Your Stories

Most young people dream about travelling at some point in their lives, but unfortunately such globe-trotting often comes with a hefty price tag.

Faced with the prospect of having to raise £3,000 to take part in a World Challenge expedition to Kyrgyzstan next year, 16-year-old Jonathan from Jesmond shunned the typical car-washing and bag-packing schemes of teenagers and decided to try to make money by starting his own website.

"We're going to Kyrgyzstan to help in the community and I so wanted to raise money by doing something useful too," Jonathan told us a couple of weeks after his website went live.

"I want to create a resource for people who visit Newcastle and people who live here. I decided to call it Live Newcastle because that's what the site's all about - living and experiencing Newcastle."

Advertising

There are, of course, already other listings sites on the internet but Jonathan is hoping to make his stand out by focusing on boutique shops and smaller events rather than just the bigger attractions.

"I want to include places that are quirky and good fun but not that well known. I've been trawling the streets, the small notices in newspapers and scouring the web. My mum's been quite good at finding places too!"

The site reviews local attractions

Jonathan is planning to sell advertising space on the website to raise money for his trip, which will see him travel to the former Soviet country for 30 days in 2008, together with other students from his school.

But he's realistic: "I'm not sure if I will raise all the money this way but even if I don't it will have been good experience," he said.

Web community

Jonathan has been developing the website for about six months, while studying for - and taking - his GSCEs.

He plans to continue updating it as he moves on to study four AS levels and shrugs off any thoughts that this might be a big commitment to take on. "It hasn't really been too hard - and if I wasn't doing it I would probably have been getting bored!

"I'd love it to get it [Live Newcastle] to the point where I could set up a forum, to get a healthy debate about what's good in the city and a community atmosphere."

And hard work is always easier when there is something good to look forward to at the end of it, like the trip to Kyrgyzstan.

"I'm really looking forward to it. It's not somewhere I've been and it will be good to experience a different culture."