Keeping fast company.

Aside

When we first moved to Somerset in 1985 Ian Botham was just resigning from the Somerset cricket team. He was a test team cricketer and had been a Test team captain. He holds the Test record of the highest number of wickets but was always controversial. Once he was hit in the mouth with the ball but just spat out some teeth and carried on. He had a period when his behaviour was not good and the tabloids had a field day.

Whilst a cricketer at Taunton he broke a bone in his foot and visiting Musgrove hospital he happened upon some sick children and learnt they had leukaemia and were not expected to live. He and his wife Kathy gave a party for these children and were devastated at their next party to find none of them had survived. They started to raise money to make the children’s last days as happy as possible and later decided to raise money to try to find a cure – hence Leukaemia Research and Ian started walking, his first: 900 miles from Land’s End to John ‘o Groats. He has been walking ever since and has raised more than 12 million pounds. In the eighties there was a 20% chance of surviving now there is an 86% chance and Sir Ian {the Queen knighted him for his sustained work for charity) has declared that he will keep walking until a cure is found.

Friday dawned bright and sunny. We were given t -shirts and told to be at Taunton cricket club at 11am to register and then the walk would start at 12 noon. We were there by 10am as we feared parking would be difficult so were the first to arrive. We were offered a banana, a healthy nutty crunch bar and a bottle of water. I asked a nice looking woman what was the estimated time of our return, after the walk.

‘Well, Ian does it in an hour.’ she said cheerfully. Actually she was Lady Katherine – Ian’s charming wife.

We sat in the sun for a while but it was quite chilly so we warmed up in the car with a crossword.

Ian from early morning was doing interviews with press, TV and radio;, visiting Musgrove Hospital and Marks and Spencer’s - the donors of our goodies ( hence the perfect bananas)so we eventually left at1pm. He strode in the field, with his retinue and without breaking step whirled off on the walk.

Typically I was up a flight of stairs in order to get a shot of him so had to run (I never run) to catch up with the stream of walkers.

The pace was unbelievable and I realised if I wanted to keep up I should concentrate

like mad not look round, not speak and not stop. So my camera, my goodies and my phone remained untouched in my rucksack throughout. The reason I was frantic to keep up was the directions were so complicated I knew I would get lost on my own.

We hurried alongside a river through pleasant countryside unfamiliar to me. A man with two black spaniels overtook me and his fleece said he had 2 new knees. Even when he stopped to pick up his dog poo, he still overtook me. I did wonder if his knees were motorised. There was one brave man with a hefty toddler on his back and still there at the end of the walk. Two ladies in front of me had a dear little puppy with such short legs they carried it most of the way. At last we were half way and now walked beside a canal where people would wave and say ‘Well done!’

I caught up with a great- grand mother and we – ever so slightly slowed the pace so we could talk. Her son had been diagnosed with leukaemia in his fifties but was surviving with the help of white blood cells from his sister. We started to relax and enjoy the walk especially when we were told we were almost there. In fact we did 4 miles in an hour an ten minutes. That’s an hour and ten minutes. We weren’t the last – not that that mattered a damn, and the icing on the cake was when Sir Ian Botham’s mother hung a medal round our necks.

It’s now Sunday and I can just about move normally again. I’m so glad I did it but that’s the end of the fast lane for me.