All-terrain wheelchairs used to increase access to Yorkshire Dales

Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen is the patron of a charity which will provide all-terrain wheelchairs and audio trails to help disabled children get around the Yorkshire Dales

Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen is the patron of a new charity aiming to help disabled children get around the Yorkshire Dales.

Access the Dales will provide all-terrain wheelchairs and audio trails for people with visual impairments.

The charity was created in memory of keen rambler Andy North who died in June 2021.

The TV celebrity and author launched the new initiative at her Ravenseat Farm in Swaledale.

Following Mr North's death, an online appeal raised more than £16,000 to buy an all-terrain wheelchair for children to use.

His wife, Debbie North, who uses a wheelchair, said there were also donations of specialist mobility equipment which would now be placed in various locations across the Yorkshire Dales National Park for people to borrow.

She said she founded the charity hoping to "to break down the barriers that prevent children with limited mobility enjoying the great outdoors either independently or with their friends and family".

Ms Owen said she was "absolutely thrilled" to be asked to be the charity's patron.

"All the family loved Andy and we cannot think of a better way to celebrate his life than by supporting Access the Dales - the charity set up in memory of a man who loved and walked the Yorkshire Dales," she said.

"I am passionate about getting children outside, whatever their ability."