A NEWPORT cobbler who has cut one million keys and repaired 150,000 pairs of shoes is celebrating 45 years at his first and only job.

Kelvin Reddicliffe, who will turn 60 next month, celebrated his 45th anniversary of working at Timpson Shoe Repairs in Newport city centre on January 18.

Mr Reddicliffe, who manages the store on Austin Friars, said he has “loved every minute of it”.

He has now been invited up to a long service lunch hosted by Timpson some time later in the year.

“I have had a blast,” he said. “I joined at 15, it was my first and only job.”

Highlights for Mr Reddicliffe include being nominated for the retail awards in 2003 by head honcho John Timpson.

Mr Reddicliffe said: “I was nominated as store manager of the year, up against Hugo Boss.

“He flew us back from holiday for us to be at the ceremony, we were in Tenerife at the time.”

The store manager was featured in the Argus and then across national news in 2009 when he repaired a shoe for a Newport woman’s duckling.

Lucky the duckling had broken her leg but when it healed, her foot was pointing in the wrong direction making it difficult for her to walk.

Owner Allison Morgan took Lucky to see Mr Reddicliffe who fashioned a tiny sandal out of rubber resin, measured perfectly for the duck’s foot.

Mr Reddicliffe is also well known around Newport for his charity work, fundraising for both St David’s and St Anne’s hospice.

He collects pop and rock memorabilia which he then gets signed and gives to the charities to be auctioned.

In 2014 he produced a piece of art work which depicted a key part of the city’s former Chartist Mural to raise money for St Anne's

The keen piano and organ player also wrote a special piece of music for the 100th anniversary of the Newport Transporter Bridge, entitled ‘a bridge not far from our hearts’.

He has now been invited up to Timpson headquarters for a long service lunch some time later in the year.

He added: “I haven’t got any plans to retire any time soon. I plan to just go on for as long as I can.”