I'm thrilled for Popstar Kym

The wannabe youngster who dedicated her life to trying to reach the top has finally done it, in front of a bigger audience than she ever imagined.

A veil of secrecy over the new band, chosen from over 3,000 star struck youngsters, was lifted this week when over 10 million viewers saw a delighted Kym, 24, join the five piece group, tipped to be named The Inner Circle.

She had shone through throughout the selection programmes with her strong voice and great sense of humour.

I knew she was local when she asked what do you call a pie on top of the clock tower in Wigan? Summat to eight!

Kym, who lives in Ashton, used to join her dad in Golborne Labour Club, and at the age of 10 moidered him for ages to let her sing with the group. He gave in and everyone was gobsmacked at how good she was when she sang Cliff's Livin' Doll.

The rest is history. All we have to wait for now is what happens when she reveals to the chief judge Nasty Nigel that she is the mother of two youngsters.

It shouldn't make the slightest bit of difference, but I'll bet if she hadn't kept the secret until she was chosen it could have.

The area is thrilled that a local girl with real talent is set to make it bigtime - with a guaranteed number one hit when the first record is released next month.

Don't let organs scandal eclipse all the good work being done

THE reputation of Alder Hey Hospital has taken a hammering over the children's organs store scandal.

Parents have been shattered to learn of the actions of a few people who have brought shame to the area, but the worst possible scenario is the fall off of organ donations for transplant as a result.

Hearts must go out to the parents who discovered they had buried an incomplete body, that parts of their beloved infants were stashed in formaldehyde on lab shelves.

No amount of money or apology could compensate for the shock.

But parents must not be put off sending their children there in future. The outstanding work done has been eclipsed by this outrage.

Local parents whose children have been successfully treated there have had nothing but praise for the treatment and dedication of the doctors and nurses who helped them get better.

Many local families whose infants have been treated for leukaemia have organised fund raising events to say thanks - and that shouldn't change.

We should be thankful that the scandal has been brought to the fore all over the country.

It means that new rules and regulations will be put into place.

Medicine has to progress and research is essential as many parents of sick children know. It is the not knowing what happened to the 'tissue' that has caused the upset along with the abuse of parental consent.

The tragedy must not stop families consenting to organ donations to save the lives of others.

A HOTEL boss was so impressed by a public toilet near his business he ate a slap up meal in the middle of the gents in Pershore, Worcestershire. I wouldn't eat within a 100 yards of the public lavatories around here.

I LOVE Golborne's new square - especially the clock. I'd like that in my garden.

The opening of the focal point which was due before Christmas has been delayed waiting for artwork - and a new name.

Residents can have their say in the naming of the area, and voting forms are available in the shops.

From the ones I checked out it seems that Kidglove Square and Peter Kane Square are the forerunners, Kidglove from the name of a past colliery and not after the gloves of the village's famous world featherweight boxing champ, Peter.

Suggestions other than the four on the slip included Clock Square and Time Square.

One thing I hope is that when the seating area is unfenced it is not abused by vandals. It is not open yet and the garden is full of rubbish.

I'LL have to stop licking the Queen's backside. Would you believe it's making me fat?

Glue on a stamp contains 5.9 calories, so that means anyone licking 100 a day in an office job won't need any tea, they'll already have eaten the equivalent of a pizza.

However, the PO has now launched a new range of self adhesive first and second class stamps, with the help of new-look Vanessa Feltz.

They'll help anyone on a diet like I promised myself I would be, but still not got round to it. Why ? Because now I've found some giant Bakewell tarts for half price. Scrummy.

REMEMBER an "Audience With Billy Connolly" when he had the audience in stitches talking about the big slipper? I actually saw a posh sheepskin one for sale in a local charity shop for a couple of quid. I couldn't forshame to buy it, even for a joke. It must be one of the world's silliest inventions -- unless you know better.

Nuisance callers

I GOT my first nuisance call since I signed up with the telephone preference service after months in peace this week, and I wasn't too happy.

In fact I was so annoyed I didn't even wait to see what I had won after supposedly answering a questionnaire some time previously. I politely put the phone down after telling he caller I really didn't want to know.

I feel a bit sorry for the people who do these jobs, they must put up with some abuse, but I do wish the companies would realise that people don't want disturbing with their time wasting calls when they are relaxing in the evening after a hard day's work.

There should be a time limit.

This week I also received a fax asking me to stand up and join the campaign against junk faxes. Apparently all businesses that respond to the fax will automatically have their details forwarded to the fax preference service.

