Heroes can emerge anywhere, from a war zone to an ordinary city street, often surprising themselves with their own bravery.  This year we celebrate four from across the globe.

The man who tackled a would-be killer Brazilian delivery man Caio Benicio was passing a Dublin school last month when he saw a man was tussling with a woman and pulling a little girl away from her. He also saw a knife. 

Caio jumped off his bike and ran towards the man. Using his helmet as a weapon, he knocked him to the ground. "I was in the right place at the right time," he said.¹ "You see a man with a knife with a little girl - there is nothing else to do. You just have to act."

The attacker had already seriously injured three children and school care assistant Leanne Flynn Keogh, who was also described as a hero: according to police she had "used her body as a shield" to protect the children with her.

The man who took on a dictatorship After more than three years in solitary confinement, Jimmy Lai went on trial in Hong Kong yesterday charged with "collusionSecretly working with another to do something illegal or immoral. " with foreign forces. If found guilty, the 76-year-old media tycoon faces life in prison. His crime? To have stood up for democracy against a government which is determined to crush it.

Lai has been an open critic of the regime in Beijing since the Tiananmen SquareA huge open space in the middle of Beijing. It is known for a large-scale student protest that took place there in 1989 before being brutally crushed by China's communist rulers. massacre. He supported the Umbrella MovementUsed, along with the Umbrella Revolution, to describe demonstrations calling for the right for Hong Kong to pick its own leaders. Protestors used umbrellas to protect themselves from tear gas used by the police. protests in Hong Kong in 2014 and demonstrations against a new extradition bill in 2019.

In 2021 police raided the offices of his hugely popular Apple Daily newspaper, which was forced to close. The organisation Human Rights Watch has condemned his trial as a "travesty".

The doctor who refused to abandon his patients Hammam Aloh was a 36-year-old doctor at the Al-Shifa HospitalOne of the largest and most important hospitals in Gaza. in Gaza City. When the Israeli Defence Force ordered the evacuation of the hospital, he refused to go:

"If I go, who will treat my patients?" he said. "You think I went to medical school and for my post-graduate degrees for a total of 14 years so [I'd] think only about my life and not my patients?"²

After days of working solidly in terrible conditions, he went to check on his parents at their home nearby. While he was there it was hit by an Israeli missile.

"He was a young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed medical student who just wanted more than anything to help the people around him," said his friend Dr Tarek Loubani. "He was a natural born leader and such a dedicated human being."

The girl who gave her life for her friend Elianne Andam died in September while trying to protect another girl from a boy with a knife. The two were on their way to school in Croydon when a boy allegedly offered her friend some flowers, which she refused; he then pulled