There have been some bits of good news to reflect on this year – even if it doesn’t feel like it

I think we all need some cheering up, so here are some of the more positive aspects of the year you may have missed, writes Konnie Huq

The exploits of Tom Moore brought joy to all (Getty)

As I write Christmas Day and Boxing Day haven’t even happened yet, tier 4 has been announced here in London. Anyway, happy Christmas! Hope you’re having a good one.

Anything a bit current is doomed to be ancient by the time you read this – a lot can happen in a few days – so I'm going to look back at the year. There could be a tier 22 by then and the way things are going  that’s not even much of an exaggeration.

A lot has happened in the last 12 months but I’m only going to concentrate on the good stuff. In 1992 the Queen famously opened her Christmas speech declaring it had been an annus horribilis and she was referring to a fire at one of her castles and her kid’s rocky marriages not anything affecting the average person, just personal stuff, a global pandemic. How will she open this year? Burst into a chorus of Boris Johnson’s a...? As you read this, that could already be Christmas number one.

Things are so warped these days, it seems anything could happen so let’s just concentrate on some of the good stuff that has happened and there has, believe it or not, been some. I’m picking a story for every month of 2020. Hold on to your hats...

In January, the world’s first xenobots were created, living, self-healing robots made from the stem cells of frogs. Using no plastic or metal, these are sustainable, actual robots. They could be used to clean up radioactive waste, collect microplastics in the oceans, carry medicine inside human bodies, or even scrape plaque from our arteries. They can also help researchers to learn more about cell biology leading to future advancement in human health and longevity. Living robots, futuristic, huh?

Meanwhile in February, pre-mass global Covid-19 outbreak, disabled German grandmother, Rita Ebel was already embarking on acts of kindness making wheelchair ramps out of Lego bricks helped by her husband. Allowing easy access to all manner of shops and buildings previously without. That’s gotta make you smile.

March sees us travel to China, but not because of events in Wuhan, rather Beijing’s announcement of a major phase out of single-use plastics. This is a huge step in the right direction for a country that accounts for a third of the world’s plastic production, producing nearly 60m tonnes of plastic products annually. Now that would be a lot of Lego bricks.

By April the global pandemic is in full swing and 99-year-old Captain Tom Moore begins walking to raise money for the NHS in the run-up to his 100th birthday at the end of the month. And boy does he raise some – a staggering £32.79m to be precise, after attracting over 1.5 million individual donations from all over the globe.

Being a chocoholic I couldn’t resist this next one. May saw Mars patent a new kind of chocolate that doesn’t melt or change taste or form in hotter climates. Can that even be considered chocolate? No more melted chocolate bars. Rather fittingly May 2020 was also the sunniest calendar month on record in the UK.

Then good news came in June in the form of the government’s U-turn on summer school meal vouchers thanks to footballing hero, Marcus Rashford and the touching letter he wrote highlighting the importance of something as simple as feeding our children. A piece of correspondence which swiftly – and quite rightly – went viral so and so our children got fed. Thank you Marcus.

In July the mystery of the origin of Stonehenge dating back to 2500 BC was finally solved thanks to analysis of a piece of its core. Turns out the rocks came not from outer space, or a parallel dimension but down the road just South of Marlborough, according to chemical composition testing. Funny that!

The pandemic has had many environmental silver linings and the hatching of 750 rare blue butterflies in Gloucestershire in August was a great pat on the back for conservationists, as this species which had not been sighted for 150 years on Rodborough Common and was even declared extinct in the UK in 1979. If only we could bring back the dodo...

September saw children back at school after months of home education and parents tearing their hair out. Woo hoo! GREAT NEWS. Oh, and 64 countries pledged to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 ahead of a major UN summit. Yay! And did I say kids went back to school...

Then the UN’s World Food Programme received the Nobel Peace Prize in October. They helped 100 million people suffering from acute hunger and food insecurity in 2019. Despite the coronavirus pandemic intensifying the situation more recently, the Nobel committee noted the WFP stepped up to the mark.

To Scotland for November and the country made history becoming the first nation to allow universal free access to period products in public buildings following a unanimous vote passing the legislation. One giant step in the battle to end period poverty, hopefully other countries will follow the same path.

So you see it’s not all bad. And there’s more, I had to save the best news for last and December which gave us the beginning of the Covid-19 vaccination roll out. A process that’ll no doubt be a long one but at least it has actually begun with then-90-year-old Margaret Keenan making history at 6.31am on 8 December.

She had a smile on her face, there was a round of applause from NHS staff, and she was wearing a penguin jumper bearing the words, "Merry Christmas!"

So Merry Christmas one and all and here’s to 2021!

This article was amended on February 3, 2021. It previously said that the blue butterflies which hatched in August had not been seen in the UK for 150 years, which was not the case. According to the National Trust, they had not been seen on Rodborough Common for that length of time and had been declared extinct in the UK in 1979.