THE Chester Grosvenor hotel was the venue for a glittering 2004 Your Champions Awards dinner.
Sponsored by ScottishPower, the awards, now in their 16th year, celebrate the achievements of young and adult people, schools, teams and sportsmen and women from across the area served by the Wrexham Mail and all our sister Trinity Mirror Cheshire titles.
And Wrexham can boast a true young champion after judges declared 11-year-old Elizabeth Roberts the overall Young Person of the Year.
Having recovered from leukaemia at the age of two, Elizabeth teamed up with a fellow Gresford Methodist Church worshipper to raise funds for Leukaemia Research.
The youngster certainly impressed judges with her fundraising efforts, which included holding coffee mornings, baking a giant Christmas cake, putting on a special fry-up breakfast for friends and family and putting on a number of musical soirees, with Elizabeth singing and playing trumpet.
Elizabeth was handed her trophy by guest of honour Simon Weston OBE, who praised her efforts, and those of all the other winners for their achievements.
Chariotts, a transport scheme for the disabled based on the Whitegate Industrial Estate, was declared Wrexham's Team of the Year.
The scheme is operated by volunteer drivers who give up their time to help people with mobility problems.
Linda Griffiths, who set up Reactivate, a charity she runs along with six trustees, was named as Wrexham's Person of the Year.
Reactivate aims to give youngsters with disabilities training alongside professional dancers and actors and the chance to perform in drama productions.
Park Infant School took the Wrexham School of the Year title after pupils and staff impressed judges with their fundraising achievements for Nightingale House Hospice and their caring attitude.
And Ellen, 36, and Paul Hunter, 44, were named as Wrexham Sportsman and Women of the Year.
The husband and wife team acted as able-bodied co-pilot guides to visually impaired cyclists at this year's Paralympics and returned with a haul of medals - including a gold for Ellen, 36, and her partner Aileen McGlynn, Britain's first gold medal of the games.
Ellen's involvement in the paralympics was remarkable considering she had to fight her way back to fitness after suffering a career-threatening injury just a year ago - she broke her back in a riding accident.
But after intensive training and medical care she was ready for Athens.
