KEEP fit enthusiast Martyn Tapscott, the new manager of Boots at the Quadrant shopping centre in Swansea, will be putting his hobby to good use when he and the staff stride out on a 15km walk for charity.

Martyn, 42, has just taken over the reins at the Quadrant Boots store – a company he has been with since graduating from university, 21 years ago.

A native of Barry, Martyn gained a degree in pharmacy from Bath University and then joined Boots to complete his pre-registration training to become a fully qualified pharmacist.

“When I joined the company it was a slightly different career path to now, back then most of the managers were pharmacists. I still spend time in the pharmacy to keep my hand in.

“I qualified in 1991 and did my pre-registration in Barry for a year. I spent a couple of years on relief pharmacist/manager duties across South Wales covering for other managers and my first store as manager was Caerphilly about 18 years ago.

“I was then manager at a couple of stores in the Cardiff area, Cardiff Bay and the large store at Newport.

“I did take about nine months out from store looking after our care services. It was a field role looking out for a group of people who handle our care services business in the West which is an area from Wales over to Birmingham down towards Bournemouth and Poole.”

Martyn, who lives with his partner in Barry, likes to spend what little spare time he has keeping fit. He also enjoys photography and travel.

Ian Kirkpatrick, Manager of the Quadrant Centre, said: “It’s good to welcome Martyn as the new manager of the store.

“Boots is an iconic brand and the branch here at the Quadrant is a very busy and vibrant one which plays a full part in the life of the community.”

The Boots group has adopted MacMillan Nurses as its strategic partner and organises fund-raising events for the cancer charity.

The Quadrant store will be taking part in a regional sponsored coastal walk on September 30 when Martyn and other members of staff will walk about 15km from Swansea to Mumbles and back.

“We also have loads of events on in-store for the August Bank Holiday weekend with singers and dancers, face painting, balloons, all sorts of things and we’ll have collection points in store,” he said.