Max is a six years old Lurcher who urgently needs a new home where he will be loved as much as he is now. Max has a wonderful temperament, loves children, gets on well with other dogs and his owners are reluctant to part with him but their circumstances are such that it is necessary.

John spends weeks at a time working away from home and his wife suffers chronic back pain, preventing her from exercising Max as much as he needs. The couple are also moving house and pets are not permitted at their future home.

If you can give this gorgeous dog a loving home, please email me in the first instance and I will put you in touch with John.

After their 'in Search of Branson' quest of last year, the intrepid duo known as vegas2vegas (Jamie Hay and Joe Griffiths) are now working on a very exciting new challenge called vegas2venice. They are heading to Europe in aid of Arms Around the Child in search of the passions of those affected by HIV/AIDS. Jamie Hay said, 'We want to celebrate their stories and hopefully, rather than highlighting what makes us different, we will look at what makes us the same. The result will be a madly inventive, professionally filmed, documentary that takes the audience on a crazy ride that uncovers a bit more about the people affected by this disease in lots of different countries and cultures.'

The project is fully supported by Arms Around the Child who recently made vegas2vegas guardians for the charity and Act V, an international AIDS focussed organisation set up to protect the Global Fund. The vegas2vegas team need the help of the local community to make this project a reality and have recently launched their documentary project on a platform called IndieGoGo (http://www.indiegogo.com/) to fund the project. This website allows anyone to get involved and help invest in the idea in return for lots of great goodies.

Please support the guys in their latest endeavour. We would really appreciate any help you can give us in spreading the word and have lots more details available for you. I'd also be more than happy to have a chat with you about all the exciting things going on - 07846897213. k

Popular young local sportswoman, Vanessa Brann has recently received confirmation that she will carry the Olympic torch in Ross-on-Wye and is the only local person to be selected for this memorable role.

Vanessa, aged 19 is an ex pupil of the John Kyrle High School and during her attendance there, she qualified and attended the English Schools Cross Country Finals every year from year 8. Vanessa still holds the John Kyrle records for the 1500 metres and 800 metres.

Vanessa now attends Staffordshire University, studying a degree course in BA Sports Development & Coaching. She is in the University Athletics team and the Netball Squad but began her running career whilst still at Ashfield Park Primary School and joined Hereford Athletics Club.

Now running for Bristol & West Athletics Club, Vanessa was Herefordshire Cross Country Champion in her age group from 2004 to 2009. She was also Herefordshire Track & Field 1500 metres Champion in her age group from 2004 to 2010, While she was studying at Hartpury College, Vanessa was Gloucestershire Cross Country Champion in 2011 and Gloucestershire Track & Field 1500m Champion in the same year, also becoming South West Of England Regional Track & Field 5000m Champion.

Vanessa was devastated when an injury she sustained whilst playing netball at university earlier this year prevented her from taking part in all her major Cross Country races. This has been the first cross country season she has missed since began cross country running in 2003.

Vanessa is now on the road to recovery and is due to take part in the British University Championships in early May which will take place in London at the Olympic Stadium.

Well done Vanessa. We are all very proud of you and what you have achieved.

Community spirit is alive and well in Llangrove and has enabled the village to come together to organize the annual Llangrove Grand May Fayre. The inaugural event last year was a huge success attracting over 300 visitors and raising a significant amount of money for the village hall, school, church and pre-school who pooled their skills and resources to organize it. The 2012 May Fayre will take place on Saturday, 16th June between 1pm and 5pm at Llangrove CE Primary School and entrance is FREE!

A traditional May Day village fete, the event includes lots of fun and games for everyone. Ross Town Band will be serenading visitors as they shop and play games or visitors can simply sit and enjoy delicious teas, a cool Ty Gwyn cider, Kingstone Breweries beer, Pimms or fruit juice from the licensed bar with something from the barbecue perhaps or an ice cream. There will also be a Tug of War Challenge competition, vintage tractors, maypole dances, two rounds of the infamous chicken drop (each of which has a fantastic £100 cash prize), bouncy slide, baby animals, and lots of shopping. Buy a raffle ticket or two and you could be the very happy winner of a whole wheelbarrow full of booze or a hamper of gorgeous local produce. There will be plenty of supervised parking and a dedicated disabled parking area close to the venue.

This year the Fayre is very pleased to welcome local Llangarron business, Hilltop Birds of Prey, as the main attraction. Mike Hill recently moved his business to the area and cares for a range of hawks, falcons and owls. He offers demonstrations and experience days so that people are able to learn about the birds and fly them. Mike will be introducing May Fayre visitors to a selection of his magnificent birds, chatting about them and also providing a flying demonstration.

Mike said, 'We are delighted to be invited to Llangrove Grand May Fayre. We will enable visitors to experience close up the sport of falconry and the beauty, grace and power of these fascinating raptors, as well as being able to explain the importance of wildlife and conservation.'

If you're feeling inspired why not enter the Fayre's Birds of Prey Creative competition and produce something creative with a Birds of Prey theme? It could be a poem, drawing, sculpture, collage, quilt, photo, story etc. The lucky winner and one guest will be invited to Hilltop Birds of Prey in Llangarron where they will spend an hour learning about the birds and helping to fly them. If you would like to take part just bring your entry along to the Fayre. There is no charge!!

Some time ago, a volunteer working with EnviroAbility, Hannah Legigo, with the support of both Alupro and the County Council, planned and organized a competition to encourage people to collect foil. The main reason being that the then new co mingled recycling approach could not recycle foil in the system. The partnership concentrated on the younger population and organised a year long competition for schools or youth groups. The young people had to collect and take in the foil, which was then weighed and the group which collected the most foil per young person won the prize of a hot air balloon flight.

Hannah organised a four page coloured A 4 sized publicity pamphlet, courtesy of Print Plus in Hereford, that went to all schools and any youth group in the county who asked for one. The balloon company kindly donated the flight. The competition actually came to a end at the end of the last academic year but for a mixture of reasons it was postponed until Spring.

The winning group was the Cub Pack at Aston Ingham. There were three runners up who were Llangrove C of E Primary School, Peterchurch Primary school and Gorsley Goffs Primary School. Well done to them all.

The Can Do Crew of EnviroAbility has been busy in recent weeks installing six new gates on the Wye Valley Walk as part of the ‘Smiles without Stiles’ project which is funded by grants from The Severn Waste Environmental Fund and the Wye Valley AONB and organised by the Walkers are Welcome Group. Some of the new gates are galvanised steel and some are wooden. All feature a self-closing mechanism which gives assurance to landowners with livestock in adjacent fields. Three more landowners have given their consent for stiles to be replaced with gates and these will be installed shortly. There were eighteen stiles in total on the Wye Valley Walk south of Ross and it is hoped other landowners will also take advantage of the scheme so that more gates can be installed.