ONE of the region's longest serving nurses says she is joining thousands protesting against the cuts today because of her fears for the future of the NHS.

Cate Woolley-Brown, from Billy Row, near Crook, County Durham, has worked as a nurse in the NHS for 44 years.

She says she is joining today's TUC-organised march against spending cuts in London because of the impact the cuts are having on the health service.

"I can honestly say that I am more worried than I have ever been about the future of the health service," said Mrs Woolley-Brown, who works at Sedgefield Community Hospital, County Durham.

Mrs Woolley-Brown, who is a life-long Royal College of Nursing activist, will be among more than a thousand NHS workers from the region expected to travel to London today to join the protest.

Claire Williams, North-East regional convenor for the public sector trade union Unison, said: "The public sector is being made the scapegoat for an economic crisis that is not of our making."

* See The Northern Echo today for the full story.