MARCHING TOGETHER!
Football united for charity...
ST ALBANS City, Sutton United and Leyton Orient would no doubt all love a trip to Wembley this season – but for 400 marathon walkers the Non-League trio were all part of the March to the Arch in aid of Prostate Cancer UK.
The charity’s flagship March for Men topped £1m for the second successive year as football fans united to stop the third biggest cancer killer in the UK.
More than 11,000 men die from prostate cancer in the UK each year – one man every 45 minutes.
Last Sunday, four legs – starting at St Albans City, Sutton United, West Ham United and Millwall – set off on the 26 mile walk to Wembley.
The fundraising efforts followed on from Hartlepool United and Sky Sports star Jeff Stelling’s epic challenges for the previous two years which saw him walk ten marathons in ten days in year one before upping the stakes with 15 in 15 last summer. This year’s Sutton United leg, which took in stops at AFC Wimbledon and Brentford, was kicked off by comedian and big U’s fan Tim Vine. When the legion of walkers reached Wembley they were greeted by World Cup winner Geoff Hurst and fellow England legend Ray Clemence handing out medals.
Hurst, who has seen former international teammates Nobby Stiles and Mike Summerbee affected by the disease, said: “I think when you first hear the stat about how prostate cancer kills one man every 45 minutes you realise how big a disease it is and how important it is to continue to raise awareness of it, and raise funds for it, to be able to have research into it. When you narrow it down to that kind of stat it is really shocking.
“The walk was a great innovative way of getting people to support the charity. It was great to see all those walkers turning up at Wembley – it was almost like a cup final or even a World Cup final with all the different colours with different teams, and uniting everybody against this terrible disease.”