Former Olympian turned artist holds exhibition to support Lancaster charity close to his heart

Neil Eckersley, who has competed in two Olympic Games, has produced some striking artwork for the window of the Defying Dementia shop in Church Street, just weeks after his father died from the disease.

“I’d had a terrible day and use art as a kind of therapy so often visit charity shops for various bits and pieces,” Neil explained.

“I went into the Defying Dementia shop and had a conversation with the volunteers and they were fantastic. Everyone there had an experience of dementia and knew what we were going through.”

Neil discovered that the shop had reached its fifth anniversary and had donated more than £50,000 towards dementia research at Lancaster University in that time, so he has produced a range of art work to celebrate this achievement. His wife, Anita, a retired lecturer, is now also volunteering at the shop.

The exhibition – called ‘I know You’re In There’ – can be viewed at the shop from October 23 to 28.

“Even though my dad had lost his voice and communication, he was still in there,” said Neil, who is 59.

The largest piece in the exhibition is entitled Three Faces of Dementia. It is accompanied by a skull sculpture in a glass case called Memories Are Golden, and a triptych entitled It’s Not A Laughing Matter.

Neil’s dad James, who was from Bolton, died four weeks ago at the age of 85, and had lived with dementia for five years.

Neil is originally from Salford and spent seven years in Norway before relocating to Lancaster.

At school, he admits that sport and art were the only subjects he was good at and he took up judo aged nine.

He became Britain’s leading extra-lightweight judo player for a decade, winning a bronze medal at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984. He was also team captain at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Neil went on to coach the national judo men’s team for many years and is still actively involved with the sport.

However, when he was struggling to cope with the death of his older brother 30 years ago, Neil turned to art as a form of therapy and now it is his career.

“I’d always had a problem with the written word because of my dyslexia but found painting to be the perfect way to express emotions and things I wanted to put across,’’ said Neil.

He has since gone on to produce work for the Beijing Winter Olympics and exhibited his contemporary abstract art locally, nationally and internationally.

Defying Dementia was founded in 2015 by Dr Penny Foulds in order to progress a promising Alzheimer's drug into human clinical trials. Important pre-clinical experiments on this treatment are being conducted thanks to the money that has been donated through the Defying Dementia campaign.

The Defying Dementia charity shop is open 10am-5pm every day except Sundays.