Legendary Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Pat Jennings has paid tribute to those who took part in the Football March for Men last weekend.

Jennings was speaking outside Tottenham Hotspur’s New Stadium after welcoming 150 marathon marchers on the North London leg of Prostate Cancer UK’s Football March for Men.

The march saw over 400 football fans put their best foot forward to help combat the most common cancer in men and ensured the charity’s flagship March for Men walking programme topped £1m for a second successive year.

“Two men during a football match die – it’s hard to believe,” said Jennings.

“The fact it’s taken over from breast cancer deaths – it’s probably ignorance in the past.

“It’s nice now that the problem has been highlighted and people can go and do something about it.

“There are probably 10 or 20 times more people who have the treatment, but haven’t wanted the publicity, but I think anything that can be done to highlight the problem and to go and get tested makes it worthwhile.

“You worry about football results, but there’s nothing more important than when it comes to people’s illnesses or having a problem like prostate cancer.

“I’ve got nothing but admiration for the walkers. I know what it’s like – the late, great Derek Dougan rang me up one day and said: “Pat, we’re going to do a little walk.”

“I asked “what’s the walk?” and I had just done 10 or 12 miles and I thought that was what he had in mind.

“All of a sudden he said: “Pat, we’re walking from the middle of Dublin to the middle of Belfast!” and I said: “what?!” We did it over a weekend and raised a lot of money.

“I know how difficult walking is – we had to do something like 120 miles over that weekend and it’s hard work, so I have nothing but admiration for these guys who got involved to highlight the Prostate Cancer UK campaign.”

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, with one man dying from it every 45 minutes. That number has overtaken the number of women dying from breast cancer, making it the UK’s third biggest cancer killer.

For more information, go to prostatecanceruk.org/football.