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Across the Globe

The inaugural charity walk, which raised over £1million, paid for the Glasgow Research Centre into Blood Cancer and captured the nations attention. This was the walk that inspired people to do their own charity walk - nothing like this, on the scale and at the pace Beefy walked had ever happened before. No one thought Beefy could do it but he proved them wrong! The main walking crew was formed here, by accident. "Aunty Ray" had flown with her husband Alan to the start to support Ian and Kath. Alan announced he would like to walk a bit and Beefy asked, "Aunty Ray, could you just drive this car (the lead vehicle) today?" Aunty Ray got home 35 days later, she went on to organise all hotels on the future walks, drive the lead car and in most cases do the pre walk route reckie with Kath.

The inaugural walk captured everyone's attention and the requests for Beefy to do other walks soon came flooding in. Beefy was asked to do a walk in the Channel Islands and it was such a short walk he could fit it in between his cricketing commitments. Alderney, the third largest Channel Island is where the legendary cricket commentator John Arlott lived. It was he who introduced Beefy to the love of great wine. John Nettles, from the TV series of the time, Bergerac, joined the walk and Jersey Royal Potatoes sponsored it.

Since playing cricket with Sir Vivian Richards in Ireland during the troubles, Beefy had always wanted to go back and do a walk there. Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland to Dublin, the capital of Southern Ireland was the obvious route to take. The welcome from the Irish was amazing and the whole walk was supported brilliantly. Barry McGuigan, Willie John McBride and Mike Gibson were some of the Irish Sporting legends who joined Beefy during this walk and which was sponsored by Harp Lager.

Beefy was fascinated with Hannibal and was inspired to follow in his footsteps. After hearing that they used wine to pave the way (they poured wine into the crevasse of the rocks, which would freeze overnight and split the rocks to allow them to walk through) he thought it was a walk after his own heart! Accompanied by his great friend Eric Clapton for the whole walk and 3 elephants - Canaldi, Tarli and Batman (who only walked the first and last 500 meters and even then it was only when they saw fit. Sometimes the market stalls were loaded with ripe fruit which was too great a temptation to bother walking - and spent the time between wallowing in fields or playing in the snow!!). He set off much to the amusement of the French & Italians who saw these mad english man walking along with his 3 elephants!!

Returning to walk in the UK Beefy decided to tackle the perimeter, starting with the East Coast. This was the only walk in which he helped with the pre walk route - usually this was left to Kath and "Aunty" Ray. This meant it was by far the quickest reckie of any walk; he decided it was better not to see the hills before he had to climb up them!

This route went past Easington Colliery months after it had been closed. The area was reeling from the shock of the closure and it affected everyone. Pre walk the local post mistress asked for posters and flyers to help promote the Charity and walk. On the day we passed through Easington the response was phenomenal. The locals had fully embraced is and came out in force. We took over £15,000.00 in the buckets alone. This set a record that still stands today.

There was a very popular TV show, Saints and Greavsie, on ITV at the time and they decided to come along and join the walk. Earlier on the walk a young boy had accidentally ridden over the back of Beefy's foot causing a horrible blister that in turn got infected. When they arrived "Rooster" (Beefy's physiotherapist) was treating the infected wound. Beefy was biting down on a wooden spoon and Jimmy Greaves fainted at the sight! These walks were not for the faint hearted.

This was one of the toughest walks for Beefy as he came down with a nasty sickness virus but had to continue to walk 27 plus miles day after day. After hearing about his illness a great friend and owner of the local Indian restaurant gathered all his Biker friends and came down from Doncaster en masse on Harley Davidsons, loaded with Indian delicacies to support Beefy. This started another trend of the Bikers turning up unannounced on all future walks. The Indian food was very much appreciated at the close of each walking day.

