Special memories of 2015 from the editor's chair

1. PERSON OF THE YEAR: The award goes posthumously to the incomparable Mary Butterwick who died, aged 91.

As an ambassador for the Butterwick Hospice, it was a privilege to be asked to speak at Mary’s funeral in Stockton in October, and to join in the flood of tributes to a remarkable woman.

To respond to the personal grief of losing her husband John in 1979 by selling her house to establish a day care centre for very ill people is one of the most selfless acts I’ve ever come across.

Her name lives on in a way that will continue to bring care to people long after her death.

2. YOUNG PERSON OF THE YEAR: Lots of worthy contenders but the award goes to schoolboy Ben Hebden who, at the age of nine, organised a Christmas party for the children of steelworkers who lost their jobs due to the devastating closure of the SSI plant in Redcar. “I didn’t want the children to miss out on Christmas,” Ben declared on the radio. He galvanised the local community, showed the importance of caring for others, and inspired positive headlines around the world. I sincerely hope he’s Prime Minister one day.

3. COMPANY OF THE YEAR: In September, our front pages were dominated by the SSI closure but, amid the gloom on Teesside, some great news arrived in County Durham with the opening of the £82m Hitachi train-building factory in Newton Aycliffe. The Northern Echo, which had been publicly praised for the part it had played in banging the drum for County Durham as the location for the Hitachi jobs, marked the occasion with a front and back page “wrap-round” and a souvenir supplement.

4. SPORTSMANSHIP OF THE YEAR: 2015 was the year the All Blacks – one of the world’s most iconic sports teams – came to Darlington.

They stayed at Rockliffe Hall and trained at Mowden Park Rugby Club’s Northern Echo Arena, and wherever they went, they left a trail of positivity.

Impeccably polite, refreshingly down to earth, they showed how sporting greatness can be coupled with humility. It was a pleasure to meet them.

5. MOST MOVING MOMENT OF THE YEAR: When football fans watching Middlesbrough’s cup tie against Everton lit up the Riverside stadium in a spectacular show of support for BBC Tees commentator Ali Brownlee – “The Voice of the Boro” – after he was diagnosed with bowel cancer. Keep fighting, Ali.

6. COMPLAINT OF THE YEAR: A serious contender was the very angry woman who called our newsdesk in August to complain that we’d published an “unflattering” picture of her dog at Sedgefield Show. However, the award goes to the female reader from Gainford who wrote to protest at the “frogs porn” publication of an award-winning photograph of two common toads mating near Cod Beck reservoir in Osmotherley. The picture had been taken by Dave Pressland, of Thirsk, and it earned him a British Wildlife Photography Award but my complainant said it was “inappropriate” because children might see it. Other readers supported my decision, including the wonderfully innocent Jill Easton, of Darlington, who said: “Are we sure they’re mating anyway? They could be playing leap-frog.”

7. INTERVIEW OF THE YEAR: I’ve interviewed lots of famous people in my time – prime ministers, members of the Royal Family, sporting icons – but my encounter with a Dalek was this year’s highlight. The Dalek was greeting members of the audience as they arrived for an evening with Doctor Who writer and actor Mark Gatiss. To my delight, I even managed to film the Dalek saying: “Read all about it in Monday’s Northern Echo.”

8: ODDEST QUESTION OF THE YEAR: It came during the evening with Mark Gatiss, which I hosted at Darlington Civic Theatre. Members of the audience were invited to ask a question and a woman who’d travelled down from Scotland stood up to take the roving microphone: “Mark, can I ask, if there was a taxidermist in the room, what position would you choose to be stuffed in?” To his eternal credit, Mark jumped from his chair and got into a crab position beneath the spotlight.

9. NEWSBILL OF THE YEAR: Again, lots of possibilities but the biggest cracker came from Southampton thanks to a stray apostrophe.

10. BRIGHT SPARK OF THE YEAR: I love the way children’s minds work and a little boy in America called Bobby made me smile with his answer in a school exam.

11. MISPRINT OF THE YEAR: The curse of editors everywhere, my favourite came from the News Guardian on Tyneside, which was previewing a yarn bombing exercise in North Shields but managed to spread a touch of panic on Teesside but reporting online that a “Yarm bombing” was about to begin.

12. HEADLINE OF THE YEAR: Every weekday morning, I set the Headline Challenge on BBC Tees, calling on radio listeners to come up with a better headline than mine for a light-hearted story. My pick of 2015 was the headline on a story about a ladies’ choir performing at a nature reserve in New Zealand to highlight the plight of a species of bats in danger of extinction...”It’s not over til the bat ladies sing.”