Barry’s Story

Barry Laffar is 68 years old and has trained and volunteered with Fulham FC Foundation for a number of years. We have seen Barry grow from strength to strength, overcoming some of life’s toughest challenges including major heart surgery and a recent diagnosis of cancer. When Barry first started attending our foundation sessions, his main goal was to improve his general health and fitness, including weight loss. Walking Football, Fulham Memories and Fulham Fit provided the perfect opportunity for Barry to achieve his goals in combination with his general love and passion for playing football.

During the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020, Barry has engaged with all of our online sessions aiming to maintain his physical and mental health while staying at home, another challenge that he has overcome!

Barry is an integral part of our Health and Wellbeing programmes and is known and loved by many participants across all of the programmes he’s been involved with. It is a privilege working with Barry and assisting him in achieving his goals.

“This programme has helped me get fit after having a triple heart bypass operation in 2015 and meeting a lot of new friends where we can share the same sort of banter we had in our younger playing days.”

“Being in the programme has meant that I have something to look forward to each week, the training and meetings which has stopped me becoming a couch potato.  Also since being diagnosed with cancer I have so much support from the foundation and a lot of the other players.”

“I started walking football with Fulham and after about 6 months was asked to join the Fulham fitness programme so along with the walking football and the fitness I became a lot fitter and gained another group of friends. I had to stop the fitness programme when I broke my wrist in November 2019 and then had a lot of health problems. I still keep in touch with the fitness group and occasionally meet up for drinks and a catch up.”

“If I was not at the walking football sessions I would probably go for more walks and when possible visit some National Trust houses and gardens.”

“My plans for the future are unsure at the moment since being diagnosed with cancer but I plan to continue to be involved with Walking football hopefully playing and continuing my role as a voluntary coach.”