THE front page of this week's Barrhead News tells of cancer battler Lesley Graham's joy after winning a year-long battle to have a pioneering drug made readily available on the NHS.

Inside the paper we preview the Big Barrhead Easter Egg Hunt which takes place this weekend.

There is also a tale of a wise-cracking East Renfrewshire schoolboy who won a national joke-telling competition.

On a more serious note, we address Neilston residents' concerns regarding high levels of dog fouling in the village's cemetery.

This week our court reporter filed articles on a Barrhead mum who battered her boyfriend with her handbag after he got so drunk he collapsed, as well as two drug couriers who were caught ferrying a haul of cocaine worth £85,000 through East Renfrewshire.

Further inside this week's edition lies an appeal from the Neilston War Memorial Association for pieces of World War One memorabilia. The association is organising displays in Barrhead and Neilston to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War.

The News' photographer dropped into a Bookbug session at Barrhead Foundry, as well as the Barrhead and District Horticultural Society's flower show.

In Barrhead Sport we speak to Arthurlie manager Chris Mackie who has labelled his side's disciplinary record as an “absolute disgrace”.

There is also a report on Barrhead-based martial arts instructor Ross Penman who recorded an impressive win over an Italian kickboxer on foreign soil.