Well with Christmas only 3 days away and this being my final column of 2017, I thought it would only be fitting to take a look back at this year because, for me, it's really been a real tale of two halves. The beginning of my year didn't start off so great as ended up quite seriously unwell in hospital for about a week and I took a few months to fully recover. I’ll be honest and say it was a very scary time as I've never really been unwell before but luckily enough I have an amazing group of friends and family who were by my side the whole time although a special thank you must go to all of the staff in the high dependency unit at The Glasgow Royal Infirmary. It's not until you experience, first hand, being in hospital and seeing how hard our doctors and nurses work day after day that you can truly understand how incredible these men and women are and how indebted we are for their service to us all. You literally saved my life and I'll be forever grateful.

As the year progressed things got so much better thankfully. I was completely honoured to perform at the SEC Hydro in May alongside the wonderful Eddi Reader, Susan Boyle and Sir Rod Stewart for an evening celebrating Celtic’s Lisbon Lions. Then in August it was time for the Edinburgh Festival with my one woman show. It was my fifth year at The Fringe and the experience was one of the best. After that September came along and I married the love of my life up in Mallaig. I'd spent years trying to picture and imagine what my wedding would be like, what kind of dress would I wear and more importantly who my husband would be but nothing I'd ever imagined could have ever come close. It was the most incredible day of my life and I'll never forget it.

I mainly spent October on honeymoon and boy did the scales remind me of it when I got home and then in November I was asked by a wonderful group known as Choirs with Purpose if I would sing lead vocal on their charity single. It was a cover of Sir Paul McCartney’s We All Stand Together and they were releasing an album too so of course jumped at the chance especially after I'd heard the beautiful arrangement an orchestration. The album track I recorded along with Lucy Lintott and the MND Scotland Choir was a song called Clouds. Lucy is the youngest person living with motor neurone disease in Scotland and she chose this particular song for the MND Scotland Choir to sing because it was written by Zach Sobiech, an American singer song writer, who sadly passed away in 2013 after losing his battle with bone cancer. He was only 18 years old when he died and his song, Clouds, gained extensive media attention and even charted on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as hitting the number spot in both France and Canada. The whole project was such a great honour to be involved in.

So here we are in December and my very own show, Michelle McManus’ Winter Wonderland feat Soundsational Choir, opened at The Mitchell Theatre last night. We run until Saturday evening and it's my proudest achievement to date. To stand up on that stage with the choir and perform to just the best audiences night after night is a feeling like no other. I'm so very grateful for the life I have and for the incredible and continued support from you all. Thank you again for reading my wee column each week and wish you all nothing but love happiness over this festive period. A very Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year. Here's to brilliant 2018.