A FORMER radio presenter and a priest teamed up to read a mammoth 1,096 verses of the Bible for charity on Saturday.

Mark Turnbull, a former BBC Tees presenter and journalist, and current BBC Tees presenter, Canon Gerard Robinson, read the verses of St Luke’s Gospel in the Catholic Middlesbrough Cathedral, Coulby Newham, in aid of the Torch Trust for the Blind.

Mr Turnbull, who was born blind and worked for BBC Tees for almost 18 years before leaving the station in 2008, read from a brialle bible.

The pair, who often presented a Christian programme together on the radio station, were raising much-needed cash for the Torch Trust, which provides Christian literature and other services to blind people around the world.

Mr Turnbull said: “The Torch Trist provides an invaluable service to blind people in many different languages. When I was a boy at school it was the Torch who introduced me to the stories of Jesus.”

Canon Robinson is the Dean of Middlesbrough Cathedral and still presents a regular Sunday night show on BBC Tees. The readathon lasted about two hours with people dropping by to listen and support the charity.