RESIDENTS of Ulverston's Honeypot and Watery Lane estates who are over-55 are being invited to free advice sessions. Age Concern South Lakeland is offering assessment of need interviews to ensure older people get the help and support they are entitled to. The sessions run on Thursday from 10.30am to noon at Ulverston's Dale Street Community Centre. Home visits can also be arranged by ringing 01539-742603 or 01539-728118.

BARROW Soroptomists have given £500 to Cumbria Deaf Association because helping deaf young people was a cause close to the heart' of retiring president Jill Hughes of Ulverston. She has worked for 35 years in the audiology departments of the North Lonsdale and Furness General hospitals. Ms Hughes is now programme action officer and her next task is a four-year project to help women survivors of war.

MOUNTAIN bikers seeking a fresh challenge are being invited to take part in a pub-to-pub cycle on Sunday, June 6. A group of cyclists will be pushing off from the Greyhound Pub at Shap to get to the Greyhound in Grizedale via a gruelling off-road course of paths and bridleways. Any experienced mountain bikers keen to join the sponsored 40-mile bike trek, which is raising money for the North West Air Ambulance this year, can contact Martin Salter-Smith on 01229-889400.

A CHARITY is inviting dogs - and their owners - to take part in an eight-mile sponsored walk across the sands of Morecambe Bay. Galloway's Society for the Blind works with more than 6,500 blind and partially-sighted people across Lancashire. Two walks will leave Arnside for Kents Bank on July 10 and 11. People without dogs are also welcome. For information and sponsor forms, contact Kevin Lonergan on 01772-744148 or email kevin.lonergan@galloways.org.uk.

FREEMASONS on the Furness peninsula have contributed an initial £15,000 to sponsor an isolation room in phase two of the new cancer unit at Furness General Hospital. Phase two of the development comprises an eight-bed in-patient facility, which includes two isolation rooms for patients requiring protective isolation while undergoing treatment.

GLADLY Solemn Sound is the title of a fund-raising concert to be held at the Unitarian Chapel in Kendal on Thursday, June 17, at 8pm. Paul Guppy will conduct a programme of locally-composed church music in aid of the South Lakeland branch of the Alzheimer's Society. Tickets cost £3.50 and are available in advance by phoning 01539-742631 or on the door.

SOUTH Lakes Society for the Blind needs walkers for its annual cross bay walk from Arnside to Grange-over-Sands. The walk will depart at 11am on Sunday, August 8. Return coach travel is available on request. For sponsorship forms or to book coach seats, telephone 01539-742633.

A CONCERT in aid of Derian House children's hospice takes place next Thursday, June 10, at Kendal Town Hall, starting at 7.30pm. The organiser, Holme Park School, is hoping to raise £1,000 for the good cause.

THE Westmorland branch of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals collected £120.55 from a collection in Milnthorpe and £270.57 from a collection in Kirkby Lonsdale.

THE National Blood Service will be holding donor sessions in Kendal on June 9. Donors can give blood at St John Boste Social Club, Gillinggate, from 2pm to 4pm and from 5.30pm to 7.30pm.

THE Royal National Lifeboat Institution raised £777.23 during a Lifeboat Day collection in Kendal.