Hannah Betts in the Daily Telegraph, …. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/9216735/On-the-road-for-Ian-Bothams-10000-mile-odyssey.html
Botham, Kushil & David Cruse at Lauereaus media event
ir Ian Botham has mouldy toenails. He also has rather beautiful calves; both doubtless the product of his 27-year pounding of almost 10,000 miles of the British landscape in a mission to raise £13 million and counting for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. This week, he is walking 150 miles between Glasgow and London, arriving at his final destination today. And so I find myself in a Manchester bedroom admiring said calves, while Rooster, his trusty physio, places ice cubes between the Botham toes, the scent of man-sweat hanging in the room.
Time was when being in Beefy’s bedroom might have held more racy connotations, reminiscent of the tabloid fantasy in which he broke a bed with Miss Barbados. Rest assured, today not only is his wife of 36 years, Kath, now Lady Botham, in the bath next door, his two-year-old grandson Kieran is playing next to him, his aunt Sarah keeping him entertained, while Botham’s mother-in-law stands chuckling behind me.
For the legendary England all-rounder’s walks are a multi-generational jamboree that goes some way to compensate for the time he used to spend absent on foreign tours (up to five months a trip). Indeed, the only occasion he is at a loss for words is when Read the rest of this entry ?