END OF AN ERA: Anne Henderson and Neville Singleton outside the base in Barnard Castle
A CHARITY which has helped thousands of elderly and disabled people across the dale for more than 20 years is to close.
The Teesdale Disability Access Forum will close the doors of its base in Market Place, Barnard Castle, for a final time in mid-May.
The charity was originally established to tackle the lack of dropped kerbs on pavements and roads and to help organisations ensure they conformed to measures contained in the 2004 Disability Discrimination Act.
Its services grew to include a dale-wide loan service for mobility aids such as wheelchairs and zimmer frames, providing cancer care kits, organising armchair exercises and a Thursday afternoon club plus projects for those affected by incontinence and dementia.