A NORTH-EAST bakery famous for its pasties has come to the aid of women with eating disorders.

A charitable trust set up by Greggs the Bakers has donated £30,000 to the Northern Initiative on Women and Eating (NIWE).

The grant will allow NIWE to offer more services to women and to extend the opening hours of the charity's helpline.

Between April last year and March, a total of 1,564 people contacted NIWE.

Gill Joseph, NIWE project manager, said: "We provide a range of therapeutic group and other services, all of which are free and confidential.

"The grant from the Greggs Trust will help us to ensure that this support is available for years to come.

"The funding will make a huge difference to our medium and long-term stability, and we are very grateful that the trust has given us this chance to extend and develop the work that we do."

Ms Joseph added: "The grant is already being put to good use, as we've been able to extend the hours of our telephone listening line and information service, as well as spending more time on fundraising and development of the service."

The cash will also be used to set up projects, including art therapy, one-to-one counselling and longer-term group work.

NIWE, which was set up in 1988 and runs sessions in Newcastle, Durham and South Shields, has four part-time office workers and a pool of counselling staff.