Valleys Walk Fundraising Total Announced

The Noah's Ark Appeal has announced that the Ian Botham Valleys Walk raised £430,000 for the new Children's Hospital for Wales. Ian Botham completed his second walk for the Noah's Ark Appeal when he arrived back at Newport Rugby Club on the afternoon of 11 October. His walk through the valleys of south east Wales had taken nine days to complete and he had covered a total distance of 210 miles. Hundreds of sponsored walkers joined in the Grand Finale, a lap of Newport city centre where spectators thronged the streets to wish Ian well.

Appeal Director, Suzanne Mainwaring, said. "This is a magnificent achievement by Ian and his crew and by everyone involved. The Appeal staff worked tirelessly for many months to make the event a huge success. Ian was accompanied on each leg by sponsored walkers, sometimes as many as ten, all of whom had raised a minimum of £1000 to take part – a wonderful effort."

"Thousands of people turned out to support Ian and make donations to the Appeal. We are very grateful to every one of them. Huge support from the media was a massive help and the final result is a wonderful boost to the Appeal in our efforts to raise the £1.5 million to provide state of the art equipment for the new hospital."

Ian was helped along the way by a host of celebrity supporters, including Appeal Patron, Charlotte Church, and cricketers Mike Gatting, Matthew Maynard, Robert Croft, Mike Powell, Mark Wallace and Tom Moody. Athletes Daley Thompson, Lyn Davies and Tanni Grey Thompson were joined by show business stars Rick Wakeman, Helen Adams, James Fox, Peter Karrie, Adele Vellacott and Jamie Shaw. Ieuan Evans, Percy Montgomery, Mike Hall, Rupert Moon and JPR Williams were rugby's representatives and were joined by Spencer Prior from Cardiff City.