A CHORAL society will bring a little Christmas cheer to a hospital tomorrow evening for a remarkable 40th year in a row.

Members of Durham Choral Society will perform at the University Hospital of North Durham at 7.30pm, when they will present a selection of traditional Christmas carols and take requests from patients and staff.

The society first performed the carol concert in the 1960s, when the singers visited the former St Margaret's Hospital, then a hospital for the elderly in Crossgate.

In the 1980s, they moved to the Dryburn Hospital, before transferring to the University Hospital when it opened in 2001.

A spokesman for the society said: "Our singers are only too pleased to use their talents to bring a bit of Christmas cheer - and we are looking forward to our golden anniversary in ten years time.

"We'll still be singing then."

Tony Wolfe, acting chairman of the hospital's trust, said: "Over the past four decades, they have made a huge difference to the experience of patients who have had to spend their Christmas in hospital."