South Yorkshire man with rare cancer supporting charities with interactive tour of all 92 football league clubs

Lee Brown, from Dinnington, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 2016, called gist, and is still battling with the disease today.

Since being diagnosed, Lee has done a lot of work to help and support charities and has raised over £100,000 for these, including Gist Cancer UK.

During Covid, Lee became interested in virtual walking, which has led him onto his latest initiative, Virtual 92.

“During Covid, I ended up going through quite a tough time, I had a patch of depression, anxiety and a re-occurrence of my cancer,” said Lee.

“I got into something called virtual walking, such as one with a company called ‘End to End Run’ and it was Land’s End to John O’Groats. You don’t actually have to walk it. You do your local walk, I was walking up around the peak tops, five miles a day.

“You then add it to this virtual map and it sends you encouragement along the way and see where you are, where other people are and landmarks.

“My son, for Christmas, got the 92 football league map because we are big Wednesday fans and we go all the time. That’s when it hit me that it would be a great walk.”

Lee went to End to End to find help and support to run a new virtual app to do the 92 walk around the 92 football clubs.

End to End loved the idea that Lee brought to them and they have been working on it for the last three months and the app launched last Wednesday, with people now able to sign up ahead of the new season.

The walk begins at Newcastle United and goes around every single club along the way, finishing at Plymouth Argyle.

There is no time limit, meaning no matter your age or how fit you are, everyone is able to complete the journey, whether that be walking, cycling or running.

“If you want to cycle it in a month you can, and if you want to walk it in three years, you can,” added Lee.

“It is your own personal challenge – however you want to do it.

“Along the way, at every club you reach, we will send a postcard saying ‘well done’ and a bit about each club and at certain points, we will place our charities.”

The walk will support charities such as Walkings Brilliant, Free Kicks Foundation, Gist Cancer Support, and people will be able to raise some money for these charities when they hit certain points on the walk.

Lee is hopeful that Virtual 92 will take-off a prove popular – he is now looking to get some sponsors on board with the challenge as well as hoping to get some of the 92 football clubs involved and add to the experience of getting to the stadiums.

“Sheffield is the home of football and it is now a worldwide phenomenon. If I could get the support of the Sheffield people it would be amazing because I really think we can do big things with it,” he said.

To find out more about Virtual 92, visit here.