COULD this be Sussex’s oldest newspaper delivery man?

For seven years, Michael Trigwell, who is 79 years old, has been waking up at 4am every day for his paper round at Polegate News, which starts at 5am.

He delivers papers including The Argus until 7.45am every day except for Sundays, when he does a mammoth five rounds and finishes at 8.30am.

He then returns home to care for his wife, Brenda, who has dementia and diabetes. Their 11-year-old Jack Russell, Sampson, also needs his daily walk.

Michael said: “I enjoy getting up at that time of day.

“I used to go to Brighton market early in the morning every day when I had my mobile greengrocer shop.

“I retired 14 years ago, but one morning I went down to the newsagents and saw an advert in the window which said ‘roundsman required’.

“I said I’d need to go home and talk to my wife about it first, but the shop owner told me he’d show me the paper round that day and I went for it.

“Brenda was quite happy with it.

“Now she’s ill, she stays in bed until I get back.

“We did have a personal assistant but Brenda recently had a fall and is becoming less mobile so we now have two carers to help.”

Michael covers about 40 houses on his round, which includes Polegate, Willingdon, Wannock, Jevington and Seven Sisters.

He has two sons who live in the area, Leonard, 48, and Christopher, 55, who covers for Michael if he ever has a day off and now has a paper round of his own.

Michael added: “I have wonderful customers, they are all like my friends.

“They know me by name and say, ‘Hello, Mick’.

“I do very well with Christmas tips, and get on with everyone.

“If I don’t turn up one morning, they always ask Christopher where I am.”