Graham Taylor: “It was 1988, actually, in those times - my first spell at Aston Villa. What happened then, the chairman Doug Ellis and the club, they picked a charity which they supported for that particular football season and then they had a dinner at the end of the season. And they picked Sense and that was the first I heard about it. And I supported - I then became a supporter of Sense during that spell that I had and we stayed in this area until about 1996 and at that period of time Sense had offices (if that’s the right word) in Birmingham, and I got myself onto the committee and we used to have the various meetings but then in 1996 when I returned to Watford I lost my connections – I obviously couldn’t attend meetings and what have you. But when we came back in something like 2003… 2002… I think it was, then I picked up those connections again. And although I don’t serve on a committee now although there is the Sense Midland Enterprise Board which I sort of act in an ambassadorial role I’ve picked up the support of the charity."

"It’s easy to say this and it sounds quite emotional when you think to yourself but you only have to think about if you’re both deaf and blind and people have said this so often but what you need to do is to put some earplugs in, put a mask over your eyes and try to last for ten minutes, never mind about a week or for the rest of your life."

"Just try to do that for 10 minutes and that will give you then some insight into the difficulty - the way - the lives that these people have to live and they need the support. I feel that they need the support or whatever support we can give them.”

Interviewer: “And you could have taken a more backseat role in supporting but you chose to be much more on-hand than that – and you ran the marathon for us in 2004.

Graham: “Yes I did, yeah.”

Interviewer: Why are you laughing?”

Graham: “Well because I ran it previously twenty one years before that: I ran the second marathon. I ran it in 1983 and I ran it in three hours twenty minutes. In 2004 twenty-one years later when I ran it on behalf of Sense, I ran it in just over five hours. I’m working out that in 21 years’ time in 2025 when I will be – never mind my age – I think I’ll get round in about nine hours. So I do run the London Marathon once every 21 years."

"So it was a good, good day that was and throughout the football fraternity I was able to raise about £17,000 for that particular run so that was a pleasing day. But there is nothing you know, when you are running a marathon, and you are supporting a charity, there is nothing better than when you actually finish the marathon – the feeling that you have. Not only about yourself that you’ve actually completed just over 26 miles but that you’ve actually done it for a very worthwhile cause.