Each morning for several weeks before flying to Sri Lanka, Sir Ian Botham’s alarm woke him at six, on went his walking boots and he and wife Kathy tackled the one-and-a-half-mile hill near the family home up to Feldom Ranges, getting there in time to watch the sunrise together.

The morning machinations were preparation for his latest charity walk — Beefy’s Big Sri Lanka Walk — which he began last Friday and is aimed at helping disadvantaged children in the country.

Had it not been for a broken toe 36 years ago, Botham admits he might not have undertaken a single charity walk, which have ranged from John O’Groats to Land’s End to this latest venture and raised millions. It was the summer of 1977 and Botham was being treated at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton. To get to the physio department, he had to limp through a ward of child leukaemia sufferers.

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Source: London Evening Standard
Image courtesy of   London Evening Standard