Sir Ian sets off on latest walk

Members of the public can walk with Sir Ian at points of his nine walks

Former cricketer Sir Ian Botham has set off on the latest leg of his fundraising walk from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

Beefy's Great British Walk is covering 131 miles (211 km) through nine towns in nine days.

He has already raised more than £100,000 for Leukaemia Research from the first three days of his trek, despite the economic climate.

Sir Ian started his walk on Friday, in Taunton, Somerset.

Members of the public are joining him on certain sections of the walk.

He said: "I think people have had a gutful of bad news. I think they relish the chance to do something positive."

He added: "I think people are fed-up with the credit crunch and bankers playing Russian roulette with our money."

Sir Ian, who is president of Leukaemia Research, said he was inspired to start his fundraising walks after meeting youngsters with leukaemia in Taunton, 25 years ago.

I think people are fed-up with the credit crunch and bankers playing Russian roulette with our money Sir Ian Botham

He said: "When I started walking, the survival rate for children with leukaemia was 20%.

"Now it is 87%. I would like to think we could get it to 100% although I'm not sure that's possible. If we can get into the 90s, we will have done well."

He said he had not done any special training.

"I've never trained in my life for anything. I'm not going to start at 52.

"It hurts at times, of course, but it would hurt twice as much if I trained."