'Meandering' mayor steps up to charity challenge

First citizen’s 65-mile walk in aid of cause close to heart

- Sentinel Reporter

NEWCASTLE Mayor Robert Bettley-Smith will today complete a ‘challenging and deeply personal’ fundraising mission.

The borough's first citizen is tackling the last leg of ‘One Mayor Meandering’ from Clayton to the Brampton Museum where he will mark the occasion with a celebratory ‘apres promenade’ (after the walk) event.

After being invested with the chains of office in May, the Mayor revealed that he was undertaking a 65-mile sponsored walk, in 10 stages, covering the boundary of the borough in aid of Papyrus, a national charity dedicated to preventing suicide in young people.

The flagship campaign, organised by Mayoress Judy Bettley-Smith, is dedicated to his father, Neville, who died by suicide in June 1956, aged 33.