Sorry it’s been so long since my last blog. So much has happened since then and we’ve been very busy.

Firstly, at the end of April, Bardon Concrete employees, including my good friends Steve White and Gary Brennand undertook and completed the famous Lands End to John O’Groats challenge, over a period of 10 gruelling days. A massive well done and a big thank you to all involved. Unfortunately, I was only able to get involved for 1 day (and that was only driving and navigation) due to the London Marathon, but it has got me thinking about how I can attempt this challenge next year – I’m thinking of some kind of relay to try and beat the current time of 44 hours – Watch this space!

Also, during April, I had a busy weekend, as you are probably aware. My family and I went to Buckingham Palace to receive my MBE from Prince Charles. At the end of the day, I think Linzi deserved the medal for trying to keep the boys quiet for over 2 hours whilst I was in a different location preparing to receive it. All Koby wanted to do was “Go back to the Hotel” and he constantly tried to tell everybody in the entire room how “bored” he was! For me, I was very apprehensive and nervous. After being filled with all kinds of instructions of how to approach and address Prince Charles. I was worried I would mess up . . . . . and I very nearly did. I almost turned my back on him after speaking to him. I was more concerned about how a lad from Thatto Heath could slip ‘Your majesty’ into a conversation. Prince Charles was very nice and gave me a little smile to acknowledge my near mistake. It was a great occasion and a fantastic experience for us all. Although Koby almost missed me getting the MBE as he fell asleep, but fortunately, Linzi was able to wake him up just in time.

2 days later was Marathon day. I prepared well the day before, even though the weather was really hot, I managed to keep out of the sun by taking the boys to the Lyceum Theatre to watch The Lion King, along with Mike Denning and his family. Overall, I was really pleased with the way the race went, after my turbulent training I don’t feel I could have done any better on the day. I took on lots of fluids at every station from early on. I had learnt from 2008 that the last 6 or so miles are really tough. After 17 miles my hamstrings began to tighten up, so I pulled back a little and by the time I got to 22 miles I felt I could run the whole distance without stopping/walking. Unfortunately, at 25 miles I had to stop and stretch as my right hamstring developed cramp – the kind that every sportsman knows when you bolt out of bed in excruciating pain! Anyway, I did it and in 4 hours 24 minutes, beating my fathers time by 6 minutes and my previous best by 8 minutes. I was pleased! I would also like to mention how well mike Denning did. He completed in a very impressive 4 hours 45 minutes. Not bad for his first effort.

The Taylor Park event was another great success. With one exception that is – after 13 years of playing full back at a professional level and being under more high bombs than I care to remember, I somehow managed to badly fracture my little finger, in the ‘Beat the Bomb’ event. I spent 4 hours in A & E and I’m still struggling with it at the moment. I have had to wear a plastic splint to keep it straight and was advised when I went back to Fracture Clinic that I should have an operation to wire it back together. This meant having a wire sticking out of my finger and missing my family holiday. The Dr told me if I didn’t have the op ASAP, I might loose the use of my finger and develop arthritis – the least of my health worries I would say!

On Tuesday 1^st June I was supposed to be undertaking my next challenge for the Foundation - a Sky Dive with the Red Devils. Unfortunately, this was cancelled the evening before due to the Great British weather! This has now been re scheduled for 30^th June – I am a little worried about this to say the least, as I don’t even like climbing up a ladder.

Having opted out of the operation on my finger, I have just returned from my family holiday in Dubai. After being so busy, it was great to have a week of relaxation, although with the temperatures reaching 40 + everyday, even sunbathing was hard work. During our stay, we seemed to see lots of famous people in our Hotel, Chris Eubank, Joleon Lescott, Ashley Young, Zanetti, Real Madrid’s Drenthe, Ian Harte and Alan Stubbs plus a few more. Watching these people made me realise that even though they too where on family holidays, so many people where approaching them, asking questions, wanting photos, they don’t get much time to themselves. But I suppose that’s the price of fame and fortune. At least on one of the days at the water park, I noticed that Jolean Lescott and other footballers in his party had booked out the VIP section at the kid’s pool area for a little bit more privacy.

Finally, I would like to thank my old friend, Le Bobby Goulding for his kind gesture of the French team wearing The Steve Prescott Foundation t-shirts, for their warm up before the game against England on Saturday. Sorry they didn’t bring them much luck on the night, but they did look quite stylish. Cheers Pal