25/10/2016 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

For the fifth year in a row, a North East health trust

has been named the most active in clinical research.

Finding the treatments that can save, or transform, our livds.

Hundreds of people across the North East Cumbria volunteer

People like Pascal Johnston, from Sunderland.

He suffers from Muscular Dystrophy, but is helping Newcastle Hospital's

It's one of around 500 clinical trials being run

by the Trust this year alone, as Jim Knight reports.

14-year-old Pascal suffers from muscular dystrophy, a genetic,

life-limiting condition that over time will slowly weaken his muscles.

When he heard that there was the possibility of being part

of a trial, a pioneering pidce of clinical research that one day

may help find a cure, Pascal talked it over with his mum

and decided he wanted to do anything he could to help.

I wasn't too sure what would happen if I had this new drug put hnto me.

..more about it, so I kind of just thought, well,

Pascal's trialling a new colpound which is designed to work

like a genetic patch over the missing bits of his DNA.

It means he has to come into the RVI every week for an infusion

and the research teams are constantly monitoring his progress.

Even if at the end of the trial they don't find a cure, at least

what they will find is they need to go in a different directhon.

Never think of it as being negative.

The clinicians and research teams know that without people like Pascal

being prepared to put their body on the line like this,

new drugs and treatment just wouldn't be found.

There are drugs that are often quite expensive.

And therefore we need to demonstrate that it has an impact

That is the only way to do it, in a systematic way, to be sure that

what we are administering is the right thing to do.

Medical research can often `ppear to move incredibly slowly.

But, over time, the breakthroughs do eventually come.

Maybe in the years ahead, thousands of fellow

muscular dystrophy sufferers all over the world may one day owe

a huge debt of gratitude to one boy from Sunderland.

It's been one of the region's longest running sagas.

Hundreds of town centre strdets were earmarked for demolition -

And that left the Gresham area of Middlesbrough in limbo.

Now another plan has been unveiled to regenerate the area.

Creating a ready-made film set was never the plan.

This is Middlesbrough, the boarded-up streets the backdrop

for a riot scene in the TV series George Gently.

The semi-derelict landscape was ideal for the film makers.

Three years on, much of the area still stands.

There was no money to pay for demolition work.

There have been talks with the University who have already

invested ?250 million in the campus and are interdsted

and I think they're talking to developers.

Getting a master plan together to get the land together

There is progress, but here it has been painfully slow.

Middlesbrough Council wanted to knock down 1,500 houses here

ten years ago, then came thd recession and the financial crash

Eight years after that, only a couple of hundred

Teesside University's ambition for more student housing

There are ideas about improvement, but it has either

not happened or just been slow, because this is not good.

I welcome the idea of it being built.

I think they were built as good stock

and they could be renovated and restored and reused.

And they will have better architectural merit than

A future at last perhaps for a place once so derelict it was homd

It is always quite eerie down here, because you have got

so many empty houses across many different streets.

Over time, in fact, it has got better as they have gradually

If it is to be a student village, it does make sense,

as the university is only half a mile or so away.

This is still sometime in the future.

Middlesbrough Council meets to discuss the next step

It's emerged that North Cumbria's two main hospitals lost the medical

records of patients more th`n 7 0 times in a four-year period.

As a result, 53 patients at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle,

and the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven,

have had procedures delayed since 2013.

But the trust which runs the hospitals says the notes

were mislaid during a major modernisation programme,

which will lead to an improved service as a whole.

Two men have appeared before magistrates in Scarborough,

after a 50-year-old man was found dead in the town last Thursday.

Richard Walker was discovered in his flat in Princess Strdet.

42-year-old Clifford Honeym`n and 39-year-old Andrew Stevenson -

both of no fixed address - are accused of his killing.

One of the world's richest women is to provide money

for the massive potash mine that's expected to be built

in the North York Moors National Park.

The Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart has said she will put

about ?250 million into Sirius Minerals.

That's the company behind the mine, which would be near Whitby.

The final part of the development was given planning approval

in June, with mining expected to begin in 2021.

The host towns of next year's Tour de Yorkshire have been unvehled

Scarborough is included for the third year running

and Harrogate will feature for the first time.

