Liverpool Echo sports writer Nick Peet will complete his Great ’08 Challenge this weekend by playing in a rugby league friendly match.

The Vikings have signed the reporter for their clash on Sunday against Whitehaven RLFC.

Nick has undergone a host of different challenges including swimming the River Mersey, boxing former world champion Shay Neary and riding the Grand National Course at Aintree.

He has been training with the club after signing on a month’s trial.

Sheffield Star reporter Sarah Dunn is organising a charity ball to raise money in memory of her mother.

Proceeds from the event will go to the Sheffield Institute Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease after her 56-year-old mother died from the illness last January.

The institute, a partnership between The University of Sheffield and a group of fundraising patrons, still requires £3m to become a reality. The event will be held in Sheffield’s Cutler’s Hall and the 25-year-old news reporter is looking for sponsorship and donations on 0114 276 7676 (ex 3354).

Entries are now open for the Rosemary Goodchild Award for sexual health journalism. Run by the Family Planning Association, the award carries a £500 cash prize and honours the best newspaper or magazine article on sexual health issues.

Entry is open to journalists on all regional and national newspapers, consumer magazine and trade journals. Articles must have published during 2008 – for more details visit fpa.org.uk before the 13 March deadline.

MEN Media, owners of the Manchester Evening News and sister weeklies in the North West, has shut its in-house motoring sales team. The move has left six staff redundant meaning that a single team will cover sales for print, online and local TV station Channel M.

Former local press journalist turned vicar Rev James Henderson has died aged 86. He joined the then Bolton Evening News in 1939 and worked as a reporter for 12 years before leaving to study at Chichester Theological College and was ordained in 1954.