REVIEW OF THE YEAR: May 2017

Sharon Nutland, 60, abseiled down the Spinnaker Tower for charity, despite being in intensive care just 12 months earlier.

Sharon, from Hilsea, spent four days in critical condition after she was hit by a bus on Copnor Road. She was airlifted to Southampton General Hospital with 11 broken ribs, a punctured lung, a lacerated liver, a broken wrist, collarbone, eye socket and nose and skull fractures.

Despite the horrendous accident, Sharon made an excellent recovery and chose to raise money for Cancer Research UK, because she survived breast cancer 17 years ago.

‘Cancer couldn’t stop me, being hit by a bus couldn’t stop me, nothing can,’ Sharon said.

Severe bed-blocking has led to Queen Alexandra Hospital missing out on more than £7m of extra funding.

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs the Cosham Hospital – has revealed that it missed out on millions of pounds-worth of sustainability and transformation funding from the government.

The city hospital spent 134 days on black alert, up from 87 in 2015 – with bed-blocking blamed.

Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson said: ‘This is extremely unacceptable.

‘Bed-blocking is having a huge effect on QA hospital and more needs to be done about it.’

Families were reunited after nine months apart when HMS Daring returned from a nine-month tour.

Hundreds of families and friends lined the jetty at HM Naval Base Portsmouth to welcome home the warship and her 260-strong crew, following their deployment in the Middle East.

During her time away, the advanced air destroyer visited 12 countries, steamed 50,000 miles and undertook 20 patrols of the Bab-al-Mandeb strait to reassure merchant vessels and keep the sea lanes open for trade.

Chief Petty Officer Robert Nelson of Gosport said: ‘This is my third time coming back to the kids and it gets harder and harder each and every time.’ His wife, Nicky, 31, added: ‘It’s lovely to have him home and to have a bit of peace and quiet with the kids, it’s quite hard when he’s away for a long time.’

A ‘brutal’ attack outside a Southsea block of flats left residents horrified when they were greeted with pools of blood on their doorstep.

The crime scene was soon taped off to restrict access to the flats as police investigated the incident. Blood could be seen on the front door, with bloodied barefoot imprints on the floor.

One resident said: ‘The police weren’t saying anything. There was blood everywhere. ‘It was absolutely horrendous and very scary.’

Three people were arrested for the suspected assault of the 28-year-old victim.

Crowds at Mutiny Festival lit up the night sky to pay tribute to the people killed in the Manchester attack.

During performances by 50 cent and Chase and Status, Portsmouth showed that it was standing strong with the families of the 22 people murdered earlier in the month. Nearly 30,000 people packed into the King George V playing fields, in Cosham, for the two-day festival. And when artist Rage, during the Chase and Status performance, told crowds to light up their phones the crowd responded.

He said: ‘From Chase and Status, from the people of Portsmouth, from Mutiny Festival 2017, we send our love to Manchester.

‘Every day, every week, every year, all year. We stand with you.’