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2026/09/10

‘Football saved Dad’s life’

In this edition: meet the coach of the England women’s Parkinson’s team

‘Football saved Dad’s life’: meet the coach of the England women’s Parkinson’s team | The Guardian

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Gemma Darvill, the head coach, speaks to a group of three players during a training session for the England women’s Parkinson’s football team
10/09/2026

‘Football saved Dad’s life’: meet the coach of the England women’s Parkinson’s team

It began with getting her dad into walking football after his diagnosis – now Gemma Darvill is taking a national team on tour to Canada

Tom Garry Tom Garry
 

When Gemma Darvill’s dad, Les, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease aged 58, joining a walking football team stopped him from confining himself to his own home, and she believes the game saved his life.

What she could never have foreseen was that, eight years later, she would find herself coaching the first England women’s Parkinson’s team, helping transform the lives of women with the disease from all across the country. She is set to embark on a journey to Toronto to help spread awareness of the ways in which walking football can help put the brakes on the progression of Parkinson’s symptoms.

A teacher at Swallowfield primary school in Woburn Sands, in Milton Keynes, Darvill’s interest in walking football was sparked by supporting her dad. She now coaches what is believed to be the first walking football team specifically dedicated to women with Parkinson’s, the Parkinson’s Pioneers, who train in Solihull and have seen a tenfold increase in their membership in just over three years. That led to her appointment as the coach of the first England women’s national side.

There are reportedly about 166,000 people in the UK living with Parkinson’s disease. It is a progressive brain condition for which there is no cure, but known treatments can help reduce the severity of the main symptoms. Darvill, who says exercise “helped slow down the progression of the disease” for her dad, recalled: “When he was first diagnosed, it hits you hard. But football genuinely saved his life.

“At first, he didn’t want to leave the house. He used to have a season ticket at Tottenham [but] he gave that up. He didn’t tell any of his friends. He just stopped doing everything. He really struggled with life in general, [even] getting out of bed. And then we found this football session. His team’s called Fighting Fit Football [based at Watford’s training ground]. I took him along one week and he’s never looked back since.

“So, just to be able to give back a little bit, I guess that’s why I still do it: to help others who get diagnosed, to show them that there is still a life after being diagnosed with the disease and you can meet lots of incredible people, and still try to do things as normally as possible.”

Gemma Darvill, the head coach of the England women’s Parkinson’s team, speaks to her players during a training session
camera Gemma Darvill’s first coaching role was with the Parkinson’s Pioneers, a team she helped set up in 2023. Photograph: Handout

Darvill, who has played football since she was 10, was spotted cheering for her dad on the sidelines of a tournament at St George’s Park and was promptly asked by Annie Booth, the founder of the Parkinson’s Pioneers, if she would be interested in helping set up the team. To Darvill, helping out felt natural: “I’ve always coached football as well as played, and I was a teacher, so I used to run football camps for kids in the school holidays.”

Booth and Darvill have seen the Parkinson’s Pioneers blossom into a flourishing community, explaining: “I remember our very first training session, it was only three of us. We now have over 40 ladies coming to the sessions. It’s incredible.

“They use it as a social network as well. So after the sessions, everyone stays for a bit of food, a conversation, and they can just discuss like their symptoms, how they’re coping. And we’re family now, really, if I’m honest. Everyone just helps each other out.

“We train at Solihull purely because the ladies come from all over the country. We have ladies from Manchester, we have myself coming from Milton Keynes, we have people in Devon.

“So it’s the most central location that we could find to try to make it as fair as possible for everyone travelling. So we try to meet up once a month and then we enter the tournaments as well.”

As well as prohibiting running, walking football includes several different rules to the mainstream game. There is no offside rule, no heading, no throw-ins and it is a non-contact game. Darvill says: “I’d say the tactics are the same [in general]. But you can’t tackle from the side or from behind in walking football – it has to be face-on.

Gemma Darvill, the head coach of the England women’s Parkinson’s team, gesticulates to emphasise a point during a training session
camera Darvill’s first involvement with walking football for people with Parkinson’s came through helping her father after his diagnosis. Photograph: Handout

“Everyone with Parkinson’s has a very different level of the condition. The walking element just helps keep them all safe. We have a brilliant physio on board as well who is specifically a Parkinson’s physio, which is brilliant, and she helps us a lot with the warm-ups and the cool-downs and just makes sure that ladies are getting what they need. It makes their brain think about something else. [For example] I’ve got one lady who can’t walk in a straight line but if you put a sports ladder down in front of her, she can walk through it. It’s really interesting.”

