A THANKSGIVING Service in the Avenue Methodist Church, Newton Abbot, at 11am tomorrow will celebrate the life of one of the town's best loved citizens, Sydney Williams.

It will be followed by private cremation, writes John Balment.

Sydney, known by generations for the hundreds of thousands of pounds raised through his precision organisation of the annual sponsored walk for Christian Aid, died in Newton Abbot Hospital on June 11. He was 82.

A retired Newton Abbot Grammar School and Knowles Hill Comprehensive teacher, he began the walk in 1968.

He led its organisation for 42 years until he retired after last year's event at Newton Abbot racecourse.

He was a teacher for 33 years and when he retired he went round schools speaking to assemblies and relaying his visits to countries in the developing world to explain their needs and how the money raised from the walk would benefit them.

His first walk realised £613 – his last one in 2009 some £22,000.

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