A LEGEND in North-East workingmen's clubs has vowed to support the organisation through what he called its toughest time.

Jack Amos, who became famous across the region for his Jack of Clubs column in the Sunday Sun newspaper, has left the national executive of the Club and Institute Union (CIU) after 21 years.

The 71-year-old, of Shotley Bridge, near Consett, County Durham, who receives an MBE in the New Year's Honours List for his services to workingmen's clubs across the region, said: "The union is in a very precarious financial position, clubs are dropping like flies.

"I have picked up a few things in my years and I am keen to help them through it.

"I am committed to work for clubs, both at local or at national level, if required."

He blamed the decline on the lack of younger people using the clubs. He said: "There are not enough young members coming in and none of them want to be on the committees."

A former journalist with newspapers across County Durham and Tyne and Wear, he became involved in the CIU after he was approached one Christmas by members of the Victory Club, in Shotley Bridge.

He agreed to become club secretary, a post he held for more than two decades.

He was also elected secretary of the Durham branch of the CIU, a post he held for 20 years before he retired last year.

He remained active at the highest level of the CIU despite ill-health that culminated in an operation to remove part of his right lung in 2002, after he was diagnosed with cancer.