White Rose Reds Independent Liverpool FC Supporters Club will be clocking up the miles this summer to raise money in memory of Wally Bennett – a lifelong Evertonian who spent 30 years of his working life making Kopites happy.

The former non-league footballer, who played at Wembley twice in the FA Amateur Cup Final for Skelmersdale United before moving on to Marine and then Rhyl where he was player-manager, passed away in June last year aged 80 after losing a two-year fight against bowel cancer.

At the centre of the WRR fund-raising efforts will be a walk from Otley to Leeds on June 14 this year – which would have been Wally and wife Rita’s 56th wedding anniversary.

Some members will also be taking part in the Great North Run to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK in memory of the former Everton schoolboy player, who worked for Liverpool FC’s development association from 1980-2010.

His son Neil, who will be taking part in the walk on June 14 along with his children Leo, Marysia and Maja, said: “He spent a large part of his working life working for Liverpool Football Club. For me, this period epitomised dad’s character.

“Although his title was Promotions Manager, he didn’t see his job as making money for Liverpool Football Club.

“Yes, it was in his job description so did with the utmost integrity and professionalism but that’s not what motivated him, he saw his job as ensuring that as many people as possible who loved football got a ticket to see the match.

“He understood first-hand how much joy people got from going to the match – or understood it as well as an Evertonian can understand football-related joy – and that is what got him out of bed for 30 years.

“I can still see him now, a few nights before a big match - Man United, Everton, a cup semi-final or final, he would be sat at the dining table with a pile of tickets in front of him and a list of names, he would count out the tickets and arrange them on the table, run his finger down the list of names.

“Then his brow would furrow, he would shake his head, gather the tickets into a pile again and start all over again.

“He would do this about three to four times and I swear he was hoping the ticket pixies would come and put more tickets into the pile so he could sort everyone out. But eventually he would resign himself to the fact that he was going to have to disappoint someone, and you could visibly see the pain on his face that that caused him.

“There can’t be many Evertonians out there who literally drove themselves to a heart attack trying to make as many Liverpudlians happy as possible.”