Being the Mayor of Leeds, well, it's a marvellous job, a great honour. Unforgettable. Because we live in a wonderful city. There's lots going on. Yeah, we used to say that if you say Leeds, you smile. There's an element of truth to that.

I'd been a counsellor for going on 22 years and I was thinking of retiring. So the suggestion was “that if you're going to retire in the last year, would you consider being Mayor?” and that's basically what happened. The proposal was put to the full council about the next elected mayor. And I was nominated and in effect elected for for the year, 2013/14. That's how it came about.

One of the funniest things that used to happen, of course, is people would ask me three questions. And the first question, of course, is where am I from? Because of course, I'm not from Leeds though I think living here for 52 years, I think I qualified.

The second question, of course, is, you know, what do you do as Mayor? And the third question how long have you got left? Which was always a bit of a worrying question.

The thing is, though, you know, when you get the job, nobody gives you a job description. You have to do the job your way, basically, but the job itself is to be an ambassador to the city and of course, you're an ambassador for Leeds externally as well.

I was elected on 20th May and the following day my first event was to visit Mary Abbey who was having her hundredth birthday party in a nursing home. And I asked that question, “that’s a long life Mary, what advice would you give to other people who want a long life?” And her answer was “Eat tomatoes!”

On Tuesday 10th June there was a story in the newspaper and I’m reading the headline “A Cambridge study shows tomatoes relieve damaged arteries.”

So Mary had the answer.