A weekly reporter had his legs waxed as part of a charity campaign run by his newspaper.

The Dover Mercury’s Sam Lennon undertook the painful experience as part of its ‘Give Kelly Hope’ appeal.

The campaign aims to help pay for lifesaving surgery for 16-year-old Kelly Turner, from Dover, who has been diagnosed with an aggressive and rare tumour.

Sam, below, was part of a team which raised £600 for the cause.

He said: “My gurning and grimacing expressions were a picture but my legs are now as hairless as a billiard ball.

“And we all knew that our little flashes of pain were nothing compared with the immense, gnawing and persistent agony that so many cancer sufferers of all ages suffer.”

Sam, who became a reporter in 1987, has been at the forefront of the Mercury’s coverage of the fate of the mayor of Dover, who was recently filmed snorting a substance through rolled-up bank note in a toilet cubicle.

In the same edition of the KM Group-owned newspaper, reporter Eleanor Perkins donned an age simulation suit to gain an understanding of the struggles faced by elderly people.

Editor Leo Whitlock said: “Sam has proved the maxim no pain, no gain to be absolutely true. He deserves full credit for volunteering to take part in this fundraiser without any prompting.

“The Dover Mercury, along with its sister paper the East Kent Mercury, is very proud to be supporting Kelly.”