📶 Hidden Gem, Community Spotlight & Lots of events this weekend

Anyone who has walked through Swinton recently knows the shopping centre has seen better days.

Around half the retail units are empty and locals have been pretty vocal about how neglected the area feels.

The good news is, plans are in place to build 38 new affordable homes on a plot that used to be part of the shopping precinct. This development by For Living & For Housing will have a mix of one and two bedroom apartments and will be managed by a registered social landlord meaning every single home will remain affordable permanently once completed.

Planning was approved back in June and if the final details get the green light from town planners, work could start as early as the end of August.

This is a small but meaningful step forward for an area that really needs it.

To say this didn't get me emotional will be a lie 🥲. Ines has been in foster care since May and if you know anything about nervous dogs, you will know that kind of progress does not come easy. It takes time, patience and a whole lot of gentle love.

This week, Ines went on her very first walk. And while that might sound like a small thing, for a dog like Ines it is big. Her foster mum has been incredible with her and the difference it has made is plain to see.

Now Ines is ready to find her forever home and she needs someone special. Here is what she is looking for:

If you think you could be the home Ines has been waiting for, please click here to learn more.

This girl has so much love to give; she just needs the right person to bring it out of her. 💜

Every now and then a story comes along that reminds you what people are truly capable of. Simon Williams is one of those stories.

Simon is a double world deadlift champion, a cancer survivor, a poet and one of the most generous people you will read about this week. But rewind a few years and things looked very different. Simon was battling chronic alcoholism - a moment he describes as missing out on life entirely, struggling to even pick up the phone to his son.

The turning point came when a friend took him to a gym in Eccles. That first session changed everything. He threw himself into lifting, spent hours watching videos to get his technique right and before long was hoisting weights up to three times his own bodyweight. He soon became the trap-bar deadlift world record holder in the over-60s 70kg and 80kg categories.

Then came the cancer diagnosis. Throat cancer, right before a competition in Scotland. Most people would have stepped back. Simon kept going to the gym through rounds of radiation and chemotherapy. He went into remission a week before the tournament, still competed and WON!.

But what really makes Simon a Salford hero is what he does off the platform. He has spent years raising money for Salford Loaves and Fishes, the charity that supports the city's homeless and most vulnerable. He auctions items, hosts events, and every Christmas Day volunteers at their drop-in centre where his poetry recitals, in the words of CEO Jenni Smith, "bring warmth and meaning to the occasion."

When asked what it means to be a Salford lad, Simon put it simply: "In Salford we look after each other, get behind each other and push each other forwards."

That is Simon Williams in a nutshell. What an absolute legend. 👏

If you have never been to The Lamb Hotel in Eccles then I need you to add this to your bucket list.

The Lamb is so much better than it looks from the outside and has been run by the same person for over 16 years and it shows. There is a warmth and character to the place that you just cannot ignore. It was even named the best pub in Salford at some point, and honestly, it is easy to see why.

The real star of the show is the beer garden. Tucked away at the back and hidden from the main road, it stretches the full length of the pub with plenty of picnic benches and a proper sun-trap feel when the weather plays ball. In the summer it is one of the best spots in the city to sit with a cold pint and do absolutely nothing for a couple of hours.

There is no full food menu but they do serve freshly made Carr's pasties - cheese and onion, cheese and jalapeño, and minted lamb all freshly made and pair perfectly with a cold pint in that beer garden.

Click here to check what they have on and plan your visit!