A LANCASTER therapist and football fan Steve Lewis is offering help to all those driven mad by the beautiful game.

An event called Ballwatching will be held at the Friends Meeting House in the city on Saturday, May 29, between 10am and 4pm. It's a unique chance to explore the significance of football in the your life with Arsenal fan Steve and fellow therapist Neale Haddon.

But it's only a game isn't it? Steve begins to seethe: "The legendary Bill Shankley used to say 'football isn't a matter of life or death it's more important than that.' I agree with him."

Steve has been an Arsenal fan all his life, albeit at a distance since moving to Lancaster more than 20 years ago. It was Nick Hornby's book and then film 'Fever Pitch' that opened his eyes to what lay behind this attachment.

"It was almost the story of my life. Suddenly I appreciated what had got me involved in football to begin with and why Arsenal had continued to play such an important part in my life. As I talked to other fans I realised this was shared, deeply felt, but unexplored territory. Whether you support Lancaster City, Morecambe or Man Utd, for much of the time being a football fan is an absolute agony. Why do we do it?"

If you've ever had the same thought Ballwatching is for you. Led by Steve and fellow therapist Neale (a Nottingham Forest man) it's your chance to spend a day looking at what the game means to you. What have you got our of it and what has it cost you? An in-depth look at your relationship with football, it promises to be a game of two entertaining and provoking halves.

Call Steve on 35193 or Neale on 0115 911 1376 for more details.

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