KATE Jackson has a busy year ahead of her as she’s asked people to come up with 60 challenges to celebrate her 60th birthday.

“I will not be jumping out of aeroplanes or eating cockroaches, but I will be venturing out of my comfort zone a little bit,” says textile artist, Kate, from Langley.

Several friends and relatives have already thrown down the gauntlet and so far Kate has been tasked – or tasked herself – with, amongst other things:

* walking the 33km Sefton Coastal Path from Southport to Liverpool;

*  penning a poetry ‘chapbook’;

*  learning to blow glass;

* and beekeeping.

The textile artist, who lives near Langley, has created a blog called Sixty Times Around the Sun , to record her achievements in words and pictures.

And she hopes the people of Tynedale will follow it, make suggestions and generally spur her on.

Indeed, she is asking for the aid of Courant readers to fulfill one particular self-set challenge – by helping her establish Hexham’s first Backgammon Club.

“I learned to play backgammon decades ago and have played on and off for years,” Kate says. “For want of a real life opponent, I play against the computer, but it’s so boring!”

So when one of her three cats, Rita, won Kate £50 in a prize draw thanks to her involvement in a university’s cat behaviour study, she knew just how to spend it – on a backgammon board.

“The plan is to invite anyone who either plays or wants to learn, to come and have a few games.

“But the bigger idea is to start a regular group for people who want to play either backgammon or chess – maybe somewhere in Hexham.”

Kate has a good track record of setting up hobby groups – in fact the knitting group she first started at Caffe Nero in the town is still going strong years later.

Other challenges Kate has been given since turning 60 on January 27, include eschewing email for more letter writing and taking up bird watching.

Kate explained: “I asked each of my kids and other family and friends to suggest challenges for me to take on during this year of trying new things.

“My son John is very knowledgeable about birds and his suggestion is that he helps me to identify 120 bird species. He assures me this will be easy and we won’t have to leave the county to achieve this.”

It’s one of her daughters, Martha, who has set her the epistolary challenge.

“She has challenged me to write real letters to people I’ve not seen in a while.

“This is an excellent challenge as in recent years I have lost touch with many people, and those I do keep in touch with just get a text or email.

“So I will stock up on proper stamps, dust off the address book and find a nice pen.

“Who knows, I might get some letters in return rather than white envelopes with plastic windows!”

But her favourite ‘dare’ of all so far comes from Kate’s nephew, Anthony, who is taking her for a cup of tea – wait for it, astride his superbike!

“He said, ‘I’m going to take you for a cup of tea – on the back of my motor bike.’ So I’m going to borrow his wife’s leathers and ride pillion on his massive red bike up to Hartside.”

* You can read Kate’s blog via www.instagram.com/katejacksontextiles