Redditch and Bromsgrove's talking newspaper has read the local news aloud, free, for 50 years. In Lancashire, a man who had two kidney transplants and his partner have fostered 13 children.

For fifty years the Redditch and Bromsgrove Talking Newspaper has done one small, unfussy thing: read the local news out loud, record it, and post it to people who can no longer read a paper themselves. The service turned 50 on 4 October, and one of the volunteers marking the anniversary had been there since the first year. 1

Janet Graham started recording for the group in October 1976 and still helps with the weekly production. She is due to receive a long service certificate from the Talking Newspaper Federation. 1

"Both my mother and mother-in-law were registered blind, so it's sort of close to my heart," she told the BBC. "It's been part of my life, and my family's life." 1

The service is free, and it is built for anyone the printed page has left behind. Its listeners are sight-impaired, but not only: Hedley Brook-Carter, who chairs the trustees, said the recordings also go to people whose arthritis or other disability stops them turning the pages of a newspaper. 1

More than 400 regular listeners hear each edition. Every one is also shared with more than 20 care homes across North Worcestershire. 1

The way it travels has changed; the shape of it has not. It began on cassette. Today a USB stick arrives in a padded envelope and is plugged into a free player, and the same recording can be heard online or through a smart speaker. 1

Each Friday's edition carries the week's local news and sport, a weekend weather forecast and a quiz, plus what is on at the Palace Theatre and the Artrix. There is a "Lucky Dip" of history and poetry, and a "Looking Back" section of articles from old newspapers. 12

For the anniversary, someone found an old cassette of the 100th edition. On it are a message from the 1978 Redditch carnival queen and one from the town's MP at the time, Sir Hal Miller. 1

At Burcot Grange, a care home in Bromsgrove, the events assistant Nicola Hulme described what arrives each week. "I always think it's a little bit like a hug. It's like having a hot chocolate," she said. "It's just that little bit of independence and joy." 1

The help the group asks for is not glamorous: producers build the running order, cuttings editors pick the articles, readers record from home once a month, sound editors stitch the pieces together, and a distribution team loads the memory sticks. It is looking for all of that, and for listeners who have not yet heard of it. 2 Nationally, the Talking News Federation counts more than 300 local talking newspapers and about 9,000 volunteers, who between them produce recordings for 25,000 listeners. 3

In Cleveleys, on the Lancashire coast, Thomas and his partner Wayne began fostering in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. Thomas, 31, had been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease at 13, had a first kidney transplant at 23 and a second one a few months before they started. He now manages the condition with daily dialysis at home. 45

Since then the couple have fostered 13 children. 5

Three are with them now: Eva, 21 months, who has been with them since she was three months old, and Tyler, 6, and Wendy, 7, who have been with them for three years. Their names have been changed. The couple are in the process of adopting Eva and have applied for guardianship of Tyler and Wendy so that all three can stay long term. 45

"Tyler was hardly able to speak when he came to us, but he has been making such good progress ever since," Thomas said. Tyler has just been diagnosed with a long-term disability, and the couple are planning how to support him to stay. 45

What he likes best, he said, is the moment the children call the house home: "I think, that's lovely, as this is your home." 5

Lancashire County Council, which runs the county's fostering service, has a page for anyone weighing it up. 6

What stays with me in both halves is the same decision, made once and then made again every week: to keep showing up for somebody else long after the first time it was needed.