Botham proud of £12m leukaemia walks that lifted survival odds to 95%

Former England all-rounder Lord Ian Botham has said he is "proud" of the series of charity walks he undertook for leukaemia research, describing the challenges as "a lot of fun and pain" that raised more than £12m over four decades.

A promise born in a hospital ward

Botham, who played cricket for England from 1977 to 1992, said the idea for the walks came after a stay at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, where he was being treated for a broken foot.

"The doctor said well you've got eight to ten weeks for treatment and I don't think those boys will be with us and, at the end of my treatment, they weren't. I said to Kath, we have to do something positive," he recalled.

What began as a personal pledge turned into a national institution. The all-rounder completed 18 walks covering ten and a half thousand miles — the equivalent of travelling from London to Sydney.

From 20% to 95% survival

Botham said the core aim was awareness as much as fundraising.

"It's all about awareness. The leukaemia walks was the awareness and in those days there was a 20% chance of survival, now it's a 94 to 95% chance. So that is terrific," he said.

The money raised has supported Blood Cancer UK, formerly Leukaemia Research. His first walk took place in 1985, his final UK trek in 1999, and his last fundraising walk in 2013.

A family affair

Speaking to BBC Breakfast while promoting his new book, Seasons: Riding the Torpedo, Botham said the walks demanded enormous sacrifice from his family.

"It was a family affair. The toughest job of the lot and that's the organisation. These walks took about 18 months to organise with my wife and children," he said.

He acknowledged the personal cost: "I get a lot of stick from the grandchildren, they said to me, you were the worst father because I was never there. I was all over the world playing cricket. When the grandchildren came along, I got a big mug one morning saying best ever granddad. So it balanced out, but yeah, you do make a lot of sacrifices. That's where the family comes together."

Botham said the public response was the key to the walks' success: "We did 18 walks, ten and a half thousand miles... It started off we didn't know what we were going to achieve, we didn't know it was going to work out, but the response from the public was immense."