The growth of the Pioneers meant that Darvill was the natural pick when the Walking Football Association (WFA) was launching the first England women’s Parkinson’s team with trials last year. Then, in August this year, the WFA and the Football Association announced a new partnership that will install the FA as walking football’s governing body in England with the WFA now the delivery partner for the game. The collaboration was partly aimed at benefits such as being able to streamline the registration of referees and agree on a unified set of rules. Darvill adds: “That’s a positive, going forward, that they’re coming together a little bit more.”

Darvill’s England team play six-a-side and the players range in age from 36 to 66. They have held training sessions in Watford, Droitwich and Bedford so far, but are about to cross the Atlantic to join the England men’s Parkinson’s team on a landmark trip to Canada for an international showcase of the benefits of walking football and a series of invitational friendlies.

The team travel on Saturday for one week in Toronto. The teams have been crowdfunding to try to help cover the course of the trip. Darvill’s own fundraising page has raised over £400 and a wider fundraising page for both the men’s and women’s sides has drawn in more than £17,000. Darvill says: “We’re doing it because we want to raise awareness of Parkinson’s in Canada and help those out there with Parkinson’s. We’re trying to showcase sort of what we do, to try to reach more people.

“We’re going to play two American teams when we’re out there, an over-40s team and over-60s all women’s walking football team [non-disabled], and then we’re going to play some men’s teams as well. We’re running a Parkinson’s fundraising day too, where we will run the session ourselves, we’ll put on the coaching drills and have a bit of fun to try to get as many people in Canada interested.”

For Darvill, it is a mission with a deeply personal motivation, with her own gratitude to walking football for how it is helping her dad continuing to drive her to help others with the condition.

 
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Talking points

End of an era: There will be no four-peat for Aitana Bonmatí at the Ballon d’Or after the Barcelona midfielder, who has won the trophy three years running, was not among the 30 nominees for this year’s prize, in light of the broken leg that ruled her out for most of the second half of last season. Her Spain teammate Alexia Putellas, the 2021 and 2022 winner now at London City Lionesses, was included, along with Khadija “Bunny” Shaw, whose goals fired Manchester City to the WSL title, her City captain Alex Greenwood, the Arsenal striker Alessia Russo, the OL Lyonnes and Haiti midfielder Melchie Dumornay and the Scotland midfielder Caroline Weir, who has joined Dumornay at Lyon after four years at Real Madrid. The winner will be named at a ceremony in London on 26 October.

The Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmatí poses with her three Ballons d’Or, which she won in consecutive years
camera Aitana Bonmatí will not be adding to her three Ballons d’Or, at least not this year, after being left off the shortlist. Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters

Up and running: Aston Villa’s Rachel Maltby scored a hat-trick, two of them penalties, as England beat Tanzania 5-1 on Tuesday at the Under-20 Women’s World Cup. Brazil, England’s final group-stage opponents on Friday, booked their place in the round of 16 with a 3-0 win over Canada. The hosts, Poland, have also qualified for the knockout stages after their 2-1 victory over Mexico made it two wins from two. Elsewhere, Argentina dismantled Benin with an 8-0 win, including four goals for the Inter forward Annika Paz. North Korea, Colombia, Spain and China will all have opportunities to book last-16 spots on Thursday.

The England Under-20 defender Rachel Maltby scores her team’s fourth goal to complete her hat-trick in the Under-20 World Cup group game against Tanzania
camera Rachel Maltby has only scored one senior club goal, but has four in two games at the Under-20 World Cup including a hat-trick. Photograph: Jess Hornby/The FA/Getty Images

Quote of the day

quote

The fact that she’s getting pretty regular minutes in WSL just shows the level that she’s aspiring to be at. It’s very nice that a defender is currently our top goalscorer. She may well be going for the Golden Boot!” – the England Under-20 head coach, Lydia Bedford, praises the aforementioned Rachel Maltby for her four goals in two games at the World Cup – it helps that she takes the penalties, of which she has scored three.

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Women’s Football Weekly is back, with Faye Carruthers joined by Suzanne Wrack, Ayisha Gulati and yours truly to discuss Crystal Palace’s substitution miscount among other things. Get it wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Recommended viewing

Watch Kirsty Hanson’s curling effort into the top corner against West Ham, the second goal on her debut for Tottenham as they began the WSL season with a 3-1 win. The Scotland forward moved to Spurs from Villa for an undisclosed fee.

Still want more?

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camera Wolves players enjoy each other’s company. Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian

“We want people to come to Boston and hate it”: Frankie de la Cretaz explores how NWSL fans in the city built a culture from the ground up.

And the transfer window is still open in the US, France, Italy and Spain – check out the latest deals here.

 

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