members. On 12 March 2010, he was granted the title of honorary freeman of his home town of Hartlepool, along with the town's former MP Lord Mandelson. Personal life Stelling lives in Bishop's Waltham in south Hampshire with his wife Liz and two sons Robbie (born August 1998) and Matthew (born November 1999) and a daughter Olivia (born June 2003). They were married in November 1998 in Richmond upon Thames. He has completed the London Marathon on eight occasions and his best time is 3 hours and 28 minutes. In June 2013, Stelling, Colin Cooper, Craig Hignett and 12 others climbed Mount Kilimanjaro raising money for the children's charity The Finlay Cooper Fund. The climb raised £100,000. In 2015, Stelling was appointed president of Hartlepool United after accepting a request from the club's owners. In 2016, Stelling walked 262 miles from Hartlepool United to Wembley Stadium over 10 days raising over £420,000 for Prostate Cancer UK. He walked with his friend Russ Green, who was the Chief Executive of Hartlepool United at the time, and was joined by over 400 walkers including his friends from Sky Sports and the football world such as Chris Kamara, Matt Le Tissier, Charlie Nicholas and Paul Merson. On Day 3, Sir Ian Botham arrived to lend his support and walked with Stelling to Glanford Park, the home of Scunthorpe United, one of Botham's former clubs from his football career. In 2017, Stelling again pledged to walk to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK. In June that year he covered the length of 15 marathons in as many days, starting from St. James Park in Exeter, home of Exeter City and ending at St. James' Park in Newcastle, home of Newcastle United. In his book, "I've Got Mail" published on 17 September 2020, Stelling revealed he had been subject to a blackmail attempt via two letters sent to his home. The letters demanded a £50,000 payment in return for bogus accusations of sex assaults to be kept quiet. In a radio interview on BBC Radio 5 Live on 2 December 2020, Stelling recounted sharing the letters with his wife and together through a family friend's contact at Scotland Yard, they learnt others, had also been targeted by the same scammers. References External links University of Teesside Hartlepool Mail June 2008 Interviewed by Ron Aitken, Independent on Sunday Guardian interview 1955 births Living people Darts people