JENNY Langston will be installed as the first Tory Mayor of Labour-led Brighton and Hove on Thursday. She is going to raise thousands of pounds for charity, speak for the two towns - and have fun. Who is she and what are her plans? ADAM TRIMINGHAM spoke to her.

NO ONE was more surprised than Jenny Langston when she was chosen as mayor.

She said: "It was something I never thought that I would do. I never had any ambition except to represent the people."

Jenny, 49, sometimes wonders what her late father, a strong union man who said he would not have Tory voters in his house, would have made of it.

Her main aims in the coming year will be to raise money for the charities she already tirelessly supports, and to have fun.

Jenny, of Avondale Road, Hove, was brought up mainly in Littlehampton and it was there, when she was only 16, she met her husband-to-be, Steve. They were at neighbouring schools.

The couple married when she was 19 and he was 20. They celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary earlier this year with a concert which raised hundreds of pounds for local charities.

They moved to Brighton when Steve was posted there as a police officer and she was a nurse.

Steve met many people who were down on their luck and sometimes took sandwiches to hungry squatters.

One day he took a young destitute woman to their home and she stayed with them. It was the start of a long story.

The couple eventually became foster parents, looking after more than 30 youngsters over a period of ten years.

During this time, they realised they would never be able to have any children of their own.

But they are still in touch with their extended family, many of whom have gone on to have their own youngsters. Steve has given away the bride five times.

Steve came from a religious family and Jenny became a Christian when she was a teenager.

Both were early members of the Clarendon Church in Hove when it started 17 years ago and have stayed with it, now that it's based in Brighton and renamed Church Of Christ The King.

They have seen it grow to become one of the best supported churches in the area.

Steve found his social work incompatible with his role as a policeman and now works for Chichester Diocesan Housing Association.

In between the couple both managed a greengrocer's shop in the Lewes Road area on a job-share basis so they could carry out youth work.

Jenny said: "We decided that what we had to offer children we would invest in other people's lives. They give as much to us as we give to them."

The couple moved to Hove when they saw a large terraced house ideal for their needs and those of their extended family.

It is called Agape which means sacrificial love expressed in a spiritual manner.

Next door was an elderly Tory county councillor called Bertie White and when he became frail, Jenny sometimes took him to meetings at Lewes.

There she became shocked at how politics were conducted with decisions sometimes made behind closed doors and once she interrupted a meeting from the public gallery.

When Bertie retired through ill health in 1987, she stood in Goldsmid ward and won.

She soon became chairman of the education committee at East Sussex and was elected to the old Hove Council along with Steve.

Three years ago, both Langstons became members of the new Brighton and Hove Council.

By this time they were used to being in opposition with Tories having lost control of both the county council and Hove.

Jenny also became a member of South Downs Health NHS Trust but has now resigned to concentrate on the Primary Care Group.

Life has not always been smooth for the Langstons and three years ago, Jenny suffered from a brain haemorrhage.

Although she has made a good recovery, it has left her dyslexic and she now understands the problems of other people with this complaint much better.

Despite this, she has gained a BA in sociology at Sussex University and intends to follow this with an MA in social policy.

Jenny has plenty of plans for the year ahead including a civic ball at Hove Town Hall.

She is talking to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, about raising money for cardiac equipment and will also help the Avondale Centre in Hove which caters for people with learning difficulties.

Jenny also intends to stage special events and has asked impresario Brian Ralfe to help.

It's a measure of how much Jenny is liked among all parties that only three years ago, Brian stood against her as a Labour candidate.

But Jenny does not want people to think of her as a remote functionary wearing a civic chain. She said: "I will be there not for me but for them. I was elected to serve the people."

The couple have been touched from letters and messages they have received. One said: "The seed you have sown has now become a blossom tree."

Jenny and Steve Langston are likely to produce some more blooming lovely surprises before the year is out.

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