Beefy was born in Wirral and brought up in Yeovil so the route was an obvious and personal choice to take. It was the first time we walked in Wales and the Welsh people were amazingly generous and welcoming. The walk passed through Harlech, which holds the record for the steepest road in the World. Each evening the crew had a meeting about the following days walk and the night before Harlech all crew were instructed that the road was very narrow so all big vehicles were not allowed up and must take the detour. Beefy's father in law Gerry decided, as an engineer, that his vehicle would be fine. The next day saw a long tailback in Harlech due to a wide vehicle getting stuck on said road and the driver was seen crawling out the back of the van! Kenny, Gerry's partner in crime on the walks had to take the wheel and reverse the vehicle out of the jam - which was harder said than done as he was no longer speaking to Gerry who was directing him!!

A very short distance this time. At a constant speed of 4.5mph it's not long before you start to overtake some of the runners who set off at speed. How true the story of "The Hare and the Tortoise" is!

This was to be the second and final time Beefy set out to walk from the top of Scotland to the bottom of England. Why? Because he wanted the personal challenge again. The first time Beefy did this he had no idea that there were 400 miles to the Scottish border never mind a further 600 plus to the bottom of England so this time he was more prepared and wanted the challenge. Complete madness really!!

This was the first walk that was not raising funds for Leukaemia. Stan Thomas, a good friend, was raising money to build a children's hospital in Wales, which was the only European Country not to have its own Children's Hospital. Liams son, James, who is Beefy's second Grandson, was born in Wales while Liam played for Cardiff Blues. After the fabulous response from the Welsh during the West Coast walk there was no hesitation to walk in Wales again. This walk finished in Cardiff and we had Welsh legends Charlotte Church and Catherine Zeta Jones joined. The reception was like the first ever walk, back in 1985. The pavements were at least 10 deep with supporters and the cheering rang in our ears for hours later!

Stage 2 of the hospital needed funding so Stan Thomas called Ian again and the trainers were dusted off. This time the hills and valleys of Wales were tackled. A tough walk for the crew, the downhill was worse than the uphill as the knee and ankle joints were put through their paces. Tanni Grey-Thompson joined on the toughest day - the hills were savage but this did not deter her. She was heard saying to stalwart crew member "Dave The Bet" as he attempted to help her, "don't you dare touch my wheelchair". He soon found out why as she shouted, "Goodbye" wizzing down the hill, passing Beefy at at least 30mph (thank goodness that road was national speed limit!) and getting half way up the next hill with smoke coming off her wheels!

We celebrated St George's day during this walk and the crew wore red roses. The next day the police escort arrived with daffodils and leeks for the Crew to wear and we all did happily!

For the first time we partnered with another Charity, raising funds for both Leukaemia and The Teenage Cancer Trust. We decided that we needed to do something different as by now people were doing charity walks all the time, hence the idea of two walks in a day. This is where influential friends come in! Richard Knocker joined the crew - he and his helicopter. The walk got off to a cracking start in Belfast with Ronan Keating joining us - he knew a short cut and changed the route only for us to end up at a dead end and retracing our steps!

Starting at Taunton where Beefy's cricketing career started and ending at Durham where he played his final game. Georgina Fitt, who worked for Leukaemia Research came up with the idea of getting the public to join the walks. It was a great addition to the events. We would walk between 8 and10 miles on the roads to a park and then have members of the general public join us. We had people of all ages, in pushchairs, wheelchairs, bringing the family dog; everyone came along to walk and raise awareness and funds for Leukaemia, the walks became a bigger family event. The whole crew would stay until the last walker finished. We met so many people who had personal stories - a lady who sadly lost her son to Leukaemia in 1976 and had followed all the walks from the start lived in Milton Keynes and was finally able to come and meet Beefy. Adults who had survived blood cancer came to walk with us. These experiences were priceless to the crew. All the hours of hard work, the blisters, aches and pains over the years disappeared as the stories came in.

