IT was a pleasure last week to officially open the charity shop at Northland Methodist Church, in Darlington, and there were a number of key factors involved in my decision to agree to do the honours.

The first was that the request came in from the thoroughly admirable Heather Thompson, avid church-goer and fundraiser extraordinaire.

Heather suffers from multiple sclerosis and, through sponsored walks and teddy bear picnics, she has raised thousands for the MS Society.

As I said in my speech before cutting the ribbon, my wife of the past 25 years is called Heather so I’ve become conditioned to saying “yes” to Heathers. It’s force of habit.

Secondly, the press release about the shop opening mentioned that there would be a celebration cake supplied by Jill’s Cakes, up the street in North Road. Delicious it was too.

And, thirdly, a feature of the charity shop is Paul’s Pig Out – a breakfast club, organised by cheerful church steward Paul Walker.

Bacon or sausage butties (£2.50) and full English breakfasts (£3.50), with as much tea or coffee as you like, are on offer on the last Saturday of every month between 8.30am and 11am. I, for one, will be pigging out soon.

The shop is a great example of a community organisation doing something proactive to help itself, and donations of clothes and toys are welcome. For more information, call Heather on 01325-382486.

So, in summary, the formula for getting me to agree to perform an opening ceremony is simple: make sure someone called Heather makes the request – and include references to cake and bacon butties.

THE last time I’d set foot inside Northlands Methodist Church was to attend the 90th birthday celebrations of a lovely old lady and great friend of The Northern Echo called Ethel Gibbons.

Ethel was one of the sweetest people I’ve met during my time as editor. Think of the perfect grandma and she was it.

My family and I popped in to the church for the 90th birthday party in 2002 and my son Jack, eight at the time, rushed over to speak to me in a state of great excitement: “Dad, Dad, there’s a really cool ride here – it’s like a roller-coaster, Dad, and you don’t have to pay. Can I have a go, Dad, can I?”

It seemed highly unlikely there’d be a church roller-coaster. It turned out to be a stair-lift.

Ethel died when she was 96. It was nice to be reminded of her.

ANUMBER of readers have been in touch over the past week to raise concerns about the future production of The Northern Echo.

It is clear there are some serious misustandings about the scale of a proposal to relocate a number of jobs to Wales.

To address those concerns, answer questions, and explain the facts surrounding the proposal, I am happy to meet readers or speak to them directly by telephone.

If you feel this would be helpful, please write to me at The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, County Durham, DL1 1NF, or you can send me an email at peter.barron@ nqyne.co.uk.