A STUDENT group is celebrating ten years of volunteering in the community.

Durham University's Student Community Action (SCA) group aims to encourage university members to help with a range of projects within the community.

With more than 700 volunteers working on more than 40 different projects, it is one of the country's largest and most active SCAs.

A group spokesman said: "Over the last ten years, the organisation has grown from strength-to-strength, and now employs a full-time sabbatical manager to oversee the day-to-day running of the scheme.

"With projects ranging from one-to-one tutoring for local schoolchildren to elderly visiting, and from hospital welcoming to shopmobility, the scope for volunteering within the organisation is broad."

To mark its tenth anniversary, the group held a party at Jimmy Allens bar, in Durham, on Monday.

The evening also marked the launch of the new SCA logo and the start of SCA week, a campaign promoting the idea of volunteering through taster sessions