Route

• Windsor, 11 October
• Royal Tunbridge Wells, 12 October
• Bury St Edmunds, 13 October
• Stratford-Upon-Avon, 14 October
• Llandudno, 15 October
• Harrogate, 16 October
• Milngavie, 17 October
• Durham, 18 October

For the 10 days of this walk we had local heroes join us. These were youngsters who had "kicked Cancers Backside" and helped raise awareness of the walk in their local area. It was fabulous to see the friends and families come out and support us, and every day was a celebration. We also had a special new Crew Member, Ross. Ross joined the 1st ever walk in 1985 while undergoing treatment for Leukaemia; his grandfather brought him to meet Beefy after his morning chemo. 25 years later he walked alongside Beefy every step of the way.

Starts at M&S in each town

• 10 April - Manchester (Heaton Park)
• 11 April - Birmingham (Sutton Park)
• 12 April - Worcester (Croome Park)
• 13 April - Bristol (Ashton Court Estate)
• 14 April - Winchester (Mottisfont Abbey)
• 15 April - Epsom (Epsom Racecourse)
• 16 April - Reading (Thames Tow Path)
• 17 April - Milton Keynes (Willen Lake & Campbell Park)
• 18 April - Chelmsford (Hylands Park)
• 19 April - London (Hyde Park)

Sponsored by Hotel du Vin and Malmaison.

This was to be the last big walk in the UK as it was simply becoming too much - all the red tape! We wanted to cross the country one more time to say a big thank you for all the amazing support we had received over the years. Sadly on the last day, when we were walking in London, Beefy had a phone call to say his mother was seriously ill in hospital. He insisted that the walk go ahead as it would have been Marie's wish. As Beefy crossed the finish line he and Kath were whisked off to a local airport and thankfully arrived at the hospital in time to say their last goodbyes. The crew, celebrities and walkers that day were so supportive and understanding it really touched the whole of the Botham family.

Stan Thomas was now the Chairman of the NSPCC in Wales and persuaded Sir Ian to do a short, coastal walk in Wales. What a beautifully scenic walk - the Welsh coastline is stunning. 3 days walking in the sunshine (yes the Welsh weather was fabulous) was a tonic!

Beefy is one of the founder members of Laureus Sports for Good Foundation. Post Tsunami he flew over to Sri Lanka to visit the Foundation of Goodness who were (and still are) doing amazing work with the communities savaged by the Tsunami. During a press interview a journalist asked "why have you never walked in Sri Lanka?". The answer was "I have never been asked to". The journalist then said, "Sir Ian would you please do a walk in our country?".

This was by far the hardest and hottest walk we have ever done and the money raised went to Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and The Foundation of Goodness. The temperatures were hitting plus 40 degrees by 8.30am and by the time the days walk finished the tarmac was hot enough to melt the rubber soles on your trainers. The walkers were suffering from dehydration and out of the 40 who started with us only 4 completed the whole walk. We zig zagged across Sri Lanka, walking in the most populated areas and on an evening driving to the next destination. What a country - such character and amazingly friendly people. One gentleman walked the day with us with no shoes on and we had our first Walk dog who decided that he liked the attention and exercise but possibly more that he liked the crusts of the sandwiches from the walkers!!

Another tough challenge, but again a very rewarding walk. We supported 4 local Charities, The Waitrose Foundation, Nazareth House, KlipTown Youth Project and Chipembere. Beefy was having a few problems with his heart so we had ER24 (South African paramedics) accompany us all the way. Again we walked in populated areas and highlighted the wonderful Rainbow Nation and diverse country that South Africa is. The last day saw us walking in the African bush and our route was slightly re-routed as there was a pride of lions snoozing under a big tree which was one of the markers for the walk!

In 2017, Sir Ian said he could not hang up his trainers until he had pounded the Australian tarmac (like he had their cricketers back in the 80's). JDRF Australia have a nationwide fundraising event called the One Walk Campaign. 40 Walk events were held around the country each approxamately 7km in distance. We joined forces with them for Beefy's last ever walk. This was a very steady 5 miles in Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane. The perfect way to end what has been four decades of Charity Walks. This walk campaign registered 6181 participants, including of 859 virtual Walk participants, and raised $1.1m in total.