A Norwich shopping mall offered to donate £1,000 to the Evening News Hamlet Centre Appeal - if one of its reporters cleaned glass panels 80 feet up... step forward James Bigg.

Cleaning is a job few volunteer for at the best of times. But doing it 80-feet high while dangling over a crowded shopping centre?

When the Castle Mall offered £1,000 to the Evening News Hamlet Centre Appeal in return for one of our reporters cleaning the glass balustrades, willing applicants were hard to find. That was until I found myself press-ganged.

Standing 80 feet up on a narrow ledge inside Castle Mall, I suddenly remembered that I had the balance and co-ordination of a drunken penguin on roller skates.

But safe in the knowledge that my short fall harness would catch me should I slip from the tiny ledge, I concentrated my efforts on dealing with that devil of a smear that just wouldn't budge.

After all, I didn't want them sending me back up there to finish the job with the words "you've missed a bit" ringing in my ears.

Under the watchful gaze of the mall's cleaning manager Les Vaughan, I got down to the task of polishing the glass balustrades while doing my bit for the Hamlet Centre at the same time.

With the promise of £1,000 on completion, thanks to the generosity of the Castle Mall, Les did his best to boost my confidence.

"Even if you did fall, you'd probably do yourself some kind of injury when the harness tightens up," he said. Thanks for that.

At one point I dropped my cleaning rag on to the head of a bemused woman shopper. She looked rather angry - she should have been grateful it wasn't a 12-and-a-half stone reporter landing on her.

It took me around three hours to complete about one tenth of the mall's glass balustrades. I've always preferred quality over speed.

Eric Kirk, manager of the Castle Mall, seemed pleased with my morning's work.

"It's not something that would come naturally to a reporter," he said. "It is difficult trying to hold on and of course there are the restraints of the safety harness. But I think you did a good job and the Hamlet Centre is a very worthy cause."

If nothing else, I could have discovered another career path should I ever want to trade my word processor for a cloth.

As one of the cleaners said afterwards: "You've always got another job to fall back on now."

Less of the "fall back", please.

This story and the pictures first appeared in the Norwich Evening News.

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