As events celebrating Volunteer Week take place across County Durham, The Northern Echo is featuring the peaople who give up their time frely to make a difference to other people's lives. Paula Bradley is leader of Dunelm Phab Club in Durham.

FOR Paula Bradley, volunteering has become a way of life since her granddaughter Kaylee Davidson had to undergo a heart transplant when she was five months old.

Kaylee is now 20, and Britain's longest-surviving heart transplant patient, and Paula continues to volunteer, working with disabled people at Dunelm Phab Club, which she founded in 1991.

This summer, she is also undertaking her regular volunteering duties for the Transplant Games, in Edinburgh, next month.

Paula, 63, has just retired from her job as an administrator with the Tyne and Wear Autistic Society, in Sunderland, and now intends to devote even more time to volunteering.

"I do put in a lot of hours volunteering, but that's because I enjoy it so much," she said. "I get a lot of out of it - and the Phab Club is truly fab.

"It's great to see people with disabilities and those who are able-bodied getting together on equal terms.

"Dunelm Phab Club has gone from strength to strength over the years, and it's a club where people are not just volunteers and clients, but all members and friends.

"I enjoy making sure that the club has a varied programme of activities - and we go away for one weekend every year.

"We do a lot of fundraising, too, so we have funds to do things like abseiling, canoeing and climbing.

"I am now organising an event in Durham this month to celebrate Phab's 50th anniversary and have taken on membership of the Durham City Access for All panel.

"Volunteering for me brings great personal satisfaction from seeing how it benefits other people, and it's brought a whole social life for me. I never have time to be bored."