Athletics: Watson to dig deep in long walk of discovery

Chris Brasher was a bit of a bruiser in his time, not least when confronted by rival steeplechasers, obstructive politicians or blazerati, but as long as many of us knew him, he never professed great affection for the Noble Art.

None the less there is little doubt that the late founder of the London Marathon would have been filled with admiration for what the ex-boxer Michael Watson sets out to accomplish today. Brasher climbed many a mountain, but none as steep as the task facing the former super-middleweight champion.

Watson, 38 last month, intends to complete the marathon course despite being painfully afflicted by the lingering aftermath of his world title fight against Chris Eubank in 1991. Six weeks in a coma, he suffered severe brain damage, blindness in his right eye and paralysis from which he has only partially recovered.

He will travel not in a wheelchair but on foot, aiming for a mile an hour over six days, walking two-and-a-half hours each morning, followed by a four-hour rest and a further two-and-a-half hours each afternoon. He will rest and sleep in a bus.

Peter Hamlyn, the neurosurgeon who saved Watson's life, will accompany him. "Michael has no business walking to the end of the road, never mind taking on the marathon," he says. "If he manages it, it will be one of the greatest achievements the event has ever seen."

The course has been completed by panto horses, tray-carrying waiters, clowns on stilts and even a deep-sea diver, but the sheer magnitude of Watson's ambition is surely unequalled in the history of the event. Even a circuit of the small garden of his Chingford home leaves him exhausted, but he vows: "I know I can make it. I have the force with me. I have been brought back to the person I used to be, an athlete preparing for a fight."

Watson competes as captain of a team raising funds for the Brain and Spine Foundation. "He is an extraordinary individual," says Hamlyn. "Extraordinary for surviving, extraordinary for recovering his mind and extraordinary for learning to walk again.

For the last dozen years Watson has walked through a storm, his head held high. And throughout this week he'll never walk alone. A posse of personalities from boxing and other sports has pledged to keep him company all the way.

Next weekend, when they reconstruct the marathon finish in The Mall, just for him, he hopes to cross the line alongside Eubank, of whom he says, "He has been forgiven", meaning that while he bore no grudge against the man whose fists blighted his life, as a true warrior he was irked at losing to him.

The hardest thing, he jokes, will be the victory salute at the end. "I'm not daunted by the idea at all, because my faith and determination will see me though."

Donations can be made to sponsor Watson on 0207 793 5900 or email: info@brainandspine.org.uk