A 14-YEAR-OLD who helped nurse her terminally-ill mother has been chosen to signal the start of Newcastle's New Year's Eve celebrations.
Helenlee Whaley will push the button to light the Millennium Beacon and herald a ten-hour programme of entertainment across the city.
Helenlee was selected after a competition in Newcastle City Council's Citylife magazine, after being nominated by her grandmother, Ruth Whaley, of Pendower Way, Newcastle.
Helenlee, who lives with her father Graham in Stanley, was 13 years old when her mother Helen died of a brain tumour.
She helped to dress her mother, who had no sight, and to look after her two younger brothers.
The death of her mother in February spurred both Helenlee and her father to raise funds for Ward 38 of the Newcastle General Hospital.
Graham has already claimed two Guinness Book of Records entries after completing 32,000 press-ups and 4,000 crunches.
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