Good idea, shame about the price. The fax back costs £3 - perhaps cheaper than the reams of paper wasted on rubbish, but shouldn't this be a free service?

We're lazy shoppers...

WE are the laziest shoppers in the world. Britons buy more groceries on the Internet than anyone else. Tesco sold £200m as the biggest on-line grocer.

I wouldn't mind their takings for an hour. Personally I couldn't be bothered.

I'd rather scan the shelves myself for choice, see what I am buying and know how much I am spending.

I'VE thought for ages that this country is falling apart. Now it is official. The white cliffs of Dover are crumbling into the sea. The sight of the chalk face is a welcome one to tourists returning home across the Channel. The collapse has been blamed on last year's wonderful wet weather -- all the rain soaked up and frozen by the January cold snap. How many of you are joining me in warmer climes if you are ever lucky enough to win the lottery?

Why do they kill animals?

AN average cat kills between 40 and 50 creatures a year -- from mice to birds, bats and frogs, according to a survey by the Mammal Society.

It's nature to these ex-purr-minators, but not to the humans who derive pleasure from killing little animals.

On Sunday I was walking my dog when I came across a furtive looking fellow in the fields crouching by a hill with his hand over his terrier's mouth.

Boldly, or stupidly, I gave him one of my glares and asked what he was doing. No answer. "I hope you're not killing anything," I said. No answer.

On my return he was still there awaiting the return of his ferret from the rabbit hole I presume.

I just couldn't keep my mouth shut. "Take your evil practice elsewhere and leave the little animals alone," I expounded.

My words probably didn't make the slightest bit of difference, but I felt better.

I cannot cope with creatures being obliterated by such needless cruelty. They have enough hazards to put up with trying to survive in their ever-shrinking world. For goodness sake leave them alone.

I was disturbed to see that Rachel Casey has been awarded £ million by the Cats Protection League to find out what the animals are thinking. It seems to me they're thinking of what they can wipe out next. This wasteful award will do nothing to help the charity's fund raising.

My odd teenage crushes

TOP 10 Teen Idols on TV revealed how daft teenagers are to develop crushes on pop stars they've never met . . . but we've all done it.

As an adolescent I was never really that mad about anyone. My admiration of Elvis developed after his leather clad 1968 comeback concert.

I must say my favourite of the early 60s was Paul Jones, lead singer of Manfred Mann-- and the BBC blues jock is still fanciable.

Like all teenagers I wanted to festoon my room with pictures, but dad wasn't too chuffed, so I went ahead with just one wall.

Looking back I don't know what was in my mind at the time, but the centrepiece was a giant painting in my own hand of the red haired, freckled faced Alfred E Newman from Mad magazine.

Not the Beatles or Stones for me. There were also pictures of Richard Chamberlain as Dr Kildare, Lynn The Leap Davies, the Olympic long jump champion, and believe it or not the Bachelors. Why?

They weren't up long before pater had them down and the wall repainted.

I wouldn't like to see what's on teenagers' walls these days, but I suppose many parents are glad to be banned from their teens' havens.

Saucy remedy

A 20-a-day smoker has finally quit by eating a spoonful of mint sauce when he was gasping. Cheaper than nicotine patches. Anyone got a better solution?

DO we have to have more and more little brats in Coronation Street?

There's enough like David Platt about the streets without having to put up with them in your own living room

Our shop centre has gone

AN old Athertonian bemoans the state of the town centre she loved this week.

The 90-year-old took the trouble to write to me asking what has happened to the downtrodden main street?

She tells me she went by taxi to the Punch Bowl and alighted in front of a gruesome boarded-up building.

What was once a former sweet shop was a shambles and all around looked lost.

She walked back along Market Street only to be met by more boarded-up shops and some in coats of armour!

The old lady, who doesn't want to be identified, says she spoke to many others who felt saddened by the loss of specialist shops.

She had to search high and low for large handkerchiefs and tea towels.

She said: "People like to choose goods not rummage for them. The town can never return to my memories of it, but maybe if the rents of the empty shops were reduced some people would venture to make a go of it.

"I write this because we are supposed to be progressing and we are not. Even the market once full of stalls now with luck has maybe only three or four."

The decline of town centre shopping is a blow to all of us who love it, Mrs S, but I'm afraid that's the way of the world these days.

No doubt the powers that be will one day realise many of us don't like the giant out of town shopping centres and bring back personal little businesses.

Let me have your thoughts.