Franny Benali was boosted by support from Saints goalkeeper Kelvin Davis as he made his way across the east midlands today.

The Saints legend is due to arrive at Leicester City tomorrow morning after covering another 42 miles  from Stoke to the Leicestershire market town of Ashby.

Benali was grateful to Davis, who brought his family to cheer on the 45 year-old from a support car, as well as Angela Le Tissier, wife of Matt, and sponsors 4Com.

He said: “I heard someone beeping behind me as I ran along and when I looked behind me it was Kelvin and his family!

“It was great to see their smiling faces, it gave me a huge boost. They followed in a support car and we had a chat when I had a pit stop.

“The sponsors also joined us with one girl from 4Com running 20 miles with me and someone from Cancer Research UK as well.

“Seeing different faces make the effort to come and cheer me on makes such a difference en route, it’s encouraging for me and the rest of the team.”

Benali will need more support as he approaches the second half of his 1,000-mile run from St James’ Park to St Mary’s via the other 18 Premier League grounds, in aid of Cancer Research UK.

He said: “The pain in my knee is always there to some degree but I ran at a good pace today and arrived at our hotel around 4.30pm.”

You can follow Franny’s progress on Twitter @Benalisbigrun and at jellyfishlivewire.co.uk/benalis-big-run/map.

To donate, go to justgiving.com/BenalisBigRun or text BIGR55 followed by the amount you would like to donate (EG £1, £3, £5, £10) to 70070.

For example, if you want to donate £10 text BIGR55 £10 to 70070