Ben Duggan

Ben Duggan was a Wirral charity manager and Chester FC director whose sudden death at 33 in September 2026 was felt across football and community care on Merseyside. He was not a player for the Blues. He was co-opted to the City Fans United board over the summer of 2026, becoming the club's youngest director, and took charge of the Fan Engagement and Membership portfolio. In a short time he produced a membership and fan-engagement strategy that the club said promised to improve many areas of its work.

Away from the Deva Community Stadium he led Dementia Together Wirral as charity manager, a role he took up in February 2025 after earlier posts at Wirral Mencap and Autism Together. The charity supports people living with dementia and their carers and former carers. John Rowson, its chair, said Duggan's death was a devastating loss that the organisation would feel for a long time, praising his warmth, kindness and dedication, and noting how highly regarded he was by members, volunteers, staff and trustees. Colleagues asked that the family's privacy be respected.

Chester FC announced his death on 23 September 2026, stating that he had died suddenly the previous weekend. Contemporary reports place the death at the end of that weekend; this memorial records 20 September 2026. No cause of death was made public. The club said players and staff would wear black armbands for the fixture against Worksop Town. Supporters and readers of local outlets responded with tributes describing a young director who had already made a difference.

Public sources do not set out a detailed childhood biography. What is clear from his career is a life rooted in Wirral and Chester community service: disability support, autism and learning-disability charities, dementia care, and fan-owned football. At 33 he combined day-to-day charity leadership with unpaid board work for a club that depends on membership and engagement. Those who worked with him remembered energy and kindness in equal measure.

His death cut short a rare combination of roles. Dementia Together Wirral and Chester FC both spoke of affection as much as professional respect. In a few months on the City Fans United board he had already shaped a strategy for how the club relates to its members. In less than two years as charity manager he had become central to an organisation that holds people living with dementia and their carers. That is the work he left behind.