Jeff Pettitt is a former Football League and Premier League Assistant. He was a Football Referee Core Coach and Observer for many years and lives in Caterham.

Jeff also voluntarily ran the Referees’ Academy at Charlton Athletic for over 20 years, helping referees improve their game and move into the higher levels of officiating.

After being concerned in deterioration in his health, last year Jeff was diagnosed with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP).

PSP is an uncommon brain disorder that effects movement control of walking and balance, speech, swallowing, vision and thinking. The disease results from damage to nerve cells in the brain.

His condition has deteriorated over the last few months as he is now showing all the above symptoms. Sadly Jeff now needs 24hour care; currently provided by his wife Fiona. Jeff has been able to ‘bank’ his voice in order to enable him soon to generate electronic speech via a tablet.

It’s believed the time will be coming very soon when Jeff will need to go into a specialist residential nursing home costing about £2k per week, which they would not be able to afford.

Jeff has been a great servant to the football community and in particular refereeing. It would be great if the football community could provide much needed financial support for his wife to enable her to have some respite and ease the financial burden of the costs of oncoming nursing care and required equipment.