Manchester Pride's Festival Director, Claire Turner, is moving on to pastures new, and we popped along to raise a glass to her and thank her for all the hard work in making Manchester Pride one of the most successful events in the country.

Having taken over the reigns of the even for Euro Pride back in 2003, Claire has been instrumental in the event growing significantly and in building strong relationships between the agencies and businesses involved. In addition there has been increased emphasis on community, arts and sports as more events have been included in the Pride Festival, including this year's Pride Games.

The Pride event has won numerous awards for it's important role in the city's events calendar and the tourism and economic boost it brings. It has also raised a huge amount of money for local HIV charities and organisations - 2004 brought in over £131,000 - a very great achievement.

Claire deserves a well earned break - and she's off on hols before popping off to Borneo to do some more good works for youth development charity, Raleigh International.

But she won't be entirely disappearing from the Manchester radar, and has future plans for a freelance career in the marketing, events and fundraising sector and maintaining her links in the arts and culture scene.

We wish her all the best - and remind her that we'll be out on the lash with her very soon!