said: "Each day I have first hand experience of living with dementia, seeing the day to day impact that this has on my dad, my mother, myself and my brother. The frustrations too can be that my dad still looks the same and yet his functioning is limited.

"Sadly and rather disappointingly I have witnessed my dad being avoided, discriminated and even made fun of because of his illness. Having said that he has received so much love and support, care and understanding which is incredible and I am so grateful to those kind people."

Llarni will jet out to Tanzania next week and will set out to climb Mount Kilimanjaro on September 21.

She said: "This will be a four day climb up with a two day descend. I am funding my trip myself so any money I do raise will all go to Dementia UK. As a daughter of a Dementia sufferer I want to raise more awareness of Dementia and in doing so I also hope to raise money for the charity Dementia UK. This challenge is sure to put me through so many emotions in preparing and doing the challenge. I am excited, nervous but overall determined."

Chic was star striker for the Town in the 1970s appearing 160 times during six seasons.

He passed his coaching badges in July 1981 and was lined-up as Graham Turner’s successor when Turner moved to Wolves in 1984.

Many predicted that Town would be relegated without Graham, but Chic managed to guide Town to their highest ever Football League finish of 8th in the Second Division back in 1984/85. He left the club in 1987, a move which saw Chairman Tim Yates resign and ended up working as Assistant to Lou Macari at Swindon Town, Stoke City and Celtic. When Macari left Stoke for the second time in 1997, Bates took over as manager.

But Shrewsbury was where his heart lay and he returned to the club in 1999 to become Assistant Manager. During his time as Assistant he would twice take on the top role again on a caretaker basis, before eventually retiring from football.

Llarni is aiming to raise £4,000 and has so far raised more than £3,200. To donate go to justgiving.com/fundraising/llarnibates?utm_id=124