When Gary Parkinson woke up on the morning of September 7th, 2010, he had a horrendous headache and could barely open his eyes because the room was spinning. The former Middlesbrough defender was 42, working as Blackpool’s head of youth and had been fit and healthy. At first, nobody realised just how serious it was. “For the first 12 hours he was being treated for an inner ear problem.” Then Parkinson started having seizures. He was put into an induced coma and taken into intensive care, where doctors discovered he had suffered a massive stroke in his brain stem. When he woke up, Parkinson could still see and hear everything around him. He just could not move or speak. He had locked-in syndrome. His wife Deborah was eventually asked whether she wanted his life-support machine switched off. She refused. Parkinson survived, but the stroke left him completely paralysed and reliant on 24-hour care. The only way he could properly communicate was through his eyes. But the personality his family knew was still there. “He still has that sparkle in his eye.” “We have a laugh and a joke.” The football world had not forgotten him either. Four days after the stroke, Blackpool went to Newcastle in the Premier League. Charlie Adam scored a penalty just before half-time, lifted his shirt and revealed a message underneath. “4 Parky!” From there, former teammates, clubs and supporters started raising money to help Parkinson and his family. At Middlesbrough, it meant even more. Parkinson had been part of the young side that helped save the club after liquidation almost finished them in 1986. Tony Mowbray had been his captain. Twenty-five years later, they were still close. “Parky’s one of us.” The Class of ’86 reunited at the Riverside for a charity match to raise money towards Parkinson’s rehabilitation, with Gary Hamilton even flying over from America to take part. Between them, they raised £35,000 for the Gary Parkinson Trust Fund. When Mowbray became Middlesbrough manager, he went to visit Parkinson at the neurological rehabilitation centre in Bury. He could see that although Parkinson’s body had been devastated by the stroke, his mind was still there. So Mowbray decided to put it to use. “We were determined to give Gary a role where he could feel involved and have something to concentrate on.” “Not only that, I genuinely value his opinions.” Parkinson became part of Middlesbrough’s scouting team. Mark Proctor would finish training, get into his car with a bag of DVDs and make the 110-mile journey across the Pennines to see him. Each DVD contained footage of players Middlesbrough were considering signing. Parkinson would watch them from his rehabilitation centre and produce his reports. His wife would work through the letters of alphabet and Parkinson would use his eyes to select the ones he wanted. For the scouting reports, they found an easier system. The players were rated from one to four. One meant stay away. Four meant Parkinson liked him. Deborah would count through the numbers and Parkinson would raise his eyelids when she reached his rating. And Middlesbrough quickly realised he was still very good at spotting a player. “Around nine times out of 10 Tony and I agree with him.” “He can identify exactly the sort of creative and technical players Tony needs.” For Parkinson, it also gave him part of his old life back. “You can see Gary’s mood picking up when he works on them.” The doctors could see the value in it as well. “To use his mind to give his life some remnant of structure and to provide a focus is what he needs.” “It can stop him lying there thinking his life is over.” Mowbray never saw the scouting role as something they were doing simply to make an old teammate feel better. Parkinson knew football. Middlesbrough valued what he had to say. And when the attention around his condition eventually disappeared, Mowbray wanted him to know that one thing would not change. “Long after he ceases to be headline news, we will still be there for him.” #football