Frank Bruno is a National Treasure!

I lunched with Frank Bruno today at a Cancer Research UK "Sporting Turning the Tables" function at BAFTA in Piccadilly and I must say it was good to see Frank again after all his well-chronicled troubles. I haven't seen him for a while but spent many an hour with him in the twilight of his boxing career, once driving with him from his Essex home to the Channel 4 Big Breakfast studios at 5 a.m. to both appear on the show. His humour remains intact. Today compere Gary Richardson asked him how surprised he was when the phone rang at home all those years ago and it was Terry Lawless asking if he could be his manager. "I was very surprised, especially as I didn't have a phone," Frank answered, to much laughter. Anyway, here's a story that tells you everything you need to know about Frank Bruno. I first met him at training camp in Lanzarote in the days when there were only a couple of flights a week. On the first night news came to me that our house had been burgled and the thief had left our kitchen knives all over our bed. Nice! Frank was livid on my behalf and swore he'd do some serious damage to the burglar if he ever came across him. It was nine months before I saw Frank again, in which time he would have been interviewed by hundreds of journalists and met thousands of new people. Despite this the very first thing he asked me was how the family was, and if the burglar had been caught. I can think of a thousand sportsmen who are too wrapped up in themselves. Frank Bruno has never been one of them.