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Sam Thompson declares 'it's a complete honour' in 'honest' challenge admission
@Source: manchestereveningnews.co.uk
TV personality Sam Thompson has admitted that "it's a complete honour" as he shares his most recent challenge in honest admission. He will be transporting the Soccer Aid for Unicef match ball more than 260 miles from last year’s stadium to this year’s. Sam's challenge will begin on June 2 and finish on June 6. In order to complete the challenge successfully, Sam will need to run a marathon a day, as well as cycle, to ensure the match ball is delivered ahead of kick-off on Sunday June 15 from Stamford Bridge to Old Trafford , this year’s venue. Speaking about the upcoming challenge, Sam, who is taking part in his second Soccer Aid for Unicef, shared: "It’s a complete honour, if I’m honest with you. I’m not a runner, I’m not an athlete. "I go to the gym every now and then, but more for upper body, I don’t think I’ve ever trained legs in my life. "The most I’ve run is 8k and I haven’t really been training for that long, so it’s something that I’m very nervous for and I have nightmares about as I just don’t want to let anyone down." Along the way, he will be visiting popular UK football stadiums including Goodison Park in Liverpool and Villa Park in Birmingham, in a bid to raise as much money as he can for Unicef. Before the challenge begins, he's been able to visit Unicef-supported initiatives in Guatemala last month to see first-hand how funds raised are helping children. He visited the Juego Limpio Fair Play football programme in Solola, which aims to give children a safe space to play and learn through sport. The star also went to an early development Centre in Solola, that's central focus is to provide toddlers with early education and a respite for parents. Sam reflected on an encounter he had with a young girl living in poverty while there, he said: "There was this girl called Dany who was three years old. She was helping her mum do the laundry, she was taking my hand and saying ‘come play with me’, "She lived in an environment that no child should have to – she had a toy box and there were more cockroaches than toys in the toy box. "It’s so sad but also you see so much happiness. What Unicef is trying to do is give children in these really tough situations that chance to just succeed and going out and watching how they do that in Guatemala was mind blowing." When asked how he would describe Soccer Aid in one word, Sam used "ethereal" as he elaborated: "It doesn’t feel like it’s real. It honestly feels like it’s straight from a Disney movie. "You have all these people from different walks of life and with different talents coming together for the same reason – to try and raise as much money as we can for Unicef."
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