When Cheltenham Town and Gillingham walked out at the Johnny-Rocks Stadium on Good Friday afternoon, they were following in the footsteps of the day's true heroes.
Before the 2-2 draw in Gloucestershire, Sam Davin and his three friends from the Royal Air Force - Carl Evans, Aaron Lewis and Shaun Brian - had just completed a gruelling that involved them running one kilometre around each of the 92 stadiums in the Premier League and EFL over the course seven days. Dubbed the 'Dash of 92', Sam and co trekked across the country in a motor home gifted to them by a friend, clocking up more than 2,600 miles to spread awareness around autism and raise money for charity.
In April 2020, Sam's six-year-old son, Frankie, was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, prompting their family to uproot from their home in Cheshire to be nearer Sam's RAF base in Oxfordshire. The move came thanks to support from the RAF Benevolent Fund, but it was even further away from home when Sam and his mates decided to embark on the challenge.
"We'd spoken about an event a few years ago," Sam told Mirror Football. "The four of us were overseas in Cyprus, I'm on the football team out there and the other three lads were players, too. Just over a drink we spoke about that it'd be something I'd like to do.
"The three lads were really keen and we spoke about it over the last few years, but we were living in Cyprus and the logistics were quite tough. But now we're back in the UK - three of us at Brize Norton, Shaun's at Odihan which is only an hour away - we thought now was a good time to get it done."
Kicking off at Oxford United's Kassam Stadium last Friday, the four travelled to every one of the famous 92 grounds, running a kilometre at each stadium morning, noon or night. Although the aim was to run around the club's pitch, circumstances forced the gang to get creative in order to keep themselves on track.
"The clubs have been brilliant," Sam, 34 and a Manchester United fan, explained. "The lower-league clubs, they're not open after 5pm, they shut down and might not have 24-hour security that the bigger clubs have got. At Harrogate, we got there at 1am and we didn't know if we could get all the way around so we pretty much just did 500 metres in one direction, turned around and come back.
"We'd have loved to stay in hotels! We managed to get a motor home, our friend has a business - Castra Motor Home Hire - and he just said, 'tell you what, you can have it for the week'. So, we haven't had to pay anything, he's give us this vehicle, so we've just had to find places to plug it in for showers, gas and electric. But we've actually been quite fortunate because the route we've taken, we’ve finished off in a 20-minute vicinity of RAF camps.
"We contacted them, they said, 'yeah, no problem' and bent over backwards, managed to find us a room. One night, we couldn't get a room at RAF Honington because they were fully booked but they let us plug our motor home in and use their facilities for showers and stuff."
Garnering support on social media from the football family, the RAF's finest were greeted with warm welcomes up and down the nation. Far north at Carlisle United on Wednesday, they were given a signed pair of boots worn by midfielder Brennan Dickenson, who was there to meet them at Brunton Park.
"I was born in Cumbria so it was nice to be back home - so to speak," Sam added. "One of the lads, he's friends with Brennan Dickenson and he managed to sort us out some signed boots. As soon as we tweeted that, all the fans were on top of it. Sheffield United was the same, Luton was one as well; as soon as the clubs give you a little bit of a push, you get a lot of attention.
"And that's what it's all about really, spreading the awareness. The money's great and if we can raise as much as possible, brilliant. But it's more about spreading awareness, making sure people are aware of the actual disability and what it means in that everyone's different. We've done our job then."
Although the week-long task was tough, living with someone diagnosed with autism presents its own difficulties on a daily basis. With that at the forefront of his mind throughout the dash, Sam hopes to be helping anybody in a similar situation to the one he, wife Anne and their two other sons found themselves in two years ago.
"Frankie can be a handful at times, he's a good kid, he's really nice-natured, but I think everyone who can relate to autism can understand the struggles with it," Sam admitted. "The spectrum's astronomical from one level to another, so everyone's got their own challenges. It's just more about being aware that people are different, understanding that it's not intentional, don't take it personally because they're trying to cope.
"We know it's tough and the five of us deal with it all together. But when it's hard, how does it feel for them? They're struggling with it as well - maybe they don't cooperate sometimes - it's just having that awareness that they're going through it and trying to understand what you can do to help. I'm still learning, I didn't really understand it until Frankie got diagnosed.
"You start seeing it when you're in the supermarket and it gives you an awareness that if something's different to the norm, you never know what's going on. It's not a physical disability, so as long as you have that awareness and appreciation, we'll get along much better as a society.
"I don't know how Frankie will develop, he's six years old, hopefully he can become independent when he grows up. We're in the progress of trying to find him a specialist school for him but society can thrive with people who have autism. They can integrate into society like anyone else, they just have to find their niche which is quite common with autism - a lot of people have something they're passionate about. If everyone's aware of that, then society will be a much better place."
Even after completing the challenge and raising over £2,000, there's no time for Sam to enjoy a typically relaxed Easter bank holiday. "I'm actually back in work on Saturday," he noted. "They thankfully let me have the time off to do this but I'm back in tomorrow and Sunday, and then I've got my four days off. I think my wife’s gonna pretty much dump the kids on me on Monday - I didn't realise it was half-term when we booked the event!
"We just wanna say thanks to all of the clubs for supporting us and thanks to anyone who's donated, we really do appreciate it. We've had loads of likes, shares and comments on the Twitter page especially, it's been really good."
You can help support Frankie, the National Autistic Society and the RAF Benevolent Fund by donating to Sam's GoFundMe page.
