A Busy Day For Guildford’s Abseiling Mayor

Published on: 6 Sep, 2015
Updated on: 8 Sep, 2015

Guildford mayor’s sets off on her charity abseil – from the top of Guildford Cathedral’s tower, 160 feet above the ground.

The Mayor of Guildford took her life in her hands, well almost, on Saturday (September 5) to help support a charity campaign.

Onlookers take photos as the mayor makes her descent. Picture by Bob McShee.

The mayor, Nikki Nelson-Smith, abseiled with her family 160 feet, from the top of Guildford Cathedral’s tower to the ground below.

Once standing again on terra firma she said: “That was exhilarating but I didn’t like the bit at the beginning when I had to sit on the precipice.

Nikki Nelson-Smith takes time to smile at the camera before enjoying the view.

“The views were terrific but it was quite hard work coming down as you have to constantly feed the rope through. ”

Taking a break from the hard work of feeding the rope through the pulley, Nikki waves to those gathered below.

Asked why she had agreed to do it she said: “I was asked by a local charity to do it and I was happy to help. They also agreed to allow half of my fund-raising to go to my selected mayor’s charity SATRO (the name does not stand for anything) which was founded in Guildford 30 years ago, and aims to inspire Surrey’s young people to take up careers in science, technology, engineering and maths.”

“That was exhilarating,” says the mayor while the safety man disconnects her harness.

The Leg Ulcer Charity, who organised the event, is raising funds to tackle a medical condition that one per cent of the population suffers from but which consumes two per cent of the NHS budget.

The Mayor of Guildford, Nikki Nelson-Smith, pictured with her husband Mig and their two daughters. They all took part in the charity abseil.

Event organiser Lorraine Cahill said: “The sad thing is this condition is preventable. If we, as a country, invested more in prevention rather than treatment we could stop over 500,000 people suffering from it.”

For more information, visit www.legulcercharity.org.

Later on Saturday the mayor attended an event at Worplesdon View Care Home where there was a display of classic cars and live music.

Cllr Bob McShee at the event at Worplesdon View Care Home. Where did you get that hat!

Guildford Borough Councillor Bob McShee also attended.

The ukulele band that provided the live music at Worplesdon View.

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