Last year's race was enormously successful -

it's hoped 2017's will be even bigger.

Yorkshire's well and truly on the global cycling map.

It started with the hosting of the first stage

which led to the creation of the Tour De Yorkshire.

Harrogate, a host town of the grand depart

will feature in the race for the first time next year.

It seems that Harrogate is becoming synonymous

with bicycle racing, and that has kept going

since the Grand Depart, and I think that

the Tour de Yorkshire coming to us either for a start or finish

We will fill our hotels and guesthouses, we will make sure

that our economy is driven by the Tour de Yorkshire.

Harrogate's also hoping to play a major role

in another major cycling event in Yorkshire.

that the county would host the UCI Road World Championships in 201 .

We have said all along, we want to be one of the cycling

capitals of the world, and Yorkshire has firmly

got its identity clearly stated as a big, big cycling place.

Harrogate has got all of the ingredients to play a big

role in the World Championships and I think, if they were able to do

Meanwhile, Scarborough's also been named as a host town

for a start or finish event of the Tour de Yorkshire

In 2015, 1.5 million roadside spectators

But this year there were two million,

and the local economy was boosted by around ?60 million.

People have started to plan their holidays around it

so we are really excited about it again.

Next year's Tour De Yorkshire takes place at the end of April.

The other host towns are Bridlington, Tadcaster

The exact route will be unveiled in December.

In tonight's football, Newcastle are safely through

after a 6-0 victory over Preston North End.

Preston played most of the game with ten men.

See those goals in Look North tomorrow.

Gateshead came from behind to earn a point at Guiseley.

But York are nine games without a League win now,

A lot of half term holiday families are looking

I think we can do milder, btt not necessarily sunshine in next couple

of days. I will start graphics of days. I will start graphhcs

again. Tomorrow will turn milder, of days. I will start graphics

again. Tomorrow will turn mhlder, as again. Tomorrow will turn mhlder, as

I say. They will come from a I say. They will come from a

westerly direction, bringing milder air. We will not have quite so much

sunshine as today. As we go through this evening and overnight, the

cloud. To spilling from the West. We will see some patchy mist and fog,

and perhaps some drizzle in Cumbria by tomorrow morning. Temperatures

by tomorrow morning. Temper`tures will be milder than last night,

dropping to seven or 8 degrdes. First thing tomorrow morning, there

will be a lot of cloud around and some of that drizzly rain, but we

will see some sunny spells throughout the afternoon. We

will see some sunny spells throughout the afternoon. Wd have a

throughout the afternoon. We have a weather front sinking southwards

which will bring more in the way of cloud and further outbreaks of rain.

A breezy day from the West, and temperatures up to 13 or 14 degrees.

Even 15 where we get the sunshine. Into Thursday, we do see a similar

picture. We have winds coming from the West, it will bring in a fair

amount of cloud again with some spots of rain. We will see some

sunshine once again as well. Thursday's temperatures simhlar to

Thursday's temperatures similar to today's, 13 or 14 degrees Cdlsius.

today's, 13 or 14 degrees Celsius. Towards the weekend, it is ` similar

picture, but high pressure is in picture, but high pressure is in

charge so we lose the strong winds. I will hand

week, it's set to be fine and settled and on the mild side. Nick

now has all the national weather. Hello. Autumn is the season of

change, most noticeably with those autumn colours on display today in

Buckinghamshire, as photographed by one of our weather watchers. Always

helps when there is blue sky above. Our weather is always changing

regardless of the season. One of those changes is taking place, we

are losing last week's Easterly winds and now a westerly wind. That

means it's turning milder by day and night but it does mean the return of

Atlantic weather fronts, especially to north-western parts of the UK.

The reason, high pressure in Germany and low pressure Iceland. Here is

the first of those weather fronts for Scotland and Northern Ireland

through the night, the first part of tomorrow. There isn't a huge amount

of rain associated with this. Could see rain over the hills of northern

England and Wales as the night goes on. The odd shower clipping Sussex

and Kent. A lot of dry weather for England and Wales. It's mild here,

it's milder across the northern half of Britain compared with last night.

But the further south you are the closer to that area of high

pressure, and we