Stewart's Charity Fundraising March of the Day II This Weekend
Thursday, 20th Mar 2025 09:17
This weekend Blues legend Marcus Stewart and ex-Liverpool and Bradford City full-back Stephen Darby are staging March of the Day II between Wembley Stadium and Portman Road to raise money for the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation, and the former Town striker spoke to TWTD ahead of the event.
The duo, who have both been diagnosed with the disease, were behind the first March of the Day last year which saw ex-players and fans walk all or part of the distance from Bradford City’s Valley Parade to Anfield in Liverpool, taking in 19 clubs on the way and raising £200,000 in the process.
March of the Day II starts at Wembley on Friday and in stages of around four or five miles takes in grounds around London before moving east through Essex and Suffolk, before arriving in Ipswich on Sunday. It has already raised more than £90,000.
“The plan is for 16 core walkers to walk 179 miles from Wembley to Ipswich,” Stewart explained. “From those core walkers, at any stage there will be someone walking, they will normally go about in groups of six. So, someone has to be walking at any time of the day or night.
“There are around 600 people who have registered and will walk with those core walkers, whether it’s one mile, 10 miles, that’s what people have been registering for.
“Along the route there are 40-odd football clubs, including loads of professional clubs and some amateur ones as well. The last couple of clubs are Colchester and Ipswich, arriving at Ipswich at seven o’clock in the evening on Sunday.
“Matt Holland is one of the core walkers, so he’s doing all of it. Simon Milton’s coming, Russell Osman’s coming and Terry Butcher’s coming, doing Colchester to Ipswich.
“A lot of Town fans will be doing the Colchester to Ipswich and I’m going to try and do that myself.”
Ex-Blues Cole Skuse, Darren Bent, Freddie Sears, Stuart Slater, Gavin Johnson, Kevin Lisbie and former keeper-coach Jimmy Walker are also among 56 ex-pros taking part at some stage.
Stewart, 52, who was diagnosed with MND in January 2022, says it’s gratifying that former teammates as well as ex-players he had no direct association with during his career will be turning out for the event.
“That’s what makes me really happy, apart from the fans from the clubs I’ve been at, to get support from your ex-teammates,” he said.
“I’ve even got three or four Bristol City players coming up and doing the walk from Wembley to Tottenham with me. They’re travelling a long way to do that.
“And the likes of Butch and Russell and Simon Milton, I didn’t play with those guys but they’re part of the Ipswich family and I’d like to think if roles were reversed, I’d do the same as well. It’s very humbling to have those teammates think of me and do stuff like that.”
Asked about his current health, the former frontman, one of the Blues’ scorers in the 2000 play-off final and then the club’s top scorer in the Premier League the following season, said: “I’m OK. It’s stayed in my left arm, of course, and it’s starting to creep into my right arm, but otherwise everything else is alright.
“At the moment it’s a slow process, which is good. We were told it stays that way if it’s slow. I can still walk, so I’m aiming to do Wembley to Tottenham and then Colchester to Ipswich. I can still walk, my arms are bit useless but I’ll be alright walking.”
He is at present in the process of relocating as he and his wife Louise plan for the future impact of the disease.
“We are moving house, we just sold our house in Bristol. I’ve been living in a town house in Bristol, which isn’t going to work in a couple of years’ time, so we’re trying to find somewhere near Manchester.
“We’re looking now, we’ve seen a couple of places we like, that are a bit more suitable, a bungalow in which it will be a bit easier for me to get around when the time comes.”
Earlier this year, the auction of a Town shirt Stewart signed some years ago brought in cash which will be used to help convert the new home.
“That raised £8,000, which was brilliant,” the Bristolian added. “I didn’t know this at the time, Matty told me at the last minute when we got to the event the other week at Ipswich, all of that money is going to go to myself for doing house renovations when we get there. Whatever I need to adapt in the house, it will go towards that.
“Again, very humbling. Whenever I’ve done an event, I’ve never asked for money for myself, it’s always been for the Darby Rimmer Foundation, but I had no choice really, Matty chose to do that and I said I’m not going to argue. It’s not going to go on holidays, it’s going to go to stuff which will be done to the house.”
