A WANDERERS fan will be joining veteran Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling as he walks 15 marathons in 15 days for prostate cancer.

The Soccer Saturday host will be visiting the grounds of more than 40 of England’s football clubs, on his ‘March for Men’, covering nearly 400 miles in the process.

Fundraisers are invited to join the popular sports anchorman for any leg of his tour of England’s footballing Meccas in aid of Prostate Cancer UK.

Day seven of the trek sees Stelling walking from Wigan Athletic’s DW Stadium to Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium – via Bolton’s Macron Stadium and Manchester United’s Old Trafford home.

And when football referee Chris Sharples, from Horwich, saw he would be stopping off at the home of his beloved Whites he knew he had to sign up.

He said: “That’s what made my mind up to do it, when I saw it was taking in the Macron, I thought ‘I have to be part of this’, it’s my team’s stadium.”

The 58-year-old who is no stranger to the country’s top football stadia, having worked as an outside broadcast technician for 30 years, was hugely impressed by the challenge Stelling had set himself.

He said: “I had just read somewhere that Jeff Stelling would be doing 15 marathons in 15 days and I thought that was absolutely mind-blowing.

“I thought if he can do 15 marathons for charity then the least I could do is one, just to help him out – especially as it ties in to my club, Bolton Wanderers, by going to the Macron.

“I decided I would do my bit.”

And although he is looking forward to meeting the genial TV host, Mr Sharples added he was also serious about raising funds for Stelling’s chosen charity.

He added: “I watch him all the time, he is so enthusiastic, I watch Sky Sports and obviously he’s always on that, but I’m doing it not just to meet him but to help him raise some money.

“I’m trying not to make this about me, I want it to be about prostate cancer. I know a few people who have suffered it, I can’t honestly say I’ve researched it, I just know it’s a horrible disease.”

The Bolton News: Jeff Stelling

Jeff Stelling 

But although Mr Sharples has not been directly affected by the disease, he and his wife Georgina have both previously battled different forms of cancer.

He said: “I have not had prostate cancer myself, but I had Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2004 and had treatment for it and my wife, Georgina, had breast cancer, so we have both been involved in this illness.

He continued: “I just want to raise £300, last time I looked I had raised around £220 , so I’m 80 per cent of the way there, but I would really like another £100.”

To donate visit justgiving.com/fundraising/Chris-Sharples