Hospital record praised: THE Friarage hospital at Northallerton has been praised for its record so far in arranging urgent consultations for patients with suspected cancer.

Figures from the regional health authority show that Northallerton has achieved a 100pc performance in meeting a national target requiring patients to receive a diagnostic consultation within two weeks of being referred to the hospital by their GP.

The target was introduced by the Government in 1999 for patients referred to hospital with suspected breast cancer, but since April last year the programme has been rolled out to apply to other cancers, including those in children.

Fresh call for A1 upgrading: A RENEWED call for the A1 to be upgraded to a motorway between Bramham and Barton has been made by Northallerton-based Hambleton councillors.

Until the upgrading is in place they have said that in the interests of safety some low cost measures should be implemented, including the closure of gaps along the central reservation.

Councillors were responding to the final report of the A1 safety study done by consultants Halcrow for the regional Government Office. The report sets out a series of options, including a motorway, for safety improvements.

In 1996 two separate schemes for upgrading the A1 to a motorway between Dishforth and Barton were withdrawn from the national roads programme.

Stop smoking: SMOKERS in Northallerton can find out just how short of breath their habit is making them at a series of workshops next week.

As part of No Smoking Week, which starts on Monday, the Hambleton and Richmondshire Tobacco Alliance is offering smokers a free lung function test. Alliance spokesman Pat Marshall explained: "The tests measure lung capacity.

The more you smoke and the older you get, the more your lung capacity diminishes. For example, a 30-year-old who is a heavy smoker might have the lung capacity of a 50-year-old."

The lung function tests take place at Boots the chemist, in the High Street on Wednesday 10am-3am. Special sessions for staff at the Friarage, Northallerton, are being held in the hospital dining room on Tuesday, 11am-noon, and another for is scheduled for staff in Northallerton Young Offenders Institution on Wednesday, 12.30-1.30.

Diamond day for couple: A DUNKIRK veteran and his wife celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary in Northallerton on Sunday.

The wartime romance began when Mr James Birtwistle met Fishburn miner's daughter Miss Muriel Dodd at the fairground in Fishburn in June, 1939.

"There was a group of us and a group of them and we just seemed to get together," recalled Mrs Birtwistle, aged 89.

The couple, of Chantry Road, Northallerton, got engaged on St Valentine's Day the following year.

With the advent of the Second World War, Mr Birtwhistle joined the Royal Engineers and was sent to France in 1940 and found himself caught up in the evacuation of more than 300,000 Allied soldiers from Dunkirk in May that year.

But his return to England was just as brief, and was followed by a posting to North Africa. When he came back on leave, the couple married in Fishburn on March 11, 1941.

Full details on all these stories will be published in Friday's Darlington & Stockton Times.

Updated: 13.27 Tuesday, March 6