A FOOTBALL coach with an autistic son reduced friends and family to tears after walking all day to raise money for charity.

A fundraising walk organised by Ben Watkins, 36, player-manager of Oak Football Club raised more than £2,000 for the 60th anniversary of the National Autism Society (NAS).

Last year the players of Oak FC - who are in the second division of the Gwent Premier League - decided to donate to the NAS in a team event to try to run 500 miles in one week.

Mr Watkins said: “Unfortunately, one week before the event I slipped three discs in my back and wasn’t able to run.

“My son, Noah, was six but he walked instead of me every day and he managed to walk 22 miles to add to the total.”

This year the team wanted to go one step further for the 60th anniversary and decided to walk 60km in a day.

Mr Watkins added: “We decided to push ourselves, we set off from the clubhouse at 5am and were walking for the next 12 hours.”

Mr Watkins was accompanied by teammates Daniel Barry, Simon Hughes, Rowan Tippings-Graham and Adam Propert.

Since 2010, the club has raised £30,000 for a variety of charities with a number of events, including one at the start of lockdown in which participants ran as far as possible in 90 minutes to raise money for the NHS.

Over the course of the 60km the team managed to keep an average pace of one kilometre every 12 minutes.

Mr Watkins said that the last 8km were the hardest due to a combination of painful blisters bleeding through socks and pulled muscles.

“Those last 200 yards were filled with immense emotion and a huge sense of pride in ourselves,” he said.

When they arrived back at the clubhouse the team had a group hug before being greeted by family and friends.

After a quick shower they were ready for the quiz which Mr Watkins hosted. It was a big success and managed to raise an extra £300 for the cause.