Eric Kent, fund-raising officer in the West Midlands for the charity ChildLine, was the final guest speaker of the year.

The former policeman explained that ChildLine is a free UK telephone helpline for children in distress, which was begun in the 1980s following an idea by Esther Rantzen on BBC's That's Life.

The helpline is for children in any kind of distress. The first office opened in 1986 in London, with a second one in Nottingham two years later.

The line receives 15,000 calls a day, with over 600 a week in Worcestershire, the peak time for calls being between 4pm and 7pm. The ChildLine number is displayed in all public call boxes and schools. The youngest recorded caller was just four years old.

All the counsellors are volunteers.