The move to Manchester will end Stewart’s time working at Yeovil, where he has been head of player development since June 2022.
“Only to the end of the season, then I’m finishing. I’m still at Yeovil doing Tuesdays and Thursdays with the first team,” he said.
“Hopefully next year I’ll be able to something with someone, we’ll see. But for me to drive down to Yeovil twice a week isn’t going to happen and physically I can’t do the job really, carrying stuff and things like that. I don’t want to rely on other people to help me too much.
“You don’t know what’s coming round the corner and when it’s going to come round the corner, driving and stuff like that. I might not be able to drive soon, so if that’s the case then I won’t be able to do a lot for anyone, but we’ll see how I am at the beginning of next season.”
Reflecting on the prospect of medical breakthroughs regarding MND, he said: “We keep plugging along, we keep raising money for the scientists to do their bit and hopefully soon something will come along.
“Not a cure but some sort of treatment that sustains life for a lot longer and hopefully in that time they will find a cure.”
Stewart was last back in Suffolk for the Evening with Marcus Stewart and Friends event in January and the following day watched the 2-1 defeat to Southampton, the club against whom he scored his only hat-trick for the club, the only Town treble netted in the Premier League.
Turning to the Blues’ prospects of staying up, he said: “Still a chance but I think with the defeats to Southampton at home, then Palace last week and Forest this week, it’s tough times at the moment.
“But it only takes a couple of wins on the trot, which would give them a good chance again.
“Kieran [McKenna]’s glass will be half full and not half empty in terms of how he thinks and will think they can get out of it. I believe the same. It just takes a couple of wins.
“But there are no easy games in the Premier League, as we all know, so you can’t even look and say that you might a few points there, might get a few points there. Every game is tough, as tough as they come.”
Stewart was among those raising their eyebrows when Town’s current top scorer Liam Delap was left out of new England boss Thomas Tuchel’s first selection last week.
“I was very surprised he didn’t get called up to the England squad,” Stewart said. “I thought they would have given him a chance. I would have put him in.
“There aren’t very many young strikers around at the moment for England, so I thought he would have been given a chance.
“But he will get his opportunity, there’s no doubt about. I thought this would have been the perfect two games for him to be introduced to the full squad because he’s been in the U21s. Two friendly games at home, why not give him a chance?
“I’d put him in because we need to bring some young strikers through for England and he’s the perfect one.”
Stewart was similarly left out of England parties during his time at Town but says the situation is different for Delap.
“Liam’s a lot younger than I was, I was 28 or 29,” he recalled. “He’s got loads of time on his side. I probably didn’t at that time, I was coming towards the pinnacle of my career and then eventually the end of it. When you get to 30, you’re kind of in your latter years.
“Liam’s a young lad and there were loads of strikers when I was around. You had Teddy Sheringham, Andy Cole, Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen, so I was competing with them.
“I don’t think there are a lot around to replace Harry Kane at the moment, apart from your usual suspects, Ollie Watkins, players like that. There’s not many youngsters coming through, so give him a chance.”
Friday saw three of Stewart’s teammates from George Burley’s squad join him in the club’s Hall of Fame, David Johnson, Richard Naylor and Mark Venus.
“Those players deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. To be the Premier League, get into Europe, the whole team needs to be in it and eventually I’m sure most of them will be,” he said.
“And I think one day a lot of the lads in the current Ipswich team will be as well. From League One to the Championship, the Championship to the Premier League, trying to stay in the Premier League and it still isn’t over yet.”
But if Town aren’t able to escape the drop, he believes the Blues will be in a good shape to come back up again.
“If that happens, it’s reboot again and go again,” he said. “I think if they could stay in the Premier League this year, there’s every chance they’ll stay there for a few years.
“But a lot of teams are going down and coming back again. What’s to say if that were to happen to Ipswich that won’t happen next year?”
Donations to March of the Day II can be made via the Core Team Fundraising Page, while Blue Action and Dan Botten, author of several Town books, are also taking part and raising funds.
Photo: Matchday Images
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