A sponsored walk in aid of poorly babies is to be held in memory of a senior council worker who died when she fell from a Lake District mountain last summer.

Bradford Council colleagues and friends from Keighley plan to take part in the walk of nearly seven miles as a memorial to Sue Belcher, Keighley area panel co-ordinator until her death last October.

Mother-of-two Mrs Belcher died, aged 49, when she fell 250 feet while on a walking trip with a friend in the Lake District.

Her work in Keighley has already been honoured on an estate where the former Bracken Bank Community Centre has been renamed the Sue Belcher Community Centre.

Bradford Lord Mayor Councillor Tony Miller said: "I came into contact with Sue when I was chairman of Shipley area panel and I admired her tremendously. She was a great asset to the team and her death was a sad loss.

"I am pleased her friends have decided to remember her in this way and raise money for my appeal which will help save the lives of premature babies at Bradford Royal Infirmary and Airedale General Hospital.''

Sue Butterfield, a council press officer and friend of Mrs Belcher, said: "We decided to mark the anniversary of her death with a walk and decided to raise money for a good cause at the same time.''

The walk is a 6.6 mile circular route around the Bolton Abbey estate near Skipton and is due to take place on Sunday, October 18.

Walkers wanting to take part are invited to meet at the Bolton Abbey estate shop next to the village hall at 11am.

Mrs Belcher, of River Mount, Riddlesden, fell to her death from Wallabarrow Crag in Birker Fell near Seathwaite. She was dead when the Millom Mountain rescue team reached her at the bottom of the gorge.

She had just returned to work after convalescing for about four months following a serious operation. She also worked in Shipley and Baildon.

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