LOOKING back to the week that was June 17 to 23, 15 years ago...

WINNIE Hudson was putting the final touches to her training programme in June 2009 as the oldest entrant in Cancer Research UK's Race For Life – at the age of 102.

Mrs Hudson completed the 5km "run" for the first time in 2008.

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And she was so inspired by the experience that she has persuaded her 100-year-old friend, Margaret Hill, to take part with her in the 2009 event in York.

Mrs Hill said: "If Winnie can do it, then so can I."

The pair were being joined for the 2009 event by ten staff and helpers from their residential home in Bedale, North Yorkshire.

Team Winnie had an 87-year age range, with 15-year-old Emily Anderson taking part as the youngest member of the Millings Residential Home contingent.

Mrs Hudson said: "Last year, the whole of Bedale had got behind me too, helping me raise £1,000 in sponsorship for Cancer Research UK.

''I still keep my medal in my handbag and look forward to getting another one this year."

Mrs Hudson managed to complete the 5km course in pouring rain with a little help from her team-mates – and her wheelchair.

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Members of a troubled workingmen's club said they were prepared to form a committee to take control from its current management, in June 2009.

Members of Cockfield Workingmen's Club, in County Durham, said they were frustrated at the lack of communication from the committee and the Clubs and Institute Union (CIU).

The club had a debt of about £71,000, and faced a court hearing regarding possible winding-up proceedings.

In March, the club was on the verge of closure because it could not meet its insurance premium.

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However, club members and villagers raised more than £9,000 in a matter of hours to meet the insurance cost. Many donated hundreds of pounds of their own money to the fund.

Staff at a railway museum took delivery of one of Britain's most comprehensive private collections of transport history.

The collection, which consisted of more than 125,000 items, focused on transport publicity, particularly that of the nationalised railway from 1948, but also covered bus, air and water transport in the second half of the 20th Century. It was amassed by Robert Forsythe, from Northumberland.