Beside the seaside

Life's a beach - Weymouth's golden sands

It's great to be beside the seaside as Inside Out discovered when a group of London school kids made their first ever trip to the beach.

Sometimes it's easy to forget how lucky you are if you live within a stone's throw of the south coast.

School exchange

We follow the pupils of Dairy Meadow Primary School in London who have never been to the seaside - until now!

Headteacher Stuart McLeod came up with the idea of twinning two very different schools.

The Dorset school make the trip to London whilst their counterparts in England's capital grab their buckets and spades for a trip to the seaside.

We join the London pupils as they make a heroic four hour trip from the Big Smoke to Dorset's beautiful coast.

Many of them have never seen the sea before so it's a huge thrill for the youngsters.

Remember your first time?

Do you remember the first time that you visited the seaside and saw the sea?

Perhaps you were a townie and hadn't ever experienced beach life until you were a teenager?

Or maybe you were a surf dude or beach comber from an early age?

And what do you remember about the seaside of your youth? Donkey rides? The great English summer? Picnics and parties?

We want to hear your childhood seaside stories - email us at insideout@bbc.co.uk and we'll publish the best ones.

Links relating to this story:

• BBC Coast
• BBC Dorset (Fossil frenzy)
• BBC Nature - Coasts
• BBC Inside Out - Dorset's Heritage Coast
• Jurassic Coast
• Admiralty Easy Tide

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites

Theatre fraudster

Life's a stage for the Walter Mitty of the theatre

Inside Out South revisits the story of theatrical fraudster Jessica Maynard.

In our earlier programme we revealed how Maynard from Romsey in Hampshire got her hands on thousands of pounds from the Arts Council and the Lottery by using a string of bogus identities to create dodgy theatre companies.

Using wigs, stage make-up and a variety of costumes, she also pretended to be at least eight different people - including a pair of twins.

Inside Out shows how the story of this female Walter Mitty has developed since we first reported on the strange case of the theatre fraudster.

Links relating to this story:

• Arts Council England
• Equity
• The National Lottery

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites

Hayley's story

Inside Out follows the story of Hayley, a 13-year-old girl from Romsey with terminal cancer who died just 17 days after making her film with us.

In 2005 doctors told Hayley that she had sarcoma of the knee, a teenage cancer which grows on the end of bones and can spread rapidly.

Chemotherapy was started immediately but things didn't go according to plan as Hayley had a bad reaction to the drugs which resulted in multiple organ failure.

Hayley found herself on a life support machine and unable to have the chemotherapy she needed to kill off the cancer cells.

It was touch and go for some time as to whether Hayley would recover, but when she did, she showed remarkable courage and wanted to get on and live life.

Operations were planned for Hayley's knee and then it was discovered that the cancer had spread and was terminal.

We follow Hayley as she spends her last days enjoying her favourite things in life - simple pleasures like feeding the ducks, going to the zoo, and trying out Indian food.

Hayley voices the film and helped to write it.

She wanted her film to make people think twice about life and live it to the full.

Her story is moving but uplifting, and Hayley's humility and acceptance of her condition is deeply affecting.

Links relating to this story:

• BBC News - Richer areas 'child cancer' risk
• CLIC Children's Cancer Charity
• Childhood Cancer Research Group
• UK Children's Cancer Study Group
• National Cancer Institute
• National Childhood Cancer Foundation

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites