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Sir Ian Botham on a previous sponsored walk

SOMERSET and England cricket legend Sir Ian Botham is coming back to Taunton for the start of another marathon charity fundraising walk.

For the first time, the former all-rounder is calling on members of the public to join in when the Marks & Spencer-sponsored event in aid of Leukaemia Research gets underway on Friday, October 10.

The first leg of Beefy's Great British Walk Against Childhood Leukaemia' covers four miles along the banks of the River Tone and the Bridgwater to Taunton Canal.

It will be Sir Ian's 12th sponsored walk in aid of the charity, 25 years after he met youngsters with leukaemia in Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital.

Sir Ian, who is president of Leukaemia Research, said: "In 1985, when I first started walking to raise funds for Leukaemia Research, the survival rate for children with leukaemia was 20% - now it is 80%.

"Join me on my 2008 walk and together we will help beat this terrible disease.

"I am determined to see all children survive in my lifetime."

Following Taunton, Sir Ian will take in Windsor, Tunbridge Wells, Bury St Edmunds, Stratford-upon-Avon, Llandudno, Harrogate and Milngavie, near Glasgow, before finishing on Saturday, October 18 in Durham, where he ended his first class cricket career.

He added: "I need people to sign up now and make this my best walk ever."

To book your place, call walk manager Georgina Fitt on 020-72699003 or e-mail gfitt@lrf.org.uk *For further details of the walk, click on the link below.

11:15am Friday 9th May 2008

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