(CNN)In 2002, at just 59, former British footballer Jeff Astle choked to death. He’d been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease before his death. But 12 years later, Dr. Willie Stewart, a neurosurgeon, concluded that Astle had actually been suffering from the degenerative brain disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from repeatedly heading footballs. “Unless you’ve seen it and lived it, it’s so difficult to try and describe it,” Dawn Astle told CNN Sport, as she remembered looking after her father Jeff and coping with his deteriorating health. “It was just the most brutal, brutal thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” WBA’s Jeff Astle of West scores against Wolves in October 1964. ‘Horrific’ Read More Back in 2002, January 19 was supposed to be a day of celebration for the Astle family. It was Dawn’s 34th birthday. “We’d just buried my grandmother — my mum’s mum — the day before,” recalls Dawn. “I can see my dad now coming through the front door with mum. He didn’t really walk properly, he shuffled and walked with a stoop, his skin looked gray and his face was gaunt. He was 59 but, I kid you not, he looked 159. “And it was…