LOOKING back to the week that was December 2 to December 8, five years ago...

STAFF and volunteers urgently relaunched their annual Christmas appeal after finding themselves ‘significantly down’ on donations, five years ago.

Every year, the Salvation Army in Darlington spends the festive season collecting gifts and toys from the public to give to disadvantaged children on Christmas day.

Read more: Family celebrates remarkable milestone of five generations of women

For many children, what they receive from this appeal is the only gift they will open on December 25 and volunteers work tirelessly in the weeks leading up to the big day to ensure no youngster is left out.

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Year on year, the appeal usually sees a steady increase in donations – but in 2019 volunteers said their appeal received a significantly smaller response.

Salvation Army minister Shirley McKenzie, who organises the appeal, said staff and volunteers were anxious they would not be able to meet their demand, meaning hundreds of children could have woken up on Christmas Day disappointed in 2019.

She said: "We don’t know why we haven’t had the big response we normally do.

“We collect about £600 to £700 worth of toys, and what we have at the moment isn’t quite what we would usually hope for."

Family band Sentimental Journey released a 2019 Christmas album in hope of restoring the meaning of Christmas.

Ron White, his brother Melvyn and their sister Beryl, had been performing and song writing since the1960s.

Their latest album “Gift for Christmas” saw the band perform their own Christmas songs for a fourth time.

Ron said: “I wanted to send a message that the gift of love is better than an Xbox or anything materialistic, the theme is love because we were brought together in a loving family.”

Melvyn added: “Everyone tended to help each other in Tow Law, we didn’t have much back in the day and we made our own entertainment."

The songs were recorded locally in Tow Law’s Wear Jammin' studios by producer Michael Walker.

Ron plays the guitar, Beryl sings and Melvyn plays the melodeon, a type of accordion.

Tributes were paid to a flamboyant military veteran whose glamorous alter-ego Norma drew admiring glances on the streets of Darlington.

Norman Horton was well known in the town, both as a long-serving council mayoral mace-bearer and security off icer, but more unusually for his penchant for dressing up as a woman.

Long before the likes of drag acts such as Ru Paul became mainstream television, Mr Horton could be seen sashaying his way to Darlington Arts Centre resplendent in high heels and a dress.

He raised hundreds of pounds for charity fun runs competing as Norma– including the London Marathon where he had to fend off tube passengers who insisted on tweaking his “bosom” on the way to the race.

His wife Mavis, admitted she initially struggled with Norma making an appearance in their marriage, and even set up a support group at her Vane Terrace home for other wives dealing with the same thing.

She said: “It was funny when he did the fun runs but from my point of view it wasn’t really funny because I didn’t know what people were thinking.

She added: “He had his job and his family, but when the Arts Centre was open he would sashay along to there and and everybody would remark on what lovely legs he had.”