IT WAS an emotional evening last Friday at the Proud of Barnsley Awards with the worthiest of winners and the best of entertainment.

My friends the Cardi Boys started off the proceedings with their fabulous Frankie Valli-esque routine – I love them as performers and people.

You can find them on Facebook and they do their routines for charity so are available for bookings. It set things off perfectly because the night was all about community, about giving.

And what a winner of the big award of the evening – the Michael Parkinson award – consultant paediatrician Dr Diarmuid Kerrin, a gentle humble man who was rightly celebrated for treating thousands of patients.

‘If only they were all like that,’ I said to a nurse and she replied ‘There’s only one Dr Kerrin’.

Some of the choices I voted for didn’t win, but we judges never know that until the night. Yes, I voted for BIADS who do an amazing job in our town.

And I really wanted the School of the Year to be won by Trinity Academy St Edward’s because, though young in years, they are a fantastic school.

My Feelgood trophy winner Judy Holling was backstage with me when someone sneaked through the curtain and deposited £400 in her hand for one of her many supported charities, Dreamflight, that takes poorly kids to Orlando.

Young, accomplished, local singers Frida and Jake EB showed us what talent we are pushing into the music world – it was just all fabulous. And it was so good to see so many people I hadn’t seen for ages and get a hug fix (sorry Kevin Osborne’s wife for the glitter on his shoulder – but he is always so wonderfully friendly and consistent and I have such a great admiration for those people).

Andrew Harrod – our editor – he really doesn’t get enough acclaim for these events which run over and above the job remit.

Organising something on this scale is something that would turn my hair white overnight even thinking about it and I know he spends the evening on full alert for something not quite going to plan like having to set up a live link abroad to honour a serving soldier when people on stage are overrunning.

But it was a triumph and I am so glad that in a couple of categories it was such an impossible task to pick a winner that everyone got a gong. How can you choose between Evan Blythe, who stepped in to save an old lady who was getting robbed at knifepoint (may he never have to do it again), Guy Taylor who did a load of fundraising when his mum got cancer, and 16-year-old young boxer Mason Coles (my particular favourite) who has been doing fundraising for Barnsley Hospice for years.

Every year I feel just a little bit more proud of the people in our midst and this is an essential evening to show them off. Already counting down to the next one.

Tomorrow at 10am-12 I will be at Mike’s Famous Book Stall upstairs in the market selling my new Christmas novel among others and also my book of Daily Trumpet gaffes, the most hapless newspaper in Yorkshire that has acquired a cult following, written for charity.

I have goody bags for buyers. Be great to see you. I hope my breakfast arrives my escalator as per usual.

And if you fancy a posh festive lunch with your lady friends, I’ll be in the gorgeous Wentbridge House in Ponty on November 26 for a glorious afternoon of riotous fun – just see my website for details.