A PE teacher is running the London Marathon for a second time next week to raise funds for the air ambulance service that rescued her following a motorway crash.

Image source, The Air Ambulance Service

Lucy Dawkins, 27, from Hagley, sustained serious head injuries when her car aquaplaned on surface water and collided with a barrier on the M42 in 2013.     

Her injuries meant she had to be airlifted to hospital by Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance, where she was treated for a fractured skull and laceration to the back of the head. 

Lucy reovered, with the loss of her sense of smell the only lasting damage.

Rebecca Wood
BBC Midlands Today

Pack your umbrella and your sandwiches, the cricket season is under way.

Warwickshire host their first home game tomorrow against Yorkshire.

The BBC's Rebecca Wood explains how the weather can turn a game.

BBC Midlands Today

Ahead of the election for the first West Midlands mayor on 4 May, candidates James Burn (Green), Pete Durnell (UKIP), Beverley Nielsen (Liberal Democrat), Siôn Simon (Labour), Andy Street (Conservative) and Graham Stevenson (Communist) will go head-to-head in front of a studio audience.

Image source, Birmingham City Council

The hour-long debate, chaired by Patrick Burns, the BBC's political editor for the Midlands, will take place at 22:45 on Thursday, 20 April. 

Image source, Birmingham City Council

The Archbishop of Canterbury believes Coventry would "make the most of the opportunity" to be named UK City of Culture in 2021.

Justin Welby, a former canon of Coventry Cathedral, made the comments at an event in London to discuss how the city's bid for the title is progressing. 

Coventry is competing against Stoke-on-Trent and Hereford - with the winner to be announced in December. 

Warwickshire first-team coach Jim Troughton says he expects his team to bounce back hard, external when they launch their home Specsavers County Championship season against Yorkshire tomorrow. 

Image source, Getty Images

It follows the Bears' defeat to Surrey in the opening round of matches at The Oval earlier this week. 

The side has named a 13-man squad for tomorrow's game at Edgbaston which includes captain Ian Bell, Tim Ambrose and Jonathan Trott.  

Peter Plisner
BBC Midlands Today

On Midlands Today this lunchtime, with the Easter getaway getting under way, we'll have the latest on the situation on the roads in the region. 

Several of our motorways are expected to see drivers facing double the journey time from today and into the bank holiday weekend. 

More on BBC One from 13:30.

Coventry Observer

Volunteers joined forces, external to clean up a section of river that runs through Coventry City Centre.  

Image source, Coventry Observer

BBC Coventry & Warwickshire

A Warwickshire pub that was saved from closure by local residents has opened its doors in time for the Easter weekend.

Image source, Google

Villagers started a campaign to buy The New Inn at Norton Lindsey after the pub was put up for sale last year. 

They successfully raised £312,000 to make the property an asset of community value - which means it's now subject to additional protection from development. 

Wasps centre Elliot Daly says his club and international teammate Joe Launchbury should be named the England player of the season.

Image source, Getty Images

The forward is up against the likes of Owen Farrell and Courtney Lawes for the award. 

He's also being heavily tipped to be part of the Lions tour of New Zealand this summer. 

Leamington Football club are a step closer to getting a brand-new stadium after councillors in Warwick backed the scheme for land off Europa way and Gallows Hill.

The council will now carry out an investigation into how to build the 5,000-seat stadium.

It means the Brakes' current New Windmill ground can be turned into a new gypsy and traveller site.

Louise Hancock
Newsreader, BBC WM

Today is the deadline for registration to vote in the West Midlands mayoral elections on 4 May. 

The region is among six in England to vote for new mayors who will have powers arching over groups of local authorities. 

Image source, PA

People can register to vote online at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote, external.

Alternatively, paper forms can be downloaded, external or collected from local registration offices and need to be completed and handed in before the offices close to beat the deadline for England and Wales.

Coventry City chairman Tim Fisher has defended the club's season ticket prices for the 2017/18 campaign.

The club revealed the price of a standard adult season ticket for next season would remain at 2016/2017's £299 until the end of May - but go up to £345 thereafter once the "early bird" offer expired.  

In a statement, external, Mr Fisher says the club "does not get either matchday non-ticketing revenues or non-matchday revenues" and is therefore "pushed to generate most income via ticketing means".

The Managing Director of a Warwick-based company is warning other businesses to protect themselves against cyber attacks, external. 

Stuart Kettell, owner of Kettell Video Productions, was targeted by tech scammers who infected his IT systems with malicious software.   

Image source, West Midlands Police

They then threatened to permanently shutdown Stuart's computer files if he refused to pay a £1,000 ransom. 

But - thanks to routine file archiving - Stuart survived the online attack relatively unscathed and is now calling on other businesses to regularly back-up their work. 

Earlier in the week police warned of a "pot-bellied" bogus officer scamming his way into pensioners' homes in Coventry, Birmingham and Sandwell to steal cash and jewellery.

More information has now been released by trading standards officers about an incident in Coventry in which a 91-year-old woman was targeted.

The offender knocked on the door of her home - in the Wyken/Wood End area of the city - and purported to be a police officer.

She was suspicious and thought she had closed the door, Trading Standards said, but the man managed to force entry and stole "various items". 

A spokesperson said: "It is important that residents are vigilant, both at their own properties and also those of elderly neighbours."

Relive Sunday's Premiership action with live text, social media, images and analysis as Bristol are relegated to the Championship.

Allen Cook
BBC Local Live

The number of people trespassing on railways in the West Midlands has risen by almost a fifth over the past five years. , external

Network Rail and British Transport Police figures show 588 incidents in 2016 compared with 502 in 2012, external.

Across the country, some 115 people have been killed on rail tracks over the past five years, with almost half of them aged under 25. 

Network Rail and the police said taking a short cut was the most common reason given for trespassing, followed by thrill-seeking.

A petition to allow a former Team GB athlete to move her gymnastics club to bigger premises in Coventry has been signed by more than 700 people.

Sophie Gregory wants to move her base from Hearsall Baptist Church to the Bishopgate Business Park in Foleshill but councillors in the city want to keep that site for industrial use. 

She says lots of people use her club and she's hoping her plans will attract more support at a council meeting later. 

Nuneaton News

A woman was trapped, external in a car following a collision with a road sweeper at a busy junction in Nuneaton.

Record producer Pete Waterman has returned home to Coventry to meet the people keeping a sense of community spirit alive.

Waterman, 70, who produced more than 20 UK number one singles with artists including Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Bananarama, returned to Stoke Heath to meet volunteers at the area's community centre.

Watch the full story on BBC One in the Midlands at 18:30 today.

A community group which featured in a BBC documentary in the 1970s has helped 40,000 people in 40 years.

Valley House was created in 1977 in Coventry, when local residents asked the city council for a house to support people who had run into personal problems.

The programme Open Door highlighted the work that was being done by the community of Stoke Heath.

The actual house, 84 Valley Road, may have been demolished but Valley House lives on with 70 staff helping 4,000 people across Coventry.

See more on BBC Midlands Today at 18:30.