You have to take your hat off to Botham’s fundraising efforts

NO idea why he is dressed in top hat and tails – and I suspect no-one had the courage to ask him on the day.

This is cricket legend Ian Botham holding his daughter Rebecca, just 16 days old, after he had completed his first John O’Groats to Land’s End walk for charity, which raised over £400,000 for Leukaemia Research in November, 1985.

He didn’t walk the 886 miles dressed like that, but had nipped into a pub to change just before he completed the walk.

And after the photographs were taken he stripped off the wedding gear and dived into the sea for a quick swim, which in November is as brave as doing the walk in the first place.

Botham did a number of charity walks over the next 15 years, with teams of supporters collecting from the public as he went past, and it is estimated he raised nearly £5 million. Botham began raising the money for the leukaemia charity after being in hospital with a foot injury following a Test Match, and wandered into a children’s ward where he was appalled at so many children dying from leukaemia.

Since he started his fundraising, survival rates have greatly increased.

As the Evening Times stated: “Even those who wouldn’t cross the street to watch England play cricket salute him.”

And baby Rebecca? She discovered years later she had diabetes and did her own charity events to raise money for research.

Copies of our archive photographs can be purchased by emailing photoenquiries@heraldandtimes.co.uk or via our website www.thepicturedesk.co.uk