A HUGE event to celebrate International Women's Day will be held in Blackburn and Darwen on Friday.

The aim is to celebrate the achievements of local women and demonstrate the wide range of opportunities and options open to today's women.

Blackburn Mayor Coun Maureen Bateson, who will play a key part hosting the day's activities, stressed: "This is an event about women, not just for women, so men are welcome to come along, too."

More than 60 organisations have already booked stalls in King George's Hall, Blackburn, and several are lined up for places in Darwen Market Hall.

Visitors to the free event from 10am to 4pm will be able to get advice and information on a wide range of subjects from training opportunities to hobbies, voluntary work, financial advice and health issues.

Private areas will be available for people who want to discuss sensitive issues with any of the organisations represented.

There will also be an opportunity to hear from women who have made their mark on the world, including Lancashire Police Chief Constable Pauline Clare - the first woman chief constable in the country - who will speak at 1pm.

Shadow Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw will attend from 12.45pm to 2pm, while Rossendale and Darwen MP Janet Anderson will be there from 3pm until the close at 4pm.

Blackburn-based Lancashire Red Rose Majorettes will give a display at 2pm, while at 2.45pm, girls from Westholme school will perform a play, and a self-defence display is also lined up for the afternoon.

Soroptimists will take the opportunity to present their Women in the Community awards, while Blackburn council will present certificates to women's groups and female swimmers who recently learned to swim under a Blackburn Council scheme will receive awards.

Organisations taking part include Women's Aid, the Women's Centre, Asian Women in Action, the Brook Advisory Centre, the Breakthrough Breast Cancer appeal, the Zero Tolerance Group, the NSPCC, the WRVS, Nightsafe and the Older Women's Network.

Blackburn Council corporate policy officer Rob Mitchell said the event would focus on women in local history and culture, women and health, women in local groups and women in training and employment.

"We want to challenge stereotypes, but not to the exclusion of recognising the roles that many women play all the time," he explained .

"We want to open people's minds so that hopefully they will go away thinking about all they can do with their lives."

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