The Rotary Club of Furness handed over £2,000 to St Mary’s Hospice in 1996.

Under the headline ‘A wheelie good effort!’, The Mail reported that the money raised in its ‘Tour de Furness’ event, which was sponsored by the Furness Building Society.

Barry Gill, fundraiser, received a mountain bike for raising the most money, which he later donated back to the Rotary to be used in future events.

In 1997 The Mail reported that Horace Cook, proprietor of the Lisdoonie Hotel, was the new president of the Barrow Rotary Club.

He took over from Bill Joughin, who thanked his fellow Rotarians and the local community for a most enjoyable year in office.

It was an extremely successful one with donations of £10,475 going to local charities which he said ‘points out our commitment to the local community.’

At the hand-over meeting cheques were presented to the Victim Support scheme (£500 collected by Chris Heslop) and £370 to Eddie O’Hare’s Romania Appeal with the club matching the sponsorship money raised by Jack Richardson in competing in the London Marathon.

Alan Dunn would be be first vice-president and John Green second vice-president.

Paul Scott continued as treasurer with Alan Cooksey, secretary and Ron Duxbury, assistant secretary.

In August 1997 company administrator Alex Parker was installed as the new president of the Rotary Club of Ulverston for the coming year.

Mr Parker, who had been a member of the local branch of the worldwide organisation for 13 years, had taken over from Don Horrocks.

The handover of the chain of office was made during the Ulverston club's meeting held at the Hill Foot Hotel.

Mr Parker, who worked as the administrator at Ulverston company Heron Glass in The Gill, was 50-years-old and lived at Sandhall, in South Ulverston.

Born in Manchester, he grew up in West Houghton and had lived in Ulverston area since 1982.