Over 8,500 carefully wrapped shoe boxes containing welcome gifts donated by people living around Morecambe Bay and across Cumbria have already brought Christmas cheer to families living in eastern Europe.

As well as Hungary a team from the Boxes of Hope charity also visited communities in Ukraine.

Jayne Moorby was among the team who managed to overcome geographical difficulties to ensure the gifts got through and describes the reception she witnessed.

The full podcast will be available shortly.

Volunteering to keep the beaches of the Bay litter free may well seem to be a never ending job but for those who lead it and the many volunteers who willingly give their time, the results make it well worthwhile. 

Diane Sammons is a volunteer who has set up her own clean-up group, the Tideliners, who keep an eye on the beaches close to where the River Keer meets the Bay near Warton. As Diane tells us, she's upcycled some of the items she's found and even made an outdoor festive decoration from some of the rubbish that she's retrieved from the area.

34 tonnes of litter: that's the staggering amount cleared up from the beaches of Morecambe Bay by volunteers over the last two years. 2,790 kilometres of footpaths and trails have been cleaned yet the tides keep bringing in more rubbish to be cleared away.

It may well seem to be a never ending job but for those who lead it and the many volunteers who willingly give their time, the results make it well worthwhile. It's even said to help with wellbeing.

Lauren Munro-Bennett is the beach care officer for the Morecambe Bay Partnership and Diane Sammons is a volunteer who has set up her own clean-up group, the Tideliners, who keep an eye on the beaches close to where the River Keer meets the Bay near Warton. As Diane tells us, she's upcycled some of the items she's found and even made an outdoor festive decoration from some of the rubbish that she's retrieved from the area. You can see a video and more pictures on the Morecambe Bay Podcast website and our social media channels, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and now TikTok.

Click here for more information about the voluntary beach clean scheme run by the Morecambe Bay Partnership . 

In the first weekend of December an event billed as 'more than a festive market' took place in the West End of Morecambe.

And while there were stalls, food and music it's all part of a much wider story.

The area is home to a growing creative community, one which has already successfully attracted diverse skills and nurtured artistic ambitions throughout the area. A disused department store could soon become home to a major community hub which would mean even more could benefit. Fundraising is underway - more support would be welcome. And in a day and age when digital media seems to be everywhere, plans to bring an environmentally friendly printer to the area to help spread the word on paper are well advanced.

Details of the Good Things Collective can be found here

Charlotte's blog, The Art of the Zine is here

A canyon that would stretch from London to New York, an extinct volcano three times the size of Mt Everest: two awe inspiring facts about 'the red planet' Mars. The Winter Gardens in Morecambe is hosting artist Luke Jerram's astonishing creation, a seven metre diameter artwork which uses NASA imagery to capture the planet in forensic detail. Each centimetre of the internally lit sculpture representing 10 kilometres of the surface of Mars and is presented with a specially commissioned Mars surround sound composition by Dan Jones - it really is awesome! It's hanging inside the main theatre area until 28th November. I was lucky enough to be given a guided tour by Stuart Atkinson, a lifelong amateur astronomer, author of popular astronomy books and mars fan.

It's known as 'the red planet' but how much do we really understand about Mars?

Maybe visitors leaving the Winter Gardens know a little more after seeing artist Luke Jerram's astonishing creation.

NASA images have been used to depict the planet which is hanging inside the main theatre area until 28th November.

I was lucky enough to be given a guided tour by Stuart Atkinson, a mars amateur astronomer, writer and all round space enthusiast.

Here's an excerpt from the forthcoming podcast.

They're the family where Christmas must be a major operation, months in the planning.

The Radford family from Morecambe - all 22 of them - have become nationally known thanks to the Channel 5 series '22 Kids and Counting' that has charted their lives in recent years. Today the latest chapter was recorded: Sue and Noel's bakery in Heysham has been rebranded with queues forming to take up their kind offer of a free pie for the first 50 customers. The event was recorded by Lion TV for future broadcast.

I was able to enjoy a few minutes with Noel and Sue just before the ribbon was cut.

Winston Churchill described 1942 as ‘The Hinge of Fate’: a year in which the Allies could have lost or won the Second World War. 

An exhibition at City Museum in Lancaster details not only how soldiers from the King’s Own Royal Regiment faced death and hardship on active service but also what life was like on the Home Front.

As I found out, there are parallels drawn with more recent times too.

Two sisters who played a vital part in cracking German code and intercepting radio traffic during the Second World War have been talking about their remarkable lives.

Patricia and Jean Owtram were brought up in Dolphinholme near Lancaster.

After their family took in two Austrian Jewish refugees the pair quickly become fluent in German, something which was to change their lives forever.

When war broke out, Patricia, then aged 18, was posted to top-secret listening stations along the Kent coast where she intercepted German shipping radio traffic.

Jean became a code and cipher officer serving in Egypt and Italy to support allied agents and help partisan efforts against the Nazis.

Their remarkable story has been published and the pair shared their recollections in Lancaster at the City Museum. The museum's new exhibition, The Hinge of Fate: living with uncertainty in 1942 is now underway and will be featured in a forthcoming Morecambe Bay podcast.

Now both in their nineties I was honoured to speak to Patricia and Jean last night. 

The remarkable story of how two sisters played a vital part in cracking German code and intercepting radio traffic during the Second World War has been shared in Lancashire tonight.

Patricia and Jean Owtram were brought up in the county. After their family took in two Austrian Jewish refugees quickly become fluent in German, something which changed their lives forever. Their remarkable story has been published and tonight the pair shared their recollections in Lancaster at the City Museum. The museum's new exhibition, The Hinge of Fate: living with uncertainty in 1942 is now underway and will be featured in a forthcoming Morecambe Bay podcast.

I was honoured to speak to Patricia and Jean this evening and will share the full interview tomorrow - Remembrance Sunday.

For now, listen to Patricia recounting how she became a secret part of the war effort.