BBC Look North
North East and Cumbria

Trainee doctors have been getting valuable experience and freeing up qualified doctors to do other work by helping out at vaccination centres in the region.

The national programme has placed unprecedented demand on local health services in recent weeks.

At the vaccination centre in a North Shields sports hall, 50 students from Newcastle University have been helping to ease the pressure, by administering jabs.

One of them is Miranda Clarke (pictured below), who said: "The first person I vaccinated was 103 years old and he'd survived the Spanish Flu, he was born in 1917 and it was just amazing to have a five-minute conversation with him, and these are lives and people and memories that I definitely won't forget."

Ollie Kirby (pictured below) is a fourth-year medical student who works two days a week at the vaccination centre. He said: "In this situation we are directly helping out, we are a tangible benefit to services.

"It's a hugely valuable opportunity to us to meet them, to explore what their concerns or fears might be about the process and go some way to address those, give reassurance and administer the vaccine."

Middlesbrough defender Anfernee Dijksteel will miss the rest of the Championship season with an ankle injury.

A woman creates sand art after being inspired by a visit from a humpback whale in Northumberland.

All three Welsh sides in the European Challenge Cup will face English opposition in the last 16.

Two men have been arrested after police found three machetes, two axes and drugs with a street value of £12,000 in raids on two addresses in Sunderland.

Police say the raids last week at High Street East and Tower Street West were part of an investigation into violent crime called Operation Sentinel.

Image source, Northumbria Police

A 28-year-old man was arrested at High Street East after officers found £8,000 worth of cocaine along with various drug equipment.

A 29-year-old man was arrested the next day at Tower Street West where £4,000 worth of amphetamine and cannabis were seized, as well as more than a dozen weapons (pictured above) including an air rifle, crossbow, knife and BB gun.

The pair have been released while investigations continue.

Image source, Northumbria Police

BBC Sport

The daughter of former Middlesbrough coach Gordon McQueen, who was recently diagnosed with vascular dementia, wants the law surrounding certain aspects of football changed.

Hayley McQueen has been speaking for the first time, since her dad's diagnosis.

A parliamentary inquiry into the link between sport and long-term brain injury starts today.

Image source, PA Media

Hayley said her family wants to raise awareness about the dangers of heading a football, saying: "I think that the government is getting involved is massive, it's just almost criminal it's taken so many high-profile deaths for this to be dealt with at the highest level.

"Football may change as a result of it, but so what if it's changing peoples lives and their futures, does it really matter?

"Why not just bring in a limit on heading a football not just at youth level but at professional level as well."

A planned upgrade at Middlesbrough's Teessaurus Park includes making sculptures "roar" at visitors.

A warning about illicit drugs was made when Stephanie Sillifant and three others died in one weekend.

A cannabis farm, which police believe could be worth more than £500,000, was found on a residential street in Middlesbrough after an anonymous tip-off.

In total 112 well-established cannabis plants and a further 500 seedlings were found at the house on Kildare Street this morning.

Police say overall the farm could be worth up to £514,000 and say as well as the plants, they discovered wiring at the house which posed a serious fire risk.

Image source, Cleveland Police

No arrests have been made and police say investigations are continuing.

The bus travels to Newcastle communities who cannot get to vaccination centres or where uptake is low.

Billy Welch says the more people get vaccinated, the sooner events like Appleby Horse Fair can resume.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
James Harrison

Staff at New Silksworth Academy in Sunderland have been given care packages to say thank you, as children return to schools.

The packs include chocolate, sweets, paracetamol and toiletries.

Silksworth councillor Phil Tye, who handed out the gifts, said: “You’re basically going back to the beginning with them and the staff are going to have an uphill battle.

“So this is just to say thank you for what they’ve all done so far and that we’re behind them all the way.”

The packs were put together with the help of Youth Almighty, an outreach organisation working in West Sunderland.

Tributes have been paid to an 89-year-old woman who died when her electric wheelchair collided with a van in Annfield Plain.

Kathleen Eastwood was crossing Station Road shortly after 12:00 GMT on Saturday when she was injured. She died at the scene.

In a statement, her family said: “She was a much-loved mam, gran, great gran, and great great gran and will be sadly missed.

“We wish to thank everyone for their support and ask to be left so that we can grieve in peace, we would also ask that there be no flowers left at the scene of the accident please.”

Image source, Family photo

A man in his 50s was arrested at the scene and is helping officers with their investigation.

Police are asking anyone who saw what happened to contact them.

A judge says it is "regrettable" Mark Page must wait so long for child sex abuse charges to be heard.

Northumbria Police is among 18 forces which will be given a share of £30m to tackle violent crime.

The Home Office says the money is being offered to forces which are "most affected by serious violence" and will be available in the coming year once police chiefs submit plans on how to spend it.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the spending is part of more than £130m in the coming year to tackle violent crime.

It comes ahead of the introduction of a Criminal Justice Bill which will seek to give police more stop and search powers to tackle those known to carry knives and other weapons.

Image source, Northumbria Police

Two teenage boys who became lost while out mountain biking near Rothbury in Northumberland were found by mountain rescue volunteers.

It happened yesterday evening when the pair lost the track between Long Crag and Cartington Hill and as the light was fading they called 999.

Police managed to trace their mobile phone signal to Hard Heugh and called in Northumberland National Park and North of Tyne Mountain Rescue teams.

After about an hour they were found and taken back to Rothbury.

Image source, Northumberland National Park MRT

Returning all-rounder Scott Borthwick is named captain of Durham's County Championship side for the 2021 season.

Bringing you the latest news from across the North East from Monday 8 March to Friday 12 March 2021

The farm is closed during lockdown but wants to help people "experience the joys of spring".

Mark Lawrenson takes on singer-songwriter Ben Howard to make predictions for this weekend's Premier League fixtures.