this week, PAULA KANIUK, manager of Nightsafe, Blackburn says, 'Have van, will travel. . .to the beach!'

A WALK on the beach provides the ideal stressbuster for Paula, manager of Nightsafe, the charity launched in Blackburn in 1990 to provide shelter for young people without a home.

In that time the charity has provided a bed at its night shelter in Bridge Street, Blackburn, for more than 4,000 young people and is currently busy spending a £5,000 grant from the Gannett Foundation, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph's parent company, to revamp its hostel in Preston Old Road in the town.

Paula's Lancashire Hot Spot is Ainsdale Sands, near Southport, and although she enjoys going there at any time of year she particularly enjoys wrapping up warmly and trudging along the shoreline in winter, when the beach is all but deserted.

She said: "I have a very old dog, a Heinz 57 called Lady, who's 15. She's bit deaf and going blind, but when there's food around she acts like a pup. I have a very old camper van and they are both really chugging along.

"Sometimes on a Sunday we go to Ainsdale. I love to wrap up and walk along the beach with Lady. It takes quite a while to drive there in the camper van, but that's part of the fun.

"I always wanted to retire to the beach, with a forest at the back -- that would just do me nicely."