Introducing our Dad of the Year 2009!

We knew that there were a lot of great dads out there, but even we were surprised by the huge response to our Dad of the Year competition. Your entries were funny, sad, hopeful and inspiring, and they were all worthy contestants.

But there could only be one winner, and we picked Alan Kennedy (47), from Newcastle, pictured here with his 17 month-old baby daughter Elyse. Unbeknownst to him, Alan was entered into the competition by his older daughter Kerri, (13), who wrote:

I'd like to nominate my dad, Alan Kennedy for Dad of the Year please. He has always been an excellent dad, but when my mam was in hospital for 4 months (while she was pregnant with my baby sister), he was extra fantasic. He works full time at a butchers and goes out very early, many times my mam was very poorly through the night and he went with her in the ambulance to hospital, this went on for 4 months and she was in hospital for a long time. I have 2 brothers and he looked after us all and my mam and went to work. He cooked our teas before going to visit mam and helped us with homework, did all the washing and ironing and cooking and cleaning and looked after our parrot too.

He even had to do all Christmas by himself including all the shopping, my mam usually does this and he did very well, he even put carrots out for Rudolph (Santa got a sprout cause he forgot the mince pies). But we missed mam. He is always joking about with us, however tired he gets and even though mam is getting better now he helps so much. But he is rubbish at helping with english homewrok. I love him very much and thinks he deserves a pat on the back.

Thanks, Kerri x

"I was very surprised to win," said Alan, who works at Nicholson's Butcher's in Whitley Bay . "I've only done what any father would do so it's a great honour to actually win something for it. I was really surprised my daughter entered me for it, 'cos being a teenager, you expect them to hate you, so it's nice to find out that they appreciate you."

Alan and his family were invited to the National Family Week picnic last week to receive the award, and they'll soon be off to the South of France to enjoy his week-long holiday prize, courtesy of our award sponsors, P&V Holidays and Sea France.

"I'll definitely be looking forward to the break," laughed Alan. "I can't remember the last time we all had a family holiday, so it's great we can all go."

We'd like to thank everyone who entered this year, and for those of you who missed out, well, there's always next year.
Finally, here are a few excerpts from some of the other entries we liked:

Alas, no holiday this year unfortuately - unless, of course, I win this. That'd make me father of the year !!

For years now my dad has had a hobby - juggling. He juggles with anything from clubs, kitchen knives, fire torches, diabolos, balls. The only problem is that he's not that good, and has had a few mishaps:  He was once invited to juggle with fire with a local youth group. He was doing really well - until he noticed that the lovely, newly painted, white ceiling was now black! 

Some of the schools that dad regularly visited actually allowed him to juggle with fire in their assemblies. In one full school assembly they provided a large damp sheet, which they laid on the floor for him to juggle on. He juggled successfully with the fire torches in front of hundreds of children. Unfortunately he then dropped one of the torches onto the damp sheet. For some reason it set on fire! Quickly dad stamped on the flame to put it out. This didn't work, and the flame got bigger. What's worse was that his shoe started to melt. While it only lasted a few seconds, all the children, and teachers, were in hysterics, they thought it was hilarious! Eventually he had to pour a bucket of water over the flame, bow and sit down.

I met Tony online on a dating/friendship website as I was housebound after suffering from a broken spine after a serious riding accident. From the day we met up he made a positive impression on my daughter and slowly she began to accept him as a father figure. 

Two weeks ago I had another accident and now can again hardly walk and am having to use a wheelchair if I go out.  When he returns from work, he cooks tea for us and makes sure Emily is happy and settled. 

He has had very little 'me' time but has never complained. My daughter is so excited because he has asked me to marry him and says she can't wait for him to be her step-dad. Tony is one in a million and deserves to be Dad of the year.

My dad is the best because he saves us the crisps and chocolate biscuit from his lunchbox and shares them with me and my little sister katie when he gets home from work.