Heroes and dancers

Today we launch our annual Local Heroes awards which are always one of the highlights of the year at the Gazette.

Once again Uxbridge College are sponsoring the awards, which are now in their seventh year and we have worked with the College ever since the idea of first running Local Heroes was developed.

I was delighted to meet up with College Principal Lariane Smith earlier this week to launch the awards which will now be featured in the Gazette and Leader over the next couple of months.

Each week we will be featuring some of the many people who will be nominated in the various categories and the awards will culminate with a gala evening in February at the Hayes Community Campus.

The idea of the awards is to honour the many unsung heroes in our community so if you know someone you feel deserves to be nominated then get cracking and complete an entry form.

There is the added bonus that this year the overall Hero of Hillingdon winner will pick up a cheque for £1,000.

While on the subject of awards I must admit to having a smile to myself over all the publicity this week about John Sergeant's performances on Strictly Come Dancing (and by the way I don't watch it).

Earlier this year John, an Ealing resident, very kindly presented the prizes at our sister paper the Ealing Gazette's Pride in our People Awards.

I had the pleasure of meeting John, who was a thoroughly nice guy and a real star on the night.

However, I suspect even he is now having a quiet smile over all the publicity he has attracted in recent weeks - far more than when he was just a plain old television reporter.

Come on vote for John ......

* Since this posting John has decided to pull out of Strictly Come Dancing.

In a statement, he said: "The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far."