A couple who have run a newsagents in Camborne for 15 years will be shutting up shop in the new year because of ill health.

Glynis and Alan Charlesworth will be closing Cross Street News in January and newspaper deliveries will end on December 30.

The couple, who have both been heavily involved in Camborne since first moving to the town from Warrington in Cheshire nearly 15-years-ago, have taken the decision to stop trading after a serious deterioration in Glynis’s health.

The business employs five part-time shop assistants and between 15 and 20 young people and adults who deliver papers as far afield as Godrevy, Brea, Beacon and Pool.

Although they had only ever spent holidays in Cornwall before choosing to live in the county, the Charlesworths soon became active members of their new community. Glynis was chair of Camborne Chamber of Commerce for four years and was a founder member of the team who campaigned for the town to achieve BID (Business Improvement District) status.

She was also on the Camborne Regeneration Forum and Christmas lights committees. Alan similarly helped out whenever required and has often been seen putting up the town’s Christmas tree or lights.

“We left all our friends behind in Warrington when we came down here, so it was important for us to get to know people,” said Alan. “Moving was probably our equivalent of a mid-life crisis. We didn’t buy a sports car or change partners, we just resigned from our jobs and started afresh in a place I’d known from regular seaside holidays since I was six-years-old but which Glynis knew hardly at all.”

The couple have two daughters, Kathryn and Lucy, who had left home at the time. Both are now living and working in Cornwall.

“Mum and Dad have always taken their responsibilities seriously and have done a lot for the young people who’ve worked for them,” said Kathryn. “Doing a paper round means having to learn about self-discipline and time-keeping and we often get our former paper girls and boys popping in to tell us what they’re doing now and about the careers they’ve gone on to.”

Cross Street News has been a shop for nearly 150 years, having been opened by E T Newton around 1870 to sell surveying and scientific instruments - mainly to the mines. It became a newsagents in the 1960s and is now on the market.

“We’ve really enjoyed running the business and would like to thank all our customers for their loyalty and friendship,” said Glynis who, before becoming ill, used to love walking the South West coast path with her husband. “Sadly, I can’t do what I used to for the town, but I’m still very interested in all that’s going on. It’s a great local community and we love being part of it.”

The Charlesworths will continue living in their home above the shop which won a Cornish Buildings award in 2010 for the refurbishment work the couple carried out.