Forgive the slight digression from women’s football, to tell the tale of a remarkable woman and her quest to bring the national game to more women.

The Altrincham fan Jacqui Forster is founder of Women at the Game, an organisation that works with clubs to bring groups of women together to attend matches.

It is a simple idea and one which has taken on a life of its own in its short existence. But what makes Forster’s dedication to this concept inspirational is that she is leading this charge while undergoing treatment for terminal cancer.

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There is only one question to ask: Why? Why dedicate the remainder of her life to such a project? “I’ve worked in football for so many years and there is a distinct lack of women supporters,” she says. “I’ve got confidence, so I can go to a match on my own, but a lot of women just can’t do that and a lot have said to me over the years: ‘I’d really like to go to a football match but I don’t feel I can.’

“Going to live sport, and my sport is football, is something that a lot of women would like to do but for whatever reason they haven’t had an opportunity.”

When she spoke at a Women of the World event a Muslim woman stood up and said: “My son is nine and is desperate to go to a football match but I’m terrified of taking him” – and these are people Forster wants to help. “This is not just for women. It’s for women to bring their children as well because, if you’re struggling, if you’re a single parent, it’s a big help. Whatever your age, whatever your circumstances, you can come along.”

When Forster’s sick leave from her job at Supporters Direct, the organisation that assists and helps set up community-owned clubs, expired she was cut adrift. Clubs, SD board members and individuals who had worked with her rallied to a Crowdfunder campaign to support her income deficit and raised close to £2,000 before Forster asked for the donations to stop. Supporters Direct reversed its controversial decision after a wave of pressure and agreed to pay its longstanding staff member her salary until December 2016. So Forster decided to put those initial donations to good use.

“I thought about what I would like to do, had a chat with some friends and we came up with the name between us,” she says. “Women at the Game basically encompasses different sports and it’s about going together – women going together. It’s organised by women and it’s only women that go.

“We organise it in a way that means it’s comfortable for most women to do, and where no question is a stupid question. It was just a case of sharing my favourite sport with other women that haven’t had the advantages I had, like being taken by my dad from a young age.”

It was chance that meant Forster’s dad took her to games as a child initially. “On the Saturdays when my mum had to work, as a part-time hairdresser, she asked my dad to collect me from my dance class. I was five years old, what does a dad, a joiner, originally from Newcastle upon Tyne, do with a five-year-old daughter? The obvious thing for a Geordie is to go to the football.”

That is when her love affair with Altrincham began: “It was so busy I used to have to sit on his shoulders to see and I stood on a terrace with my dad. I lost my dad when I was 21, and it hit me very hard because we were very close. My mum was not interested in football whatsoever. But I carried on going to the footie. And I never really gave it up.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A group of female fans enjoy the Altrincham FC versus Gloucester City match in January. Photograph: Michael Ripley Photography

In her adult life she worked hard to help build a supporters’ trust at Altrincham and as a middle-aged woman came out of the public sector to go up against a bunch of 20-something men to interview for the job she took at Supporters Direct. However breast cancer struck in 2009 and, four and a half years after surgery and treatment, it returned; this time metastatic secondary breast cancer, this time terminal.

Her prognosis is only months and it was “declared as being very short in December 2015”. Yet she is still here and is using her time to pioneer Women at the Game. The pilot of the project was, naturally, held at Altrincham last January and helped her draw up documents to assist clubs interested in the format. By the end of last season 10 games were dedicated Women at the Game matches, with a particular interest around International Women’s Day. And not all have been initiated in conjunction with Forster.

“It’s been phenomenal. I had this idea about a year ago and we’ve reached a stage where clubs are organising Women at the Game days independently.” Non-league clubs have led the way. Enfield Town had 100 women attend their dedicated day and a number have continued to attend. Banbury United, Merthyr Town, Chester, Fisher and Bath City have also been among the hosts. At Chester a gazebo outside was manned by the women’s team, who welcomed the matchgoers with tea and cake and handed out leaflets.

