Midlands sport stars back Sir Ian Botham's charity walk

Cricket legend Sir Ian Botham was joined by Midland sporting stars when his latest charity walk brought him to the region.

He arrived at the Clent Hills, near Stourbridge, yesterday as part of his 10-day Great British Walk, which will raise money for blood cancer charity Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research.

Among those who attended to support the event was former Wolves and England star Geoff Thomas, who has himself beaten the illness. Geoff said he had wanted to support Sir Ian and all of the other fundraisers who had turned out to take part.

"What events like this do is allow people who have been touched by this to come together and do their bit," he said.

Ex-Aston Villa and Wolves player Gordon Cowans, who is now first-team coach at Villa, also took part in the event.

He wanted to raise awareness of the plight of Villa's skipper Stiliyan Petrov who was diagnosed with acute leukaemia last month.

"Stiliyan was up at the training ground last week, looked really well and was feeling positive about himself," he said.