I'm running the Great North Run again this year and asking you to help raise funds for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. It's a brilliant charity, based in the North East of England, which works within the NHS. It benefits cancer patients from across the region, but also contributes significantly to international research into the disease.

Bobby was and remains a vital and inspirational figure to me. I followed him to Langley Park infants, marvelled at his achievements with England and then came to know him when he was appointed manager at Newcastle United. By the end of his extraordinary life, he had been a colleague, a mentor and a friend, too. I'm incredibly proud to be a Patron of Bobby's Foundation.

When Bobby died, I wrote the following piece for The Times, reproduced here on the Foundation's website, where you can also find more details about the charity. 

http://sirbobbyrobsonfoundation.org.uk/the-bobby-robson-i-knew-and-loved/

As Bobby once wrote, “Cancer takes no account of colour — black-and-white or red-and-white, orange or purple, young or old, male or female, weak or strong, we’re all the same.”

This year, I'll be thinking of Catherine Riley, a friend and former colleague on the paper, who most recently worked for Exeter City's Football in the Community programme. Catherine was a lovely, beautiful, funny and vibrant woman, but cancer took no account of that, either. 

Thank you so much for your support. George.