The Bishop of Stepney’s wife plans a 20-mile sponsored ‘spouses’ walk through east London with other church figures to try and raise �3,000 for emergency relief for Syrian refugees.

Gill Newman was in full practice in Mile End—with husband Adrian Newman’s blessing—ready for her trek next weekend through the Stepney Episcopal Area made up of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Islington.

“I’ve already had �1,200 from church collections,” she told the Advertiser. “But we want another �2,000 to buy warm bedding and clothes.

“Thousands are living without proper shelter and there is an urgent need for protection as winter falls.”

She is working with ‘Hand in Hand for Syria’, a small charity which is managing to get convoys to places that International Aid agencies often don’t reach. Three containers of supplies are being loaded at the charity’s depot in Kilburn.

Others taking part in Gill’s ‘spouses’ walk are author Bob Gilbert, husband of the vicar of St Nicholas in Poplar, Caz Hughesden, wife of the curate at St Paul’s in Old Ford, and Burnett Brown, husband of the vicar of St James in Clapton.

Joining them are The Venerable Rachel Treweek, Archdeacon of Hackney, and Elizabeth Hatt, a member of St Bride’s which has a memorial to Marie Colvin, the journalist killed in Syria earlier this year.

They are taking donations online at: www.justgiving.com/Gill-Newman2