The North

The Northern Region is geographically one of the largest in the country - stretching from Berwick on Tweed on the Scottish border in the North to North Yorkshire in the South then accross from Newcastle upon Tyne on the East Coast to Cumbria on the West Coast.

Last year we presented 10 Sunshine Coaches and already have applications for 12 this year.

Our main fund raising incorporates Tributes to North East Celebrities - these have included Alan Shearer, Sir Bobby Robson, Gazza, Peter Beardsley, Robson Green, Sting and Mark Knopfler. All have been hugely successful raising many hundreds of thousands.

One of our other recents events was a 14 strong trek accross the Sahara which raised over £60K with the local ITV station sending a camera crew along with and producing and screening a 40 minute show.

We have quite an exciting year ahead of us.On February 6th we present a Tribute to Tim Healy and Denise Welch which will include top celebrity guests :- Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Kevin Whately, Christopher Biggins, Jill Halfpenny, Mark Knopfler and Cheryl Cole plus a good number of the ladies from 'Loose Women'. We have high hopes that Orlando Bloom, Ant & Dec, Alan Shearer, Michael Owen and Sting will attend along with a host of others.

Our recently retired Chairman Peter Johnson introduced a new dimension to our fundraising over his 3 year term by inrtoducing Horse Racing Awards Nights. Which targetted a totally new maker for us with his most recent event on 28th Novemer 2008 'Magic Moments Racing' raising well over 60K net.

We have an excellent working committee raging from people in their early twenties to others well into their seventies all of whom contribute in their own way to very successful region.

Bob Gladwin, Northern Region Chairman