Rob Walker on his Absent Friends Tour

He will run and cycle the 1000 mile plus distance between John O’Groats to Land’s End from June 5 to 23

Losing a good friend or close relative can have a profound effect on anyone and I’m no different.

Losing three of my mates and one of my nine-year-old son’s best friends in the space of two years has left me with a heightened appreciation of life, love and the determination to focus on the beauty of the simplest pleasures of life. Like a run down a country lane with nothing but the sound of birds and bees on your ear.

Running, athletics and snooker have defined my life for more than 40 years and after losing Robin, Martyn, Stephen and little George, and speaking at all their funerals, I decided to set myself a challenge and raise a few quid for two brilliant charities.

.⁦@WeAreWST⁩ Right. Massive undertaking. If you want to donate, join me enroute (June 5- 23,) or just tell me about your absent friends, get in touch. Grief takes many forms & I’m determined to put some smiles on faces. Let’s do this. #miles4mates https://t.co/ZF2wsHXoDH

— Rob Walker (@robwalkertv) April 29, 2023

That’s why on June 5 I will set off from John O’Groats to Lands End, covering more than 1,000 miles by cycling and running the length of this beautiful country in what I hope will be a thoroughly uplifting 19 days finishing in Cornwall on June 23.

Along the way I intend to spread some joy and encourage people to toast my friends whilst remembering  theirs, by giving out four bottles of champagne a day in memory of each of the four I’m doing it for.

I’m buying the bottles with my own money which people may think is a bit mad. But I’ve started doing random acts of kindness over the last year or so and those no strings attached gestures really seem to resonate with people.

In part I think it must be my way of channelling the grief into something positive.

I am also a firm believer that if life has smiled on you, there is a moral obligation to act with humility and generosity.

Ever since watching the inaugural World Athletics Championships in Helsinki in 1983 I knew I wanted to either run the 1500m for Great Britain at the Olympics, or “be the man in the stadium talking about it.”

Thanks to a series of strokes of luck, some hard work and a lot of passion, four decades later I find myself as the lead international commentator at every World Championships and Olympic Games.

Even though I’ve…