Many years ago when I was a young junior reporter a lady came into our office clutching a large shopping bag.

She asked to speak to a reporter about dead pigeons. Being very much the office junior, my older and wiser colleagues pointed her in my direction.

Sitting down in front of me she opened up her Mary Poppins style bag and proceeded to pull out at least half a dozen of the dead birds, which she lined up carefully in front of her on my desk.

It was in that moment that I realised three things; first, that life would never be boring in my chosen career; second that local papers reported on things that other news outlets would not deem to be important and finally, that this was the very thing that made them vitally important.

I also realised at much the same time, that I have quite a weak stomach...but that is a story for another day!

The important lesson was that this lady knew exactly where she could come with an issue which was important to her and potentially a lot of other local people.

She knew that she would be listened to and her story would be as important to us as it was to her - because it’s what we have been doing for more than 130 years.

We believe that nobody quite understands our local communities like we do, which is why we continue to feature the work of our public services, the police, fire service, NHS and teaching staff, and those who work for our local authorities to make a difference to our region...as well as those who have often unique problems and need our help to address them.

The last two years have maybe changed the way we work a bit - for the best part of a year we weren’t in our offices and it wasn’t quite as easy to pop in for a chat as it had been in the past, but we found new ways to meet our readers using technology like Zoom or chatting via Facebook or Twitter.

No matter how we keep in touch, the work at the heart of what we do has remained the same and we have reported on what our young people have been doing, how our arts and theatre communities have kept us entertained in lockdown and how volunteers have gone above and beyond to help those in need in our towns and villages.

In short, we see it as our responsibility to bring you the human-interest stories which may not make the headlines outside our town or region but mean a great deal to the people living here.

As part of the community, we hold a unique place in being able document your lives, giving encouragement to those who give back and a voice to those who need help.

While the printed newspaper is at the heart of what we do, we use our websites and other digital platforms to reach many more people, driving interest in the life in our community.

The technology may change but our purpose remains the same. We want to celebrate the best of local life and we see you as our partners in this and hope you will continue to contact us with your local news stories to appear in our paper or on our website and social media pages.

Whether it is the latest fundraiser event for a good cause, a group of volunteers who have rolled their sleeves up to help or friends who want to place a memorial for a loved one now gone, we will continue to share your news.

Thank you for continuing to share your news through the Brecon and Radnor Express as we all work to hold our community together.