The Pompey boy facing up to the ultimate charity challenge

Next April, a crazy notion from a Pompey old boy will become reality in the name of his son and a charity so close to this city’s heart.

In a period when the community ethos of our football club and the people within it has been earning well-deserved column inches, Dave Waterman has sent out his charity call to arms.

‘We’ve had a cooling-off period and it’s time to go again,’ said the ex-Blues defender of his work with the Oakley Waterman Caravan Foundation.

Most will now be familiar with the heart-wrenching-yet-inspiring story which provides the backdrop to the relentless fundraising which has taken place across the community over the past 12 years.

That’s the time which has passed since the 40-year-old lost his son, Oakley, to a rare form of cancer at the age of just six.

It was Oakley’s dying wish for children like him to be able to visit a holiday park near Chichester, just like he did with his family. There is now a lodge and two caravans dotted across the south coast.

The fervour and passion with which his dream has been pursued has been testament to kindness which exists within humans.

It’s also underlines how ordinary people are capable of doing extraordinary things – which describes exactly what will occur when Waterman takes on the Marathon des Sables.

The event in Morocco is the most ultra of ultra-marathons, the type of challenge to have Mo Farah looking at you like you’re a nutter.

Six marathons in five days across the Sahara Desert in temperatures reaching 50C. Oh, and all of this carrying the equipment you need to eat and sleep.