A BUILDING society in the North-East has raised £70,000 for one of the region’s best loved charities.

Newcastle Building Society’s two special charity-linked accounts proved to be the most popular of the year and support the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.

The society pledged its support to the foundation in late spring and originally hoped to raise around £50,000 in the first 12 months. But the accounts are so popular, attracting millions of pounds worth of investments from its members that it is now hoping it will be able to donate more than £120,000 after a full year.

Former Newcastle United player and Sir Bobby Robson Foundation fund-raiser Robbie Elliott visited the society’s Gosforth branch to thank staff for their efforts.

Mr Elliott, who cycled 3,500 miles to raise money to fight cancer through Bike For Bobby this year, said: ““Sir Bobby is someone I owe a lot to professionally and his foundation has come to mean just as much to me. “I’ve seen at first hand the pioneering cancer facilities it is helping to fund and sadly, like most people, I’ve lost loved ones to the disease.

“Sir Bobby always said when not if we beat cancer and we have to keep that positive mindset. We’ve just got to keep pushing to find better ways to detect and treat it.”