LOOKING back to the week that was December 11 to 17, five years ago...

A £10M cancer centre was described as “life-changing” as it opened its doors to patients in December 2018, who would be able to benefit from the latest research, therapies and treatments.

The Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre at the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton, had been in the planning for four years. It has been funded by the South Tees Hospital Trust, property developer Sir Robert Ogden, and donations from the community.

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The centre was built around a garden at the request of patients, who wanted to be able to see sky and trees, and includes six consulting rooms, treatment rooms and a large, open-plan chemotherapy room.

Former cancer patient and volunteer Ken Smith, 75, of East Cowton, said: “This is going to be life changing. We have now got a state-of-the-art centre which will, for the next 20 years be a centre of excellence.”

The scaffolding which had been hiding one of the North East’s best-loved landmarks was removed in December 2018.

The top of Durham Cathedral’s 66 metre tower had been shrouded in a plastic wrap since early 2016 to allow for some of the stone work to be repaired.

The restoration work was complete and on December 10, 2018, workers started to remove the 120 tonnes of scaffolding which had been necessary for the project to take place.

It took about three months for the scaffolding to come down, with the tower scheduled to reopen in summer 2019 after some further work on the roof and decking at the top of the tower.

Project manager Scott Richardson, the cathedral’s clerk of works, said: “It’s nice to know it’s complete. There’s a sense of pride for the whole team to have a project of this magnitude finished on time.”

The £2m project to repair and replace the stones at the top of the cathedral’s parapet was a logistical challenge for the team, with hundreds of the blocks, which weigh up to 450kg, needing attention.

A hoist, fixed to the outside of the tower, was used to move the blocks from the parapet to a workshop on the ground, where they were repaired before being put back in place.

The team of seven stone masons finally handed the job over to scaffolders.

Scaffolding supervisor Lee Boyes said: “It’s quite a big job. It has to go down in the same way it went up – in the hoist.

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“We’ll have wintery weather to contend with which can stop the job. If the wind is 20mph then we won’t attempt to go up. It’s not an everyday thing. It’s been a fantastic project.”

After 100 years history was made at the UK’s biggest military camp with the unveiling of a permanent and lasting tribute to fallen soldiers.

Four monuments, creating a unique centrepiece at the heart of Catterick Garrison, were unveiled by Dunkirk veteran David Evans as he celebrated his 100th birthday.

The statues commemorate the fallen, marking the 100th anniversary of the Armistice and the end of the First World War.

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The centrepiece, which cost £50,000, was the brainchild of Garrison Commander Lt Col Joe Jordan.

Hundreds of tiny Rudolphs made their way to children’s wards across the region as part of an annual joint initiative by The Northern Echo and Boyes department stores.

The teddy appeal, which delivers stuffed toys to children’s wards, sent red-nosed reindeer to Darlington Memorial Hospital, University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton and the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, in December 2018.