An award-winning writer-performer is set to bring the stories of Yorkshire veterans to life in a powerful VE Day commemoration event.

Writer-performer Helena Fox will bring a double-bill event to mark VE Day to the York Army Museum on Thursday 8 May.

Her double-bill event includes a new spoken word piece, as well as a specially commissioned film, 'In The Footsteps of Hank Haydock,' set in Duncombe Park, Helmsley, where Normandy veteran Dennis Haydock was stationed before D-Day.

Ms Fox said: "Back in 2016, I was approached by the York Normandy Veterans Association to see if I could, as a playwright and screenwriter, find a way to keep their stories being told for future generations.

"The most important thing for the veterans was that through understanding the realities of war for soldiers and civilians, future generations would go forward to ensure such a war never happened again, and remember the fallen."

The new spoken word piece, 'Sleep/Re-live/Wake/Repeat' or 'Smudger’s Story,' explores a veteran’s lifelong battle with sleep trauma through the first-hand accounts of Yorkshireman Ken Smith and his wife, Gloria.

Marc Buchanan, son of Gloria, said: "Sleep trauma affected my step-dad, Ken, every single night of his life after the war.

"To have his story told, hear his words spoken through live performance take you on an emotional rollercoaster... and amidst the heartfelt performances you’re thinking every word of this is true.

"These things really happened to ordinary young Yorkshire men."

The event will also feature projections of never-before-seen photographs from Mr Smith's collection.

Veteran Kenneth Cooke, 99, the last surviving member of the York Normandy Veterans Association, who will be returning to Normandy for VE Day, watched a preview of the film at a private screening.

He said: "It brought back a lot of memories of my own experiences.

"I felt the film had done my friend, Dennis Haydock, proud."

Ms Fox added: "The veterans, who were all in their nineties when I first met them, were worrying about what would happen when they had passed away – who would remember the comrades they had left behind in Europe, comrades who had died in horrific ways, buried in unmarked graves.

"We’re really looking forward to sharing and honouring the veterans' stories with people in North Yorkshire as a way of marking the end of World War Two this significant year."