Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling heading to local towns on marathon charity march for prostate cancer charity

Intrepid Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling is embarking on an epic charity walk in March to help tame prostate cancer.

Teaming up with leading men’s health organisation Prostate Cancer UK, the long-standing Soccer Saturday host will complete ten walking marathons in ten days, from boyhood club Hartlepool United to Wembley between March 21 and March 30.

And he will be visiting Chesterfield, Nottingham, Rotherham, Sheffield, Scunthorpe, Derby, and Burton aamongst other towns and cities on his travels.

Clocking in at more than 250 miles, Jeff’s Men United March will see the 60-year-old check in on 31 football clubs.

And he will be joined every step of the way by close friend, and Hartlepool United chief executive, Russ Green.

After starting off Hartlepool and visiting York City and Leeds United on the first two days, the third leg on March 23 sees him in South Yorkshire, setting off from Doncaster Rovers’ Keepmoat Stadium and heading to Lincolnshire to Scunthorpe United’s Glanford Park.

He is then back in South Yorkshire again on March 24 for the fourth leg, starting off from Rotherham United’s New York Stadium and visiting Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough and Sheffield United’s Brammall Lane grounds before finishing in Chesterfield’s Proact Stadium.

The next day, March 25, which is Good Friday, sees him set off on the fifth leg from Derby County’s iPro Stadium and head to Burton Albion’s Pirelli Stadium, arriving in time to walk on to the pitch ahead of their game against Oldham, and then on to Nottingham to Nottingham Forest’s City Ground home and then finishing at Notts County’s Meadow Lane ground before heading away to the West Midlands the next day.

Jeff launched the Men United March live on Soccer Saturday earlier this month, at the end of a first-person piece on the fortunes of his beloved Hartlepool, the first time he has ever filed a report for the show.

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.

“Prostate cancer is not discerning. It doesn’t just hit the bad guys, it’s the good guys as well.

“I’ve got friends such as Sky Sports rugby league colleagues Bill Arthur and Eddie Hemmings who I have known longer than I care to remember.

“Both are great guys who have been affected by prostate cancer and I’ll be meeting more men like them along the way.

“That’s why I’ve signed up for this challenge. I’ve run marathons and climbed Kilimanjaro. There were also some nice fund-raising 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.

“Within the next 10 years Prostate Cancer UK believes they will find the answers to make this disease something men and their loved ones no longer fear.

“I’ve met the scientists who pledge to do this and I can see how dedicated they are.

“But do to this we need to raise vital funds – and I need everyone to support me and all the men affected by prostate cancer by visiting menunitedmarch.org and pledging their support.”

Angela Culhane, chief executive of Prostate Cancer UK, 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.

“The power of football consistently helps us reach out to men and we are very grateful for the continued backing from Jeff and Sky 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 Sky Sports colleague Chris Kamara, it’s ‘unbelievable Jeff’.”

To support Jeff, and find out more about his challenge, visit menunitedmarch.org