Last week's Sizzling of the Sausages event at the boathouse, organised by crew member Gary Oliver, included fundraising stalls run by the local Ladies' Lifeboat Guild.

The community-based initiative, the Healthy Communities Collaborative (HCC), has been set up to help people living mainly in the Blyth, Wansbeck and Morpeth areas.

It aims to raise awareness of the disease so people can spot the early signs of breast, bowel and lung cancer.

Lions Club officials in Ashington are hoping for another bumper turn-out for their annual festive dip in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, at 11am on Saturday December 26.

Over the years the fancy dress event has raised many thousands of pounds for local good causes and community projects.

The band has brought together players from the local and wider community who have connections with the rich musical heritage of the former fishing and mining community.

The band has received strong support from the community as well as local groups and organisations.

However, County Hall bosses have reassured the sector that a funding package of £1.3m will still be available next year. Budget proposals recommend more money for charities directly supporting those people worst affected by the recession.

These will include services such as credit unions and the Citizens' Advice Bureau.

The fundraising event starts at 6pm, with a cake stall, raffle, and tombola.

Wansbeck Writers and the Wansbeck Art Group - which both meet weekly at the Parkhead Centre in Ashington - joined forces on the year-long project which combines the written word with work created on canvas.

The 48-page full-colour book, A Picture Paints A Thousand Words, features about 50 paintings by 18 members of the amateur art group. Each is accompanied and complemented by a piece of poetry or prose written by 16 members of the writers' group.

Northumberland Care Trust, in partnership with Age Concern, is looking for volunteers to become "senior health mentors" to other older people in their community.

Ann Kirkup, project co-ordinator for the health mentor scheme in Northumberland, with Jean Sanders in Newbiggin, who has volunteered as a senior peer mentor.

The volunteers will be trained to help, support and encourage those they are mentoring on the benefits of healthy eating and exercise, as well as offering social interaction.

The black and white posters were put up in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, Northumberland in the mid-1940s to advertise a Remembrance Sunday parade, a concert in the Co-Op Hall and a youth convention.

Local historian Mike Kirkup with one of the posters

Three of the originals were kept by printers Davison's at their Ashington premises, and lay gathering dust for decades until they were found by members of the town's Lions Club about nine years ago.

A five-strong team behind the proposed Synergy station - which would broadcast to about 130,000 people on the FM frequency - need to raise up to £60,000 to get it on the air.

Now hopes of launching the first of two trial broadcasts this summer are fading fast because of difficulties in securing grants, donations and sponsorship during the economic downturn.

Over the last 10 years members of the Hirst Progressive Social Club in Ashington have dedicated themselves to raising vital funds for the RNLI lifeboat station and its volunteer crew at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea.

Richard Martin of Newbiggin Lifeboat Station aboard the Mary Joicey lifeboat

The campaign was launched after one of the club members lost a relative who was swept out to sea and drowned while angling near a large outfall pipe in Cambois Bay in 1998.

The Newbiggin Arts Forum has enlisted the help of Catherine Scott, who will join the forum as community arts development officer.

More than 20 owners took their dogs for a morning walk along the sands in Newbiggin on Saturday, in contravention of Wansbeck Council's blanket ban on man's best friend using the beach.

Because they did not have a VHF radio, they had to use a mobile phone to alert the coastguard when a freshening offshore wind and prevailing currents began taking them further out to sea on Sunday.

The lifeboat towed their vessel to shore after locating it three miles south-east of Newbiggin Bay.

Town hall chiefs in Wansbeck have incurred the wrath of Newcastle United and Sunderland supporters by axing Sky Sports screenings at leisure centres in Ashington and Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in order to make savings as the credit crunch bites.

Now more than 200 die-hard fans who enjoy watching the Premier League action while enjoying a pint or two in the bars at the sports centres have signed petitions demanding the council overturns the decision.