Last updated 09:32, Friday, 10 October 2008

COUNCIL meetings, charitable organisations, volunteering and cycling with the grandchildren; it’s a wonder Brian Massey ever finds time to sit at home.

Busy life: Brian Massey pictured at his home in Juniper, at which he helps out his wife with the bed and breakfast business she runs.

But then Brian is a man who lives for helping others and doesn’t believe in frittering his time away.

The 64-year-old spends his life working in an endless string of organisations and voluntary positions that he holds.

And even when he’s at home he’s often working, helping his wife Margaret with her bed and breakfast business that she runs from their Juniper home.

But despite such an active role in the community, Brian never envisaged his life this way. As a young boy he wanted to be a farmer and after leaving school joined a local farm as a student.

Born in the Midlands, it was Birch Farm in the Teme Valley, in Worcestershire, where Brian spent a year, along with one other student and a 14-strong workforce of farm labourers.

Brian loved the job but the farmer advised him against taking it up as a career.

He explained: “I did not have the money to buy a farm, I was not from a farming family, and the farmer told me at best I would become a farm manager, and to go into land management instead.”

It was one of the best pieces of advice Brian was given and he later trained at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, graduating with a diploma and prize in estate management.

In 1966 Brian joined the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food as an assistant land commissioner and worked in the post until 1969. But he fancied a change and so he and his wife Margaret moved up to Hexham where he was taken on by J.M. Clark and Partners, land agents and chartered surveyors.

Working as a chartered surveyor Brian said he enjoyed the broad spectrum of people he got to meet. With clients ranging from the Duke of Northumberland to people who were verging on being homeless, he got a huge amount of satisfaction from his job.

He said: “Your clients became your friends. I was stopped in Tesco the other week by a former client and the fellow said, ‘I miss you coming out to the farm, Brian’, and that’s 10 years on."

Working his way up the ranks, Brian became an associate partner, a partner and then a director after the company had merged and became Clark Scott-Harden.

But when Brian was diagnosed with a heart condition, he realised there was more to life than just work.

“I was lying on the hospital bed and I decided that there were other things in life I wanted to do.”

When Brian returned to work, he handed in his notice and began to help his wife with her bed and breakfast business.

While he had been working in the surveying industry he had also been actively involved with local government.

In 1978 he became Tynedale district councillor for Hencotes, a position he held for 13 years. Brian resigned from the position when the family moved out to Juniper in the ’Shire, but he was not to be out of the loop for long.

Although he had decided to give up his career as a councillor, he succumbed a few years later when a district councillor died and he was approached as a replacement.

Brian took up the offer and has been doing it for the last five and a half years. He is currently vice-chairman of Tynedale Council.

Shortly after moving out to the ’Shire, Brian became a councillor with Hexhamshire Parish Council. Having been chairman once before, he stepped into the role again earlier this year, but only for a one year stint.

He will be leaving both Tynedale Council and the role of chairman at Hexhamshire Parish Council in April, although he will remain a parish councillor.

He said: “I have enjoyed being vice-chairman of Tynedale and I may have stayed on and done the top job, but it's not to be.”

As a keen believer that people should be involved in community groups and organisations, Brian is a great example of just how well this can be done.

He is chairman of the Torch Centre in Hexham, a fully accessible community centre, constructed with disabled users in mind.

He became a trustee of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau this year and works there in a management capacity.

The trustees come from different professional backgrounds and Brian is able to offer his managerial skills to the bureau.

However he did say: “It’s still quite new to me and I’m learning what it’s all about.”

Brian’s main charitable interest is with the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. He works with the Tynedale branch, which is run from Hexham, and has been a national trustee of the charity.

He first got involved with it when he lived in the Midlands, where he formed the Worcester branch. He was inspired to get involved by the child of a friend who suffered from the disease.

Brian was in his early 20s then and is still campaigning on behalf of sufferers today.

Last year he took on the role of ecumenical volunteer chaplain at Hexham General Hospital.

Brian visits patients in the wards one day a week. “I offer words of cheer and bring in my Christian faith where appropriate, but I never instigate that. I leave that up to the patients.”

He and his wife attend St Aidan’s United Reformed Church, and while his religious background is helpful it is not essential.

“I don’t give the last rites or anything like that. I'm there to offer hope.”

Brian is also very active in Hexham Rotary Club and is a former president. He gets involved in projects with local schools and is currently helping raise funds to build a school for street children in Pakistan.

The project came about after Brian and Margaret went to visit their son Peter, who was training pilots in Pakistan. After arranging to meet a Pakistani Rotarian and getting a tour, Brian suggested the project to the Hexham Rotary Club, which was keen to sponsor a project in Pakistan.

Brian said: “I do it all because I believe in communities. It’s a pity but I don’t think the young people of today are as involved in organisations as we were in my youth.”

In between all this volunteering and fund-raising, Brian still manages to find time to go walking in the Lake District with friends and take far-flung holidays with his wife. They also have the grandchildren round and take them swimming and cycling.

He said: “I feel very lucky because the grandchildren like coming here and we are still young enough to do things with them like take them off on bike rides. My grandparents could not have done that with me and it’s great that I can do it with my grandchildren."

His frequent romps in the country air and a weekly game of tennis and badminton are paramount to keeping him physically fit.

While his mind is readily exercised in his various jobs and voluntary roles.

So perhaps youth has little to do with it and the secret of longevity lies in Brian’s healthy lifestyle and thirst for life.