AS the year draws to a close, we look back at the top stories in Meirionnydd and Dwyfor in 2017.

A year in which neighbouring councils feuded over plans for a new Dyfi Bridge, and rally ace Elfyn Evans topped the podium at Wales Rally GB.

January• Barbara Jones from Tywyn received a shock in the post at the beginning of the year as she was awarded a BEM medal for her services to charity in the area.Barbara has devoted her life to the Red Cross and was recognised for her efforts by being named in the New Year Honours list• Dignitaries gathered at Tywyn Memorial Hospital to officially open the redeveloped health facility.• Urgent calls were repeated for a safe crossing to be installed in Penrhyndeudraeth after a three-year-old child was hit by a car when trying to cross the road with her family.February• A fast-thinking four-year-old was deemed a ‘superhero’ after saving her mum who had suffered an epileptic fit.Millie Louise, who attends Ysgol Abererch, was at home in Pwllheli when her mum 23-year-old Natasha Williams collapsed with a seizure.Keeping a very cool head, Millie went through a series of motions to ensure her mum could get the treatment she urgently required.• Five-time gold medallist Ellie Simmonds OBE shocked the audience at Aberdyfi Players’ annual pantomime with an impromptu cameo.Paralympic swimmer Ellie joined the cast on stage in Neuadd Dyfi during their performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.• A former Barmouth mayor and his partner said that a rise in xenophobia in post-Brexit Britain had forced them to move abroad.John Sam Jones and his German partner of 30 years, Jupp Korsten, decided to move to Germany after saying they were made to feel unwelcome in their hometown after the Brexit vote.March• A Porthmadog charity shop made a shocking discovery when they uncovered nuclear submarine plans hidden in the lining of a suitcase.The town’s Barnardo’s shop decided to auction off the blueprints which sold for £320.• Thousands of patients lost their dentist after a Dolgellau practice announced it was to close in March.The My Dentist practice, located at Mervinian House, had 4,443 patients and two full-time members of staff, but was set to close at the end of March due to a shortage of dentists• North Wales Police announced they were going to close the cells in Dolgellau after it was revealed a night’s stay cost more than a sleepover at the Savoy in London.Police chiefs said the custody suite is being closed because it was not safe and cost £624 per prisoner per day. A bed and breakfast stay at the Savoy Hotel in London sets you back £464 a night.But concerns were raised that Merionnydd will be left unmanned for hours, while prisoners are taken to Caernarfon or Aberystwyth.April• Prime Minister Theresa May enjoyed an Easter break walking in Meirionnydd before announcing a snap general election.The decision to hold the election was made while she was on holiday in Dolgellau and the surrounding area with husband Phillip.• Tributes were paid to five people killed in a helicopter crash near Trawsfynydd.Brothers Kevin, 56, Donald, 55, and Barry Burke, 51, all died in the crash in the Rhinog Mountains, along with Kevin’s wife Ruth, 49 and Donald’s wife Sharon, 48.• The family of a terminally ill 25-year-old asked the community to help fulfil his ‘wish list’. A charity concert was held in Y Ganolfan, Porthmadog, in honour of Osian Glyn Jones, of Penrhyndeudraeth.Osian had been unwell for a number of years but received the devastating diagnosis last November that he has a terminal brain tumour which will significantly shorten his life.May• A Llyn woman’s phone “probably saved her life” in a terrorist attack at the MEN Arena in Manchester, which killed 22 people.Lisa Bridgett, of Mynytho, suffered an array of horrific injuries after she was caught up in the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert she attended with her daughter and her daughter’s friend.Lisa lost a finger as a result of the explosion but her terrifying ordeal might have been worse were she not on her mobile phone at the time bomber Salman Abedi blew himself up.• The nursing team at Dolgellau Hospital scooped a national award for their work.Staff nurse Anne Thomas and her team at the Dolgellau Out Patient Department were handed the Community Nursing Award at the RCNi Nurse Awards.• Elections saw Plaid Cymru return to power in Gwynedd with a total of 41 councillors. Dolgellau councillor Dyfrig Siencyn was named council leader.June• There were calls for Dolgellau’s Eldon Square to be pedestrianised and for bus stops to be relocated to Marian Mawr.Cllr Ywain Myfyr spoke of the problems buses cause on the square, especially at peak times and suggested relocating buses to Marian Mawr would make the centre more people-friendly.• Friends and family of a Porthmadog supermarket manager who died from cancer raised a massive £25,000 in his memory.Mike Roberts was just 35 years old when he died from myeloma and the family and colleagues at Tesco in Porthmadog, wanted to raise money for the Christie foundation, where Mike received treatment that was ‘second to none’.• A former nurse at a Pwllheli care home was struck off after it was discovered he had kissed a resident’s neck and asked her to marry him.David Lloyd Hughes, who was working at Penrhos Home as a staff nurse at the time, was also found to have made sexually and racially motivated comments in 2015.

Our look back at 2017 continues with the second half of the year here