THEY never wore pink hard hats in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. But Geordie actor Tim Healy was sporting the gaudy gear at the weekend as he helped lay the foundations of a building project that will benefit vulnerable youngsters in Newcastle.

With wife Denise Welch, Tim also wheeled barrows and swung lump-hammers at the West End Youth Enquiry Service (WEYES) on Westgate Road, a run-down Victorian house operated by Children North East, one of the region’s oldest charities.

Over the past 10 years, 7,500 young people have approached WEYES where counsellors and nurses give advice on general, sexual and mental health problems, as well as on education, housing and employment issues.

Now the building is being renovated with the help of Newcastle-based _space architecture, which has donated its design and surveying services free of charge.

Tim said: “We support a number of charities but we’re keen to be involved with Children North East because we’re married, we’ve got children and I feel it’s our responsibility.

“I was born and brought up 200 yards away from here, in Colston Street. My mam and dad had a little shop and we lived in the flat above. The community was great, miners and shipbuilders – everybody had their front door key on a string behind the letterbox, it was that sort of place with a massive community spirit.

“Sadly, the whole place changed in the 1970s when the mines and the shipyards closed. They started developing the area and the community split and spread out all over.