WHEN we first wrote about David Marshall at Christmas he had a very sad story to tell.He was forced to spend the festive season alone because he was not able to visit any friends or family - and life generally looked bleak.

WHEN we first wrote about David Marshall at Christmas he had a very sad story to tell.

He was forced to spend the festive season alone because he was not able to visit any friends or family - and life generally looked bleak.

But what a difference three months has made!

Since moving to a new home in Felixstowe he has made new friends and has been shown how to set up and run a website to support other people in a similar situation.

Too often news organisations are accused of concentrating on bad news, but today we are delighted to be able to report on how Mr Marshall's life has been turned around over the last few months.

In our busy lives it is all too easy to forget how those with a disability, or who are old and living away from their families, can easily get very lonely.

So when someone like David Marshall is able to put his life back together again, it is heartening for everyone.

Today people across the area will be delighted to hear how he has been able to rebuild his life and become - in his own words - a different man since the Star first highlighted his sad Christmas story.

MANY school pupils dream of knocking down their classrooms - but today David Clarke is achieving that ambition . . . and being paid to do it!

What makes his work at Woodbridge School especially poignant is that he was one of the first pupils to use the sixth form centre when it opened back in 1974 so he really has seen things turn full circle.

The new sixth form which will open later in the year is a real vote of confidence in the future by one of this area's leading independent schools - a school which is determined to remain at the centre of the community in Woodbridge.

Its completion will provide sixth form students with thoroughly modern facilities to go alongside other recent developments at the school like the Seckford Theatre.

But before the new building can rise, the old building must come down - and Mr Clarke was determined that his company CDC should get the demolition contract.

Now he has a very difficult task. What new job can he find that will give him as much satisfaction as seeing is old classrooms come tumbling down?

AS IPSWICH Town enter the final straight of the season with two local derbies on successive Saturdays, club president Sir Bobby Robson today has some valuable advice for today's boss Jim Magilton.

With the club preparing for the 30th anniversary of what many fans consider to be Ipswich Town's finest hour - the Wembley cup final win - there is still a very strong possibility that the club could celebrate that victory by gaining promotion back to the Premier League.

And those who were at Wembley back on that May day in 1978 will be delighted to welcome to town the 23rd figure on the pitch - referee Derek Nippard who ended his distinguished career with the whistle by taking charge of the game.

The greatest tribute he can have is that no one remembers any controversial incidents on the pitch that day - a sure sign of a great performance by the man in black.