Golden Guide, a North-East daily living guide for over 50s, will celebrate its 15th anniversary this year, with the publication of a special edition set to mark the milestone occasion.

The celebration comes on the back of sponsorship, received earlier this year, from the Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group, which will arrange for thousands of copies of Golden Guide to be put into GP practices.

The magazine, best-known for local information on leisure, social and home, will boast a new health and wellbeing agenda, providing community specific contacts and links for readers, in response to social prescribing work being implemented across the county.

Social prescribing, coined by NHS England, looks to widen healthcare support to include charities, community support groups and social care, following reports that 20 per cent of patients consult their GP with problems caused or made worse by non-medical issues like loneliness or lack of confidence.

Editor Heather Alabaster said: “Many readers look for contacts to help with health. They will see many support groups, community organisations and the excellent Ageing Well network already running first-rate schemes.”

Daljit Lally, CEO of Northumberland County Council, and Siobhan Brown, of Northumberland CCG, are supporting the service.