Sunderland University is to honour the 91-year-old Tyneside millionairess by naming part of its library extension "the Catherine Cookson Reading Room". The chairman of the university's development trust, local businessman Sir Tom Cowie, said the gift would go towards developing the university's riverside campus.In 1991, the then polytechnic awarded an honorary doctorate to Dame Catherine, who was born into a poor household in Jarrow, but is now one of the North East's wealthiest residents.The gift is Dame Catherine's second six-figure donation to the university. In 1992, when it was still a polytechnic, she gave pounds 100,000 towards scientific research.Dame Catherine's first novel was published in 1950 and her worldwide book sales in 17 different languages have topped 100 million. They also discovered that fluoridation reduced levels of tooth decay by the greatest amount in poor areas - the more deprived the area, the more children benefited from fluoride in water. The findings, published in the British Medical Journal today, prompted an urgent call from the authors for more fluoridation. The dental records of a random sample of children were studied in three regions - Hartlepool, where the water is naturally fluoridated, Newcastle and North Tyneside, where water is artificially fluoridated, and Salford and Trafford, where there is no fluoridation. A team led by Dr Colwyn Jones, from Wigan and Bolton Health Authority, found increasing levels of tooth decay in five-year-olds living in deprived areas. Deprived children suffer most from tooth decay and also receive the greatest benefit from fluoride in water supplies, researchers said yesterday.
From January next year every high street will include at least one estate agent which belongs to the ombudsman scheme. The expansion of the scheme was welcomed by the Office of Fair Trading, which recently issued a stern warning to the industry following reports that some estate agents were engaging in sharp practices. From January 1 1998 the public are being advised to only use an agent which is displaying the scheme logo. The new Ombudsman for Estate Agents scheme is aimed at making it easier for buyers and sellers who are unhappy about the service they have received to complain and get compensation if their grievance is judged to be valid.The move is the result of a link-up between the large estate agency chains and the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), and the Incorporated Society of Valuers and Auctioneers (ISVA).. Last year one in four policemen in lower ranks were aged under the age of 29, compared to one in three in 1991.The research showed a huge decline in the number of piano tuners, down from 7,089 to 3,281 between 1991 and 1996, but a 4,000 increase in the number of undertakers, up to 9,925 over the same period..
House-buyers and sellers will soon have new rights and greater protection because an estate agent complaints scheme is being extended across the industry. Judges and court officers are getting "dramatically" older, with a third aged between 55 and 69, compared with just one in 10 six years ago. The number of software engineers over the age of 40 has increased from 25 per cent to 36 per cent in the same period. The myth that policemen are getting younger is also exploded by the research, which concluded that police forces are keeping track with demographic changes in society. Women begin to encounter age-related problems when they are 21, sometimes suffering barriers to promotion. The poll, by the Employers' Forum on Age and recruitment firm Austin Knight, showed that workers in some professions are getting older. Men as young as 18 suffer from ageism, often told they are too young for a job, according to a survey of 2,000 firms. Young people face age discrimination at work as much as older employees, a new report found today.
Her novels include The Moth, The Mallen Streak and Feathers in the Fire. She received the OBE in 1985, and became a dame in 1992.Her publisher recently announced that as Dame Catherine is so prolific, new works are guaranteed for the next 10 years.The university's vice-chancellor, Dr Anne Wright, said that naming the reading room after Dame Catherine reflected the impact of the author's first visit to a public library, more than 20 years before she became a published writer.Dr Wright added that the money was "another example of the unstinting commitment of Dame Catherine and her husband Tom to advancing educational opportunities in the North East".The author has also made huge donations to Newcastle University, the latest being pounds 250,000 earlier this year to keep open its previously closure- threatened Hatton Art Gallery.Philip McNamara. He gritted his teeth and just carried on."Mrs Newman added: "All I wanted to do was get Daniel off the yacht. He hadn't eaten for three days and I was just so worried."Meanwhile, sailing instructor Les Rant, a former neighbour of the Newmans, said he was surprised they had decided to set sail on a long trip because of their lack of experience and lack of training.He said: "I thought they were being ambitious. The dream of Don and Yvonne Newman to sail around the world - with their six-year-old son, Daniel, - in their 36ft Touchdown was brutally destroyed by appalling weather in the Bay of Biscay. Sea King helicopters from Illustrious had to winch the family to safety after they had endured three storm-tossed days on mountainous waves.The family, who had sold their house and given up their jobs to sail round the world, set off from Lowestoft in July and had been heading for Gibraltar.While Illustrious steamed into Portsmouth harbour, Mrs Newman, who was severely sea-sick and confined to her bed for three days, described their ordeal and paid tribute to their helicopter crew rescuers."The weather was so bad it took four attempts for them to even get on to the yacht But the determination on the man's face was amazing. Stewards and stewardesses staged a three-day strike in July in protest over the imposition of a pay and conditions deal. Union leaders have presented the company with a plan to save pounds 42m from cabin crew costs - the issue at the centre of the dispute..
As the rescued Newman family returned to port yesterday on a rather bigger ship than they had anticipated - the 20,600-ton aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious - experts debated the merit of long voyages by sailors with little or no experience. Members of the Transport and General Workers' Union at BA are due to meet early next week to decide whether to ballot on further industrial action. "Helen had an operation last night [Wednesday], the surgery went according to plan, and she is recovering well," a spokeswoman said. The 41-year-old former PE teacher, who was the first woman to present the BBC's flagship sports programme Grandstand, is in hospital in Brentwood, Essex, the spokeswoman added. The hospital - which has not been named - has clarified that she is suffering from cancer of the colon, not stomach cancer as reported earlier, the spokeswoman said.Ms Rollason was diagnosed with the illness on Monday.. Negotiations to settle the cabin crew dispute at British Airways are understood to have reached a critical stage.
