Crowds turn out as new dedications added to Sunderland's Veterans' Walk in Mowbray Park

A further 84 stones with the names of those who have served, were added to the Veterans' Walk on Saturday, October 28.

There are now a total of 1,100 granite stones installed in Mowbray Park and the path, the first of its kind in the UK, is nearly 40 metres long.

Names added to the stones have been submitted from across Sunderland and the North East, but also from as far away as Australia, Canada and Germany.

The walk project is run by the family of Private Nathan Cuthbertson who was killed in Afghanistan in 2008 while serving with the Parachute Regiment, and Wearside businessman Rob Deverson.

Nathan's father Tom is a former paratrooper himself, and served in Northern Ireland.

Crowds turned out despite the rain with families of veterans, military standard bearers and the Mayor of Sunderland, Councillor Alison Smith attending the special unveiling.

Anne Lang from Sunderland was among those who attended the ceremony where a stone was laid for her grandad.

She said: “It means a lot to my family, it means that my full family, no matter where they are, as we are spread throughout the country can come and pay their respects.

"I’m now going to get a stone for my brother, so that every generation throughout everybody’s family can see. My grandad has now got four generations on my side so if he hadn’t survived the war, we wouldn’t be here so to me we should respect people and we should lay stones and remember people.”

In November 2016, the Veterans' Walk campaign laid its first granite stones.

Organiser Rob Deverson said: “What we’ve done over the last six years is important because of the pride people have in their service whether it’s families or individual service people.

"And for some people it’s a relief, like a landing for some who have been away and come back, and they’re ‘not remembered’ because they didn’t die so this is their opportunity to make that permanent touch down. To us that’s what the walk means in terms of the emotional attachment. This is something physical to connect with.