THE ANNUAL appeal to help ex-servicemen and women and their families starts next week.

The 2004 Royal British Legion Cumbria Poppy Appeal is being launched by the Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria, James Cropper. The event will coincide with the British Red Cross Cumbria branch ex-prisoners of war annual reunion lunch.

The event will be held at the Belsfield Hotel in Bowness on Monday, October 25, at 11.30am. Everyone is welcome to attend and there will be the chance to meet ex-prisoners of war, widows and veterans who have benefited from poppy welfare assistance in Cumbria.

Last year, the RBL Cumbrian poppy appeal collected around £245,000. However, grants for medical assistance such as wheelchairs exceeded £454,000. Grants range from £25 for a pair of shoes to £4,000 for property adaptations and repairs that local authorities are unable to fund. As the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War approaches in 2005, the RBL hopes this year's Poppy Appeal will continue to raise invaluable funds for Cumbria to alleviate hardship and distress.

THERE will be no more deckchairs in the drizzle for members of St John Ambulance's Ulverston division at next year's show season.

The voluntary first aid service has taken delivery of a state-of-the-art first aid caravan with its own separate crew quarters and treatment centre. It has also got a new Land Rover Defender to tow the new mobile unit.

The new equipment will provide improved facilities for patients and for Ulverston's first aid volunteers, who previously had to leave their vehicle when someone was being treated. Now they will have somewhere to rest, eat and cook when not on duty.

The £17,000 mobile unit and £25,000 Land Rover have been paid for out of St John Ambulance county funds. The division's old ambulance has been transferred to the Carlisle team. Fund-raising is now continuing apace for the Ulverston brigade to find another £10,000 to replace its older Land Rover, which will not meet new safety regulations.

THE Kendal and District Local Group of Diabetes UK is meeting on Tuesday, October 26, at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church, Highgate, in Kendal, to discuss diet and eyesight. The first speaker will be Russell Smith, the senior dietician at Westmorland General Hospital. The second will be Sarah Beattie, service implementation manager for diabetes for Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust. Tea and coffee will be served.

SWIMMERS representing four companies in the South Lakes area raised more than £800 when they took the plunge in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care. The swimming challenge was held at the Castle Green Hotel, Kendal, and involved teams of four workers from James Cropper plc, Burneside; Lakeland Limited, Windermere; the Castle Green Hotel and the hotel's leisure club. They had to swim a mile by completing 133 lengths of the 12-metre pool. The team from the leisure club were the first to pass the finishing line in just over 20 minutes. Amanda Kelso, Tom Johnson, Fiona Thompson and James Gavin and their partners have each received a free night's bed and breakfast at the Castle Green Hotel's newly-acquired three-star hotel in Manchester, The Princess on Portland, for winning the challenge.

A STREET collection in Kendal for the Bendrigg Trust residential activity centre at Old Hutton raised £513.11 for the charity's work with disabled and disadvantaged young people.