Two ladies who have become familiar to club goers in Newcastle over the years for their charity collecting dressed as cowgirls received the surprise of their lives at Christmas when they found a new rival cowgirl collector on their patch in the Bigg Market. It was none other than TV personality Noel Edmonds who had come along to surprise them with a reward of a Noel’s Christmas Present for all their hard work over the years in aid of Children North East and other local charities.
For the last 36 years Olive Cook (71) and Margaret Lawson (83) of Hebburn, South Tyneside have done many unconventional things to raise money and they have done it in style – raising over £1 million. For around 20 years they have been extracting donations from young (and not so young) clubbers on a Friday and Saturday night for Children North East while entertaining them with their line dancing and colourful cowgirl outfits.
Margaret’s grandson, Malcolm, nominated the pair who have their own Facebook Fan Page, for a Noel’s Christmas Present and on Sunday 20th December viewers of the programme on Sky1 saw the ladies surprised by Noel, then at a party held for them to meet the beneficiaries of their collections, they were whisked off for a trip of a lifetime to the home of country music, Nashville, Tennessee.
While in Tennessee, Noel took them to the Country Music Awards, bought them some brand new cowgirl gear, they met the Mayor and then the biggest surprise of all they met international superstar Dolly Parton who presented them with gold necklaces to commemorate their trip.
What a surprise for two loyal and hardworking volunteers of Children North East and their hard work paid off again when live on the televised show Noel presented them with one more present – a complete IT Suite for Children North East that will be installed in the West End Youth Enquiry Service when its refurbishment is complete later this year.
NEWS UPDATE:
Tim Healy and Denise Welch help out youth service
Jan 25 2010 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal
Geordie actor Tim Healy and wife Denise Welch helped lay the foundations of a building project that will benefit vulnerable youngsters in Newcastle. Tim also wheeled barrows and swung lump-hammers at the West End Youth Enquiry Service (WEYES) on Westgate Road, a run-down Victorian house operated by Children North East, one of the region’s oldest charities.
Over the past 10 years, 7,500 young people have approached WEYES where counsellors and nurses give advice on general, sexual and mental health problems, as well as on education, housing and employment issues.
Now the building is being renovated with the help of Newcastle-based _space architecture, which has donated its design and surveying services free of charge.
Tim said: “We support a number of charities but we’re keen to be involved with Children North East because we’re married, we’ve got children and I feel it’s our responsibility.
“I was born and brought up 200 yards away from here, in Colston Street. My mam and dad had a little shop and we lived in the flat above. The community was great, miners and shipbuilders – everybody had their front door key on a string behind the letterbox, it was that sort of place with a massive community spirit.
“Sadly, the whole place changed in the 1970s when the mines and the shipyards closed. They started developing the area and the community split and spread out all over.
“Now lots of young people here find life very, very difficult. But the WEYES drop-in centre will be a fantastic place for those young people to come.”
Children North East chief executive Jeremy Cripps said: “We previously rented the building so we were unable to do anything to it. It had become a really horrible site – inside and out – needing a lot of work to make it a bright and welcoming place for young people.
“Children North East has since bought the building and now with the magnificent help of _space architecture we are really able to do things to make it look fabulous.”
Denise Welch is also proud of her association with the WEYES project and readily embraces the opportunity to work with some of the region’s most difficult-to-reach children.
She said: “I love being involved with Children North East and I love working with teenage groups. There are a lot of them like lost souls, but they’ve got a lot to give and life can be confusing for them.”
Space Group chief executive Rob Charlton said: “Children North East is our chosen charity, so we were only too pleased to donate all our services in kind because we know the project will make so much difference to the young people who live, work or go to school in the West End of Newcastle.
“_space architecture has fully completed the designs for the brighter and more up-to-date building and now _space build, the principal contractor for the project, is moving on site, which is really exciting.”
Children North East had to raise £300,000 to help the project come to life and to fund building materials.
To help support the WEYES project, donations are invited online at www.justgiving/weyes
or at Children North East on 0191 256 2444