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Latest news from the Sheffield Live! teams

New recovery centre offers addicts a fighting chance

The new Sheffield Recovery Community drop-in centre is giving people with drug and alcohol problems a fighting chance to stay clean and sober. The centre at De Hood, Manor Top opened its doors earlier this month. As well as counselling and peer support, the centre offers free boxing training and fitness classes to help people become more healthy and motivated to stay on the road to recovery. The centre is run by professional boxer Reagan Denton who works with young and old in the community. Sheffield Live! reporter Simon Thake spoke to Mick Hartley, a former Sheffield nightclub owner who has been in recovery from addiction and and is the project manager for the drop-in centre.

Sheffield cancer research centre awarded £1 million grant

Scientists and clinicians in Sheffield are set to receive close to £1 million from Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research. The funding is to support ground-breaking work at the city’s Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre over a five year period. The Centre is a collaboration between scientists at the University of Sheffield and the clinical trials unit at Weston Park Cancer Hospital, part of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Around 100 doctors, nurses and scientists in the city are devoting their energies to developing innovative and more effective cancer treatments. Baillor Jalloh spoke to Professor Sarah Danson of the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre.

Paralympics rowing champion, Grace Clough, honoured as ‘Sheffield Legend’

Rio gold medal winner Grace Clough is the 20th person to receive a Sheffield Legends star on the Walk of Fame pavement outside the Town Hall. Grace, age 25, is a former High Storrs pupil and won Paralympic gold in the mixed coxed fours rowing competition. Born with a condition called Erb’s Palsy, where nerves in the shoulder are damaged during birth, Grace only took up rowing in 2013 after attending an event to promote disability sport at the English Institute of Sport. Baillor Jalloh reports for Sheffield Live!

Sheffield firefighters aim for Christmas No 1

A group of firefighters from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service have teamed up with Sheffield band The Everly Pregnant Brothers in a bid for the Christmas No 1 spot. Their release, a reworking of the Kings of Leon hit ‘Sex on Fire’, is entitled ‘Chip Pan’. Sung in The Everley Pregnant Brothers own unique and humourous style, it warns of the perils of chip pan fires. In a video release, members of the firefighting team can be seen singing along to the chorus as they go about their daily routines. Sheffield Live! reporter Simon Thake spoke to one of the stars of the video, firefighter Stuart Hobson.

Hallam students crowdfund for homeless man

Three young student entrepreneurs from Sheffield Hallam University have launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund the rehabilitation of a homeless man. Their aim is to raise £3,000 to provide three months accommodation, clothing, personal and employment support. Sheffield Live! reporter Simon Thake spoke to James Radford and Jordan Smith.

Creative arts charity CADS acquires new workspace

Sheffield charity CADS, has taken over a former foundry, Eagle Works in Attercliffe, to provide low cost space for creative arts projects. The building was home to a steelworks firm which went in to administration. Now CADS is seeking to bring the building back to life. Sheffield Live! reporter Azz Mohammed spoke to Kieren Ancliffe.

Campaign boost to restore Old Town Hall to former glory

Friends of the Old Town Hall, set up to rescue of Sheffield’s former Town Hall and Courthouse has been granted funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to find a way of acquiring the building and bringing it back into use. The money will enable the campaign, set up in 2014, to register a charitable trust and to seek professional advice on how to develop a funding plan and a business strategy. The Grade 2 listed building has been empty since 1996 and has been owned since 2004 by a London- based property development company. Baillor Jalloh reports for Sheffield Live!

Sheffield Badminton star speaks out over Olympic funding cut

Sheffield badminton and Team GB athlete Chloe Birch has spoken out against UK Sport’s decision to cut funding for badminton leading up to Tokyo 2020. Funding has been cut despite Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge winning bronze to secure Britain’s first men’s doubles medal at Rio this year. Badminton had its funding cut from £7.4m to £5.9m after London 2012, after no players managed the minimum fourth-to-eighth-placed finish that had been targeted. Yet despite the surprise success of Ellis and Langridge, the sport will not get a slice of the £345m of national lottery and government funding which UK Sport has announced will be invested over the next four years. Badminton England are appealing the decision and have started a petition on their website which has over ten thousand signatures. Our reporter Simon Thake spoke with Chloe Birch and Badminton Sheffield Chairman Alan Barber at the English Institute for Sport.

Trade union campaign says “Sheffield needs a payrise”

Campaigners gathered on Devonshire Green on Saturday for the Sheffield Trades Union Council ‘Sheffield needs a pay rise campaign’ in support of the city’s low paid workers. The campaign, focussing on shop workers over the christmas period, is calling for the living wage to be raised to £10 an hour. Orgreave justice campaigner, Barbara Jackson, said “Low pay, zero hours contracts and uncertain work goes back to the defeat of the miners in 1985”.