An Ipswich Town stalwart of the 1970s and early 1980s, legendary player Kevin Beattie won the FA Cup and UEFA Cup with Ipswich Town and earned nine England caps.
Beattie, who passed away in September 2018 had it all and would have achieved much more in the game if injuries had not cut short his career.
He was considered to be the Blues’ greatest player and he made a massive impression on me as a player and, later on in life, a friend.
I had watched him from the terraces as a youngster and remember him scoring against Leeds United from the halfway line which was all over SKY TV when Beckham did it many years later it.
The Beat was before his time, it seemed.
The passing of The Beat really rocked me and I decided to do something special in his memory.
Both the EADT and Radio Suffolk were raising funds to have a statue outside the ground but I decided to do something different.
Along with a friend, I decided to walk from Kevin’s birthplace, Carlisle, to Portman Road.
This was 311 miles over two weeks. Halfway, I must admit I wished Kevin had been born in Stowmarket!
The last week was really painful but I remembered that Kevin had played in pain with knee injections and it made me realise had he given up, maybe we would not had won anything, so I had to keep going.
It was worth the pain as we raised over £3k thanks the Ipswich fans and the PFA who doubled it to enable us to launch the Foundation in December 2020.
Since then, we have raised thousands for charities including East Anglian Children's Hospice, Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and the Injured Jockey Fund.
The Foundation also headed a ‘Night to remember Paul Mariner’ at Home Park. Plymouth Argyle which raised over £8k for the Brain Tumour Charity.
We also held a successful evening in Ipswich for the return fixture with Ian Holloway in aid of the Deaf Health charity (Ian's daughters are deaf) and we are now sponsoring a hearing dog with Ian called Grace.
Also last year, we received a lovely surprise from top horse racing trainer Richard Fahey when he asked if we would like to name one of his horses after Kevin.
We went for ‘Beattie is Back’.
Kevin liked the odd flutter. He would have loved this.
Since his first race on January 22, Beattie is Back has already had two wins. We recommend all Town fans follow him.
Since we formed, there has been a charity game between FC Clacton v Harwich & Parkeston FC (both teams Kevin was associated with) where they compete for the Kevin Beattie Foundation Cup.
At the moment it stands 2 - 0 to FC Clacton and the next one is at Harwich & Parkeston FC on July 15th.
Last year, George Baker (a devoted Town fan) produced an anniversary song. It is about how Kevin came to Ipswich as a young lad with nothing but his boots in a brown paper bag. A must listen.
We now produce a quarterly programme to raise funds to help with postage etc . The forthcoming edition in March includes an interview with Marcus Stewart.
Our vision is to keep the name of Kevin alive and bring greater awareness of certain charities.
We believe this will happen thanks to the amazing support of the Town fans and our new patrons, Pablo Counago and Fabian Wilnis.
KBF have some brilliant events lined up including an evening with Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock on June 10th in Brampton, Cambridgeshire.
Please note the Kevin Beattie Foundation is independent and not associated with Ipswich Town.
For more information, visit www.kevinbeattiefoundation.co.uk or twitter kevinbeattiefo1
Alternatively, email: malcolm@kevinbeattiefoundation.co.uk
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