IT is a sobering fact that one in four people will suffer some form of mental illness and yet it is a part of the National Health Service which still doesn't receive the attention it deserves.

That's why it was such a privilege on Friday night to host the Making A Difference Awards for the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, which specialises in caring for those with mental illness and learning disabilities.

Awards events are important in recognising achievements but particularly in an area such as mental health, where there are so many unsung heroes.

Having seen my own dad troubled by depression after he was made redundant from the steelworks on Teesside, I can appreciate that it's harder to talk about mental health than a physical illness. "Mental illness" would never have been considered in our house in the 1970s – perish the thought – but, looking back, the impact on family life was clear.

Since then, I've had a friend who came frighteningly close to suicide through depression and, yet, I would never have thought for one moment that he was in that kind of danger.

The truth is that all of us will know someone who has suffered, or is suffering, from varying degrees of mental illness and the more we talk about it, the more the stigma surrounding it can be overcome.

So congratulations to those who were honoured at Hardwick Hall, near Sedgefield, on Friday night and thank you for the amazing jobs you do.

n A roll of honour from the Making A Difference Awards will be published in The Northern Echo later this week.

SOMETIMES the past 20 years as an editor seem surreal. I keep asking myself: "Did that really happen?"

For example, I've just stumbled across this picture from the dark days of George Reynolds' reign as Darlington FC chairman.

Distinctly disgruntled about what The Northern Echo was publishing about him, he'd resorted to putting signs outside his whopping great stadium.

The Northern Echo: SIGN OF THE TIMES: Pinocchio at the Darlington FC Arena

There were many examples, including "Sack Barron" and "Barron is gay." On this particular occasion, a sign was erected declaring "The Poison Pen Strikes Again". It was accompanied by the word "Editor" with an arrow pointing to a large picture of Pinocchio.

Mr Reynolds was arrested and locked up for money laundering shortly afterwards. Happy days.

IN need of a comment for a story I was writing, I searched for a number for the Durham Police press office and dialled it.

“Good morning, Durham City Watches,” replied a man on the other end.

“Oh, sorry, I wanted Durham Police press office,” I explained.

“Yes, there's a wrong number comes up on Google," he said. "We get calls for the police every day.”

I can only assume it has something to do with Crimewatch.

THANK you to the members of Northallerton U3A who turned out last Wednesday to hear me speak.

Special thanks to chairman Dorothy Welburn for passing on an advertisement which read: "Learn to drive with PMT."

It turns out to be a driving school run by Paul M. Thompson in Catterick Garrison but it casts a new perspective on road rage.

THERE'S now a national day for everything you can possibly think of and National Proof-Reading Day fell last Wednesday.

Having appealed for favourite examples, I heard from former newspaper editor Mike Glover, who's remembered the time

the classified births, deaths and marriages page in his paper included an insertion which read: "Condolences from Gary with one arm."

Gary had merely been trying to emphasise the spelling of his first name when placing the advertisement over the phone.

MEANWHILE, Andrew Parkes, an editor of local newspapers in London, was inspired to send a wedding report in which "the bride wore a shite dress".

EDMUND Lovell cringed at the time, as a press officer for the NHS in County Durham and Darlington, he'd sent out a bulletin for the attention of "the general pubic".

Teacher Lee Morris, of Darlington, got in touch about a notice he'd seen in the Advertiser promoting "Spay tans for £15."

"I doubt they got many takers," said Lee.

DARRAN Weston, of Newton Aycliffe, was reminded of the time, years ago, when Trevor McDonald, on News At Ten, reported that raiders had held up a bank with "sawn-off shitguns".

AND, finally, I loved the contribution from Marie Green, former head of Polam Hall School in Darlington, who saw an advert gor a hedge clipper that she had to read twice: “A built-in safety switch prevents accidental starting, and blades will stop when you take one hand off.”