BLACKBURN’S outgoing mayor Salim Mulla has raised a record-breaking amount of money for charity during his year in office.

Coun Mulla initially set himself a target of £40,000 to buy two new kidney dialysis machines for Royal Blackburn Hospital as his Mayoral appeal.

But he managed to raise more than £65,000, and will now be meeting with staff at the hospital to discuss how to spend the extra cash to support sufferers of renal disease.

The largest amount raised by a mayor in the past has been around £21,000.

Coun Mulla chose to raise money for the dialysis machines and to raise awareness of kidney disease because his wife and Mayoress Sayeeda had to wait six years to find a suitable match for a transplant after developing kidney disease just over eight years ago.

Coun Mulla said: “It feel amazing, absolutely wonderful.

“I am so pleased we have raised awareness of how important it is to keep fit, or how important it is to eat healthily, how important it is to check your blood pressure regularly, how important it is to watch for swelling in your legs.

“But it is not me that has raised this money, it is the people of Blackburn and Darwen, I have just been the vehicle.

“From little schoolchildren to big businesses, so many people have got involved, and I want to thank them all.”