George Halliday, who runs the Wavendon Pub, High Barnes, gave away a keg of Bombardier beer in honour of British Forces in conflicts around the world.

"We're only a small business, not part of a massive chain, but we thought it was important to do something to honour those who have served in the forces and still do," he said. "We wanted to show our appreciation of the sacrifices they make."

The offer follows the recent national Armed Forces Day celebration which saw tens of thousands of people across the UK pay tribute to British servicemen and women.

"We've always wanted to do something like this and we felt it was a good time to do it," said George.

"The Armed Forces Day was a big success and it's important to remind people of the great job our service personnel have done and continue to do.

"It also follows the success of our St George's Day celebrations and we've had a lot of requests for real ale. It is seen as the best of British and we're now serving cask ale, so it was a nice way to kick it all off."

Businesses are continuing to back the Echo's Honour Our Brave campaign.

Shops, restaurants and visitor attractions across the North East are supporting our drive to offer service personnel discounts on a range of services and products.

Any businesses that wish to take part in the scheme, and be featured in the Echo, should send a brief outline of their business and proposed offers with contact details to james.johnston@northeast-press.co.uk

To qualify for the Honour Our Brave offers, service personnel have to show their official ID cards at participating businesses.

The Echo is also providing returning servicemen and women with the chance to let their friends and loved ones know they are back safe and sound. We will print messages for free in the Echo, making sure that people are aware they have returned from active service.

The Echo will also publish messages from personnel in the conflict zones.

Anyone wishing to take part should also send their messages to james.johnston@northeast-press.co.uk