A TEENAGER returned home after cycling across Africa to raise money for charity, fifteen years ago this week.

Damian Jason, 19, rode 1,200 miles through rural Namibia and Botswana to help developing communities and conservation projects.

Supported by homeless charity Centrepoint, Mr Jason joined the team for a month on the first leg of the journey.

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He said: "It has been such a challenging and eye-opening expedition – the most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life.

"To visit Africa and raise money for people who are in more challenging circumstances than the ones I have faced has made me appreciate so much more all the things that I have in my life and how fortunate I am."

He had to carry all of his kit, including clothes, food, water and a tent on his bike.

The expedition crossed seven countries over four months and travelled some 5,000 miles through 20 rural conservation projects along the way.

The expedition was in aid of the work of Tusk Trust, which initiates and funds conservation and community development programmes across Africa.

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson met young fighters from the North-East.

He was in the region as the guest speaker at a sporting dinner at the Lancastrian Suite, in Gateshead.

The evening went ahead after a similar function was cancelled in Glasgow following protests because of the 41-year-old's rape conviction.

He served three years in prison for the rape of a US beauty queen in 1991.

Junior boxers from the Bilton Hall ABC club, in Jarrow, South Tyneside, received new boxing gloves from the man known as Iron Mike.

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Tyson was the youngest man ever to win a world heavyweight title.

He grew up on the tough streets of New York mugging and stealing and, by the age of 13, had been arrested 38 times.

He ended up at the Tryon School for Boys, in Upstate New York, where his raw boxing ability was discovered.