Celebrations to mark 70 years since the opening of the region's first school to support disabled people were held in North Tyneside today.
The Percy Hedley Foundation, in Killingworth, opened in 1953 with just 12 students and now supports over 600 people across its sites in the North East. It all started when parents Molly and Stephen Darke, whose son Stephen had cerebral palsy, placed an advert in the Evening Chronicle in 1949 appealing for other parents of disabled children to join their fundraising campaign to open a school.
And today one of the first pupils to be supported by the foundation returned to the school to cheer on current students who were taking part in a cycling challenge. She also reflected on her time at the site.
