Keymer Hall and Burgess Hill Town FC Tackle Dementia

Keymer Hall Care Home, part of the award-winning Boutique Care Homes family, is proud to announce the launch of the Sporting Legends Café, a new monthly community group created in partnership with Burgess Hill Town FC.

Open to local older adults, sports fans, and anyone who loves good conversation, the Sporting Legends Café offers a relaxed, welcoming space to share favourite sporting memories, reflect on local football history, and celebrate the moments that have shaped people’s lives. Whether it’s watching England lift the World Cup, attending a local derby, or simply the thrill of sport shared with friends and family, every story has its place.

Sport holds a particularly powerful place in our long-term memory. For people living with dementia, familiar sporting moments, the roar of a crowd, a well-known team’s colours, or the name of a beloved player, can spark recognition and emotion in ways that little else can. Christine Bunce, Home Manager at Keymer Hall, knows this first hand.

“Sport has this wonderful ability to take you straight back. Mention a particular match or a famous moment and someone’s face just lights up. For our residents living with dementia, that kind of recognition is genuinely moving to witness. A shirt, a photograph, a song from the terraces, these things connect people to who they are in a way that’s hard to put into words.”

This understanding sits at the core of Keymer Hall’s specialist Nostalgia Care approach, which uses memory, music, and meaningful activity to support cognitive wellbeing and emotional connection. The Sporting Legends Café is also a direct response to the very real issue of social isolation among older adults. By opening the group to the wider community, not just residents, Keymer Hall is creating a space where older people across Burgess Hill can come together, feel valued, and build genuine friendships around shared experiences.

“This café is for everyone,” Christine adds. “Loneliness among older people is something we feel strongly about, and we want the Sporting Legends Café to be a warm, open door for anyone in the community who wants good company and good conversation. Our partnership with Burgess Hill Town FC is a perfect fit for that.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Burgess Hill Town FC, whose own commitment to the local community made the partnership a natural one. Dave Bradbury of BHTFC said: “Football has always been about more than what happens on the pitch. It’s about people, memories, and the moments that bring communities together. Playing an active role in local life matters to us, and this partnership is a brilliant example of that. We can’t wait to get started.”

Guests are warmly encouraged to bring along memorabilia, photographs, programmes, shirts, or any keepsakes that help tell their personal sporting story. The Sporting Legends Café reflects Keymer Hall’s ongoing commitment to its Life Enrichment Programme, a wellbeing framework built around six core principles: Connect, Grow, Reflect, Feel, Move, and Contribute, bringing those values to life in a way that reaches beyond the home’s walls and into the heart of the local community.

The first session takes place as part of Care Home Open Week on Wednesday 17th June, from 10:00am to 12 noon, with the group then meeting on the third Wednesday of each month. The next session follows on Wednesday 15th July.

The group is open to all. No booking is required, though anyone wishing to find out more is welcome to get in touch with the team directly.