Five years ago a mum received the UK's first robotic surgery

Gemma Walker was pregnant with her second child when she was told she had a tumour on her lung.

But because of the delicate nature of the proposed operation to remove the tumour, her surgery had to wait until after her baby was born.

The 27 year-old was put under the care of cardiothoracic consultant Joel Dunning who wanted to treat her as quickly and as least invasively as possible with the use of the cutting-edge Da Vinci robot at The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough.

Baby Finlay was born six weeks early and was allowed home five days before Ms Walker went into hospital for the innovative operation to remove the carcinoid tumour from her lung.

Ms Walker said at the time: “I had got to the stage whenever I made physical effort like climbing the stairs I was seriously out of breath. I knew something had to be done.

“Mr Dunning explained that he was going to use the robot to help remove the tumour, which sounds quite scary, but the speed of my recovery has been fantastic, compared to what it would have been without it.”

Ms Walker recovered well and was home in four days due to the minimally invasive procedure.

Also that week, railway enthusiast Chris Savory stunned his girlfriend by climbing onto the footplate of the Flying Scotsman and proposing to her.

In a well-kept secret arrangement at Pickering Station, after the final service of the day from Grosmont, the 23-year-old heritage line volunteer went down on one knee amid the smoke and steam to ask Laura Thurlow, his partner of five years, to marry him.

Scores of onlookers crowded on to the platform and cheered as an emotional Miss Thurlow accepted a diamond ring from fellow sandwich-maker Mr Savory.

The 22-year-old said at the time: "It was a complete surprise and has left me shaking like a leaf. When he went down on one knee I thought he had dropped his phone."

Also that week, a businessman from Darlington who was arrested at Hong Kong Airport after Class A drugs were planted in his suitcase had spoken for the first time about his 18-month prison ordeal.

Then Construction manager Brendan Toner was caught with 2kg of Methamphetamine - known as crystal meth - as he travelled to Australia via Hong Kong for a holiday in April 2014.

The former Gaelic football star, who won an Irish national title with Down GAA in 1983, was thrown in a maximum-security holding jail for 549 days to await trial.

The then 62-year-old faced one charge of drug trafficking and, if convicted, faced a prison sentence of 26 years.

In an unprecedented ruling, the Hong Kong court found Mr Toner and five other foreigners had been innocent victims of a smuggling scam and were unaware they were carrying the drugs.

He spent his time in prison teaching English to other inmates and weightlifting to stay fit.