His voice is one I still hear in my mind’s ear, a rich Scottish brogue which eased out of the speakers of my father’s Marconiphone radio, informing me through the static of medium wave of events at Hampden Park. He had several stock phrases, one of which still gives me goosebumps when I think about it.

‘And it’s a goal for Scotland!’

His name was David Francey and he was a football commentator on BBC Radio Scotland back in the day.

When I met him, I didn’t think it was appropriate to mention the time he entered a David Francey sound alike competition, but didn’t win. That’s a story for another day.

He had another phrase which still makes me shiver, but for the wrong reasons.

‘Up go the heads,’ he would say, when burly players of the time would rise in unison to challenge for the ball.

Sometimes they headed it, sometimes they headed each other. Concussions were frequent and sadly diagnoses of dementia among these players is now common too.

In early 2023 I will start my own charity to lobby sporting authorities, coaches and players to change how football is played and to try to set in motion a ban on heading the ball.

I want to see a game where players, particularly children, avoid heading the ball in the same way they avoid handling it. Football would be better for it and more importantly, safer.

Ironically it’s not heading the ball during a game which is my issue, it’s the repeated trauma to the brain of heading of the ball, in some cases hundreds of times a day, in training. It killed Billy McNeill, Frank Kopel and many others.

To fund the charity, I am pledging proceeds from my new book, ‘You’re Seeing It!’ which will be launched on December 14 at the Royal Northern Yacht Club in Rhu from 7pm.

Everybody is welcome – if you buy a book you will be helping get this charity up and running. Email my agent andrewcaledonia@gmail.com for a signed copy to be posted as a Christmas gift.

It’s an autobiography which charts my 40 years as a journalist, Army service in Iraq and Afghanistan and tellingly, the years I spent caring for my mother through her dementia.

She passed away in my arms and the impact her dementia had on my family and I has prompted me to form the first charity of its kind in Scotland.

It would be great to see you on the night.

You will help make Scotland a safer place.