I HAVE said very often how good the Saints Foundation part of the club is and I was quite surprised to hear recently that they were set to celebrate their 20th anniversary over the course of this season.

One of the events the Foundation are doing is on Saturday, October 9, where there is an opportunity to join them in a celebration of that anniversary, in what they are calling their ‘We March Together’ walk.

It is a five-kilometre route which offers supporters the chance to look back at the history of the club.

After a warm-up and welcome at Southampton Common, walkers will visit the site of The Dell.

The journey then stops off at St Mary’s Church before its conclusion with a special celebration event at St Mary’s Stadium.

I will definitely be helping out – not maybe during the beginning or during the walk! But I will be happy to be there when the walk ends at St Mary’s.

The Foundation would be delighted for more supporters to make contact with them and get involved. You don’t have to be Olympic standard or trying to beat records!

All generations of families, young and old, are encouraged to come together for the march and it is just £10 for adults and £5 for children. You will receive a bespoke event t-shirt and medal on completion. You can visit southamptonfc.com/saints-foundation for more information.

The good thing will be that you will be meeting up with fellow supporters of all ages. Some people you may have met at games but everyone will have one thing in common – helping to transform the lives of our community.

That is what the Foundation has been doing so well for so long now. Having been involved with many charities in my lifetime, I am proud to be an ambassador for the Saints Foundation.

The club doesn’t always get, or seek, publicity for the work they do but I can tell you there are many, many families who could not be more happy and grateful for the help they have received.

Well done to all of the staff and the club for continuing to do so much good and happy anniversary.

Another event which took place this week was unfortunately one I missed at the last minute.

A Saints legend, who I signed as a schoolboy, Franny Benali, launched the autobiography he has just written.

He was also in the news a few weeks ago with a lovely picture of him receiving his MBE from the Princess Royal at St James’s Palace.

The reason of course he received this honour was not for being idolised by supporters at Saints for the 110 per cent effort he always gave on the pitch.

It was because he had managed to raise £1.2million for Cancer Research UK by amazingly doing all of his incredible physical challenges over the years.

While I think he truly deserved to be awarded an honour – with due respect I think it could have been a bit higher than an MBE.

Maybe a CBE would have been more fitting, but knowing Fran, he will be absolutely delighted just to be given any award, as his main reason for doing everything was for helping the charity.

When people ask me about Franny, I tell the same story. The house he lived in was not too far from The Dell.

I had heard from someone that I should sign this youngster. At that time he was in the Southampton and England boys’ teams. His position was centre-forward.

I remember knocking on his door and signing him up on schoolboy forms, which meant he could not go to any other club.

He joined in the schoolboy get togethers from 14 to 16. At 16 he was given an apprenticeship and the rest is history.

But having signed him as a centre-forward – after completing almost 400 games, the record shows he scored one goal. It shows what a good judge I was!

Really what happened was after joining up with the club he was moved into the full-back position which he was very comfortable with.

I always say in football terminology, on the pitch he would kick his granny, wingers certainly didn’t look forward to playing against him.

Off the pitch he was one of the nicest gentlemen and he still is. He continues to frighten people, but only in the way in which they cannot believe what he continues to achieve.

Well done, Franny. I call him sir on this one occasion!