WE TAKE a look back at the highs, the lows and the headlines of 2015 in the run-up to the new year.

North Wales has had a busy year and here’s our round-up from the first quarter...

January

JANUARY saw a five-year-old boy from Sarn Bach thank the air ambulance crew who flew him to hospital after he fell 18 feet through a shed roof.

Wil Griffith Ieuan Hughes is lucky to be alive after his dangerous fall which miraculously left him with no injuries, despite landing on the concrete floor.

The youngster started the New Year by donating £1,450 to the Wales Air Ambulance team who quickly flew him to Ysbyty Gwynedd that day.

• In Blaenau Ffestiniog, in a show of people-power, more than 1,000 residents won the right to hold a referendum in the battle to get in-patient beds reinstated in Blaenau Ffestiniog’s Hospital.

The aim was to get the 150 votes which would enable a referendum to be called for a vote on whether in-patient beds, X-ray and a minor injuries unit should be part of the plans for the new health centre which will replace the former hospital.

Organisers were left amazed when more than 1,000 people packed into a school hall in the town to voice their strong feelings towards the health board and asked them to think again about the plans for the Canolfan Goffa Ffestiniog health centre.

February

The Llyn village of Aberdaron was split in half during February after an articulated lorry crashed into and closed its iconic 200-year-old bridge.

The lorry driver wrongly ended up in Aberdaron on his way back to Grimsby after making a delivery in Abersoch – because of a sat nav error.

Aberdaron councillor, Gareth Roberts, said the bridge closure had caused major inconvenience for businesses and residents.

He said: “I was quite shocked to see the damage to the bridge. It has stood there for around 200 years and is an iconic bridge that is on many postcards in the area.”

• In Trawsfynydd, Bridget Hamlett-Orme was left devastated after her house was burnt to the ground caused by a spark from the coal fire.

Luckily, Bridget managed to escape the burning building along with her four dogs and two cats. However, two of her other cats ran away during the fire, one was found a week later but the other, Colin, was found four months later by holidaymakers in the area.

Bridget had only moved into her home six months before the fire and said she was devastated to have lost her dream house.

March

The Wales Ambulance Service came under scrutiny in March after a pensioner waited over an hour for paramedics after losing one of his fingers in a lawn mower incident.

Owen Morgan, 70, was mowing a friend’s lawn in his home village of Edern when he bent down and accidentally touched the blades beneath the lawn mower, slicing off his index finger on his right hand and severely injuring two other fingers.

Mr Morgan’s nephew, Llifon Roberts, said he was disgusted by the ambulance delay who didn’t reach his uncle until over an hour later.

Mr Roberts told the Cambrian News his uncle’s finger could have been saved if the ambulance crew had arrived sooner.

• In Meirionnydd, Dyffryn Ardudwy man, Nicholas White, was also left disgusted after being branded a “foreigner” and charged almost £2,000 for treatment at an NHS hospital in England.

Mr White had visited Hinchingbroke Hospital in Cambridgeshire when he fell ill with a type of hernia whilst visiting family in the area.

He was scheduled for medical procedure weeks later but was shocked to discover he would have to pay for the treatments he has received at the hospital because he lived in Wales and was described as “technically a foreigner”.

However, the NHS Trust admitted that the bill should have gone direct to Mr White’s local NHS trust and not to him directly.

April

In April a Garndolbenmaen woman who was in desperate need of a transplant thanked her sister for transforming her life after she donated her kidney.

Llio Dudley, 21, had to undergo dialysis five times a day at home but, after a four-hour transplant ope­ration; she can now go out with her friends and lead a normal life.

It is all thanks to her younger sister, Ffion, 20, who donated a healthy kidney to her sister in a five-hour keyhole surgery procedure.

Llio said: “What my sister has done for me is just incredible, she keeps telling me to stop thanking her, but I just can’t stop. I will be forever grateful to her.”

• In Dolgellau, the community was left in shock when senior coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones announced that justice chiefs were closing the town’s court.

Mr Jones said: “It is completely unfair to expect people to travel all the way from places like Machnynlleth and south Meirionnydd to Llangefni or Caernarfon.

“I’ve already lost a court at Pwllheli so I really don’t want to see Dolgellau court closing down.”

Former MP, Elfyn Llwyd, echoed Mr Jones’ views and said it would be unacceptable if one of the largest constituencies in the country in terms of geography was to be without a single magistrates’ court.