‘It was amazingly uplifting’: Thousands raised for mountain rescuers who recovered body of football scout

On Saturday, friends and family of former Shields Gazette writer and football scout Karl Newton took part in an 11-mile memory walk to remember the loved son, brother, husband and step-father a year after his death.

Karl tragically fell to his death in the Lake District last year, aged 37, two weeks after landing his dream job as a technical recruitment analyst at Blackburn Rovers

A football fanatic, Karl had previously worked for South Shields Football Club, Newcastle City Juniors FC, Stockport County, AFC Fylde, Sheffield Wednesday, Middlesbrough and Leyton Orient.

“We didn’t want his name to disappear so we decided to do a memory walk,” said his sister Marie Scott.

And so nearly 60 people walked from St James’ Park to South Shields Football Club on Saturday.

“He lived and breathed Newcastle United from a young age,” laughs Marie. The walk also stopped off at Hebburn Football Club where Karl used to help out his dad when he was younger.

But honouring Karl’s life wasn’t Marie’s only hope. The group also set out to raise money for the mountain rescuers who bravely tried to save Karl.

“We didn’t realise until the inquest that it took them 12 hours to do everything they had to do to bring Karl back home to us,” said Marie. “We thought because they don’t get any sort of funding at all we should do something for them.”

One of the men who recovered Karl’s body travelled up to the North East for the occasion.

From the walk the family have raised £2,410.

“It was amazingly uplifting,” said Marie. “All of his friends, family, even my work colleagues who hadn’t met Karl but who have been helping me through the last year came.”

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Three of his friends who were with him on the day he died were also in attendance came- “They’re more like brothers to him than anything else,” said Marie.

Karl was meant to get married the Easter just gone to his partner Louise, who was present with her daughter Sophie. Louise herself has raised over £1,300 for the mountain rescue.

Thinking about the future, Marie says because it was such a great success they were going to do it all again next year: “It’s going to be an annual event to keep his name alive and make a big thing about mountain rescue- heroes no one thinks about until you actually need them.”