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This season it took another huge step forward when Manchester City used their Champions League group opener against Shakhtar Donetsk on 26 September to host a Women at the Game event at the Etihad. They seated women who signed up in the same block and hosted pre-game food and drinks. With only six days to organise it, as they awaited permission from the top, around 60 women took part. It may be harder for top teams, who sell out games, to provide the space for such an initiative but it is also a no-brainer. “It can only be good for clubs, can’t it? To have more women going to games,” says Forster. And it certainly cannot be a coincidence that the first top-tier club to show an interest is one of those leading the way in the Women’s Super League on and off the pitch.

But organising has got harder. Since August Forster’s chemo has become weekly. “Some weeks I have to go to hospital on a Wednesday for blood tests and to see the doctor, followed by Thursday in the hospital for chemo, which always takes all day. That’s two days taken out of the week and sometimes I’m not very well for a day or two. So it has been very difficult to do Women at the Game.”

Her hope is that more women come forward to join her small band of volunteers, enough to assist interested clubs in different parts of the country. Raising money, after her initial investment and further personal funding, is also crucial to growth.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A downpour could not dampen the enthusiasm of these Liverpool supporters as they toured London before the 1950 FA Cup final between Arsenal and Liverpool. Photograph: PA

Forster is clearly self-sacrificing. She has dedicated a significant amount of her professional career to helping empower supporters. Now she is trying to help empower women. “I just want to do something to help women,” she says modestly. “Because we have had a tough time. All this stuff that has come out recently about abuse and misogyny is terrible. Let’s do this for ourselves. A lot of the women that come along are married, they’ve got partners, they’ve got children. But sometimes it’s just nice to be a bunch of women organising for ourselves.”

She is doing a lot to help women sample the fruits of the football forest but Women at the Game is also helping her. She says that at the leading cancer hospital The Christie, they jest that, with her drive to build Women at the Game, maybe she has “found the secret to surviving cancer longer than expected: being so blinking busy”. To which Forster adds: “I just don’t like to sit still.”

Talking points

• Chelsea and Manchester City continued their winning league starts with wins against Yeovil and Birmingham City respectively. Chelsea rested Maren Mjelde, Fran Kirby, Drew Spence and Maria Thorisdottir for the visit of bottom-placed Yeovil but that did not affect the league leaders. Eni Aluko scored two on her first start of the season, with Karen Carney and Crystal Dunn getting two apiece to extend the team’s goal difference lead over City to nine. City left it late to maintain pace with Chelsea as they scored two stoppage-time goals to secure three points. Natasha Harding scored her first Liverpool hat-trick in their 4-1 win at Sunderland but it is Lucy Staniforth’s strike that will be a contender for goal of the season. The powerful 25-yard shot put the Black Cats ahead before Liverpool took control.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chelsea celebrate during their win. Photograph: Chelsea FC via Getty Images

• Arsenal parted company with their manager, Pedro Martínez Losa, during the international break, so his No2 Ismael García stepped into the breach to lead the side for their 2-0 defeat of Everton. Holland’s Euro 2017 star Vivianne Miedema opened the scoring with a wonderful goal after twisting and turning away from three Everton defenders to find space for a shot. Beth Mead’s volley secured the Gunners’ first win since the opening day.

• Arsenal’s captain, Alex Scott, has announced she will retire at the end of the season. The 33-year-old, who will focus on her budding broadcasting career, has won nine league titles and seven FA Cups with the club and was part of the quadruple-winning side of 2006-07.

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• The Swedish side Linkopings FC secured the Damallsvenskan title following their goalless draw with Kvarnsveden at the weekend. They finished nine points clear of second-placed Rosengard, who confirmed their position in the Champions League next season with a 0-0 draw at home to Pitea.

• Fifa has announced that it will regulate the international transfer system of women’s football as of 1 January 2018.

• The Australian Women’s League (the W-League) began at the weekend. Most notably Perth Glory were 4-1 winners against the reigning champions Melbourne City (who finished fourth in the league last season but went on to win the play-off style finals series), with the Matildas and NWSL top scorer, Sam Kerr, getting the first goal in the fourth minute.