The response to our competition was absolutely overwhelming and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all once again for your entries. I hadn’t anticipated such a huge response and the judging panel (myself and my far more together, caring, and smart better half, Sarah) spent several days carefully reading through every one of them.

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There were tears of laughter at the intentionally funny entries (thank you for that!), and tears of sadness, too, as we read through some very sobering stories of adversity and fortitude.

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What quickly became clear is that there are so many of you plugging away at life in the face of some immensely challenging circumstances. If we could, we would have given away literally dozens (if not hundreds) of guitars. But, sadly, we have just one prize and were forced to make an excruciating choice.

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Ultimately, the winner stood out as someone who has overcome repeated, intensely crushing blows -- he has selflessly driven through them for the sake of his family AND somehow managed to also lift others up along the way.

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Little did we know, we had a real-life hero on our doorstep.

 

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And here is our lucky winner, the beaming Steve Harbottle...