Sky Sports News anchor Jeff Stelling is walking ten marathons in ten days to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK’s charity campaign Men United.
The Gillette Soccer Saturday star will visit more than 30 football clubs across the country from March 21-30.
The journey will take him from boyhood club Hartlepool United to Wembley Stadium with visits to south west London clubs in between – including Chelsea, Queens Park Rangers, Brentford, Fulham and AFC Wimbledon.
Jeff said: “I deal in statistics – but the ones we are dealing with here are shocking.
“One man dies every hour from this disease, that’s six in the course of Soccer Saturday every week.
“One in eight men will get prostate cancer, and for black men the odds are even worse at one in four.”
He’ll be joined on each leg of the journey by a select band of Men United supporters representing their football clubs along the route.
The group will be walking more than twenty miles each day across varied terrain, and each journey could take up to ten hours.
Thankfully, there are some shorter routes, including Brentford’s Griffin Park to Fulham’s Craven Cottage, which is only six miles long and two hours in duration.
The gruelling march will see the 60-year-old cover a distance of more than 250 miles.
He said: “There were some nice fundraising opportunities to go and walk on the Great Wall of China or maybe go to Peru, but they sounded too much like jollies to me.
“I wanted to do something where people could see I was feeling the pain on behalf of a fantastic cause.”
The Sky Sports favourite has already raised an incredible £50,000, smashing his original target of £25,000.
Angela Culhane, Prostate Cancer UK chief executive, said: “Jeff’s been a huge supporter of ours for many years, and has seen first hand the dangers of this disease through some of his closest friends in the business, and we are fully behind him on his epic Men United March.
“Walking ten marathons in ten days is a remarkable challenge. With each and every step Jeff and those who support him will help us as we tackle prostate cancer head on.
“The power of football consistently helps us reach out to men. We are very grateful for the continued backing from Jeff’s colleagues at Sky as well in allowing him to take this on.
“This challenge is once again a perfect example of what we call Men United; people getting together and doing something great to beat prostate cancer.
“On behalf of everyone affected by this disease I say thanks, and in the words of his long-time colleague Chris Kamara, it’s ‘Unbelievable Jeff’.”
Jeff’s new target is £100,000 and you can sponsor him here.
Image courtesy of Prostate Cancer UK, with thanks
