For 20 years, dedicated volunteers have given up their time to transform the written word into speech for the benefit of blind people in Bradford.

The Telegraph & Argus Talking Newspaper celebrated the landmark anniversary yesterday, with co-founder Doris Burgess cutting the birthday cake at the Anchorage, in Shipley.

Since 1985, more than 60 volunteers have recorded, copied and posted tape recordings of the T&A to an average of 275 visually-impaired people every week.

In that time, they have made 1,000 recordings and sent out about 275,000 copies of their tapes.

But while the amount of volunteers is healthy, the organisation would like to boost dwindling listener numbers.

Doris, who founded the talking newspaper with late husband Tom, said: "I'm honoured that so many volunteers are still with us after 20 years and we are very grateful for all the help they have given us."

The day was a double celebration for Doris, who was also celebrating her 90th birthday.

Peter Fallon, speaking on behalf of the listeners, said: "As a listener who joined a few years ago, I have had great pleasure from hearing all the local news that you don't get on the radio or anywhere else.

"I know that there are more than 200 listeners who are benefiting from knowing whats going on around them in the world.

"I would like to thank all the volunteers for their efforts."

Michael Tomlinson, chairman of the Talking Newspaper, said: "I have been involved since the start, as have a number of people.

"It is a valuable service to the community. If our tapes don't arrive on a Saturday morning, people are ringing us up asking where they are.

"We have lots of thank you letters from listeners because it's one way they can keep in touch with local news.

"But we are looking for more listeners because we believe there are people out there who would be interested in our tapes but don't know about us."

The tapes are recorded on Thursday nights in Hall Royd Methodist Church, in Shipley, copied on Friday and delivered on Saturday morning.

The Royal Mail delivers the tapes free of charge as part of its Articles for the Blind scheme.

At one stage, listener numbers were above 300, but that figure was down to 215 this week. Anyone interested in taking the Talking Newspaper should call (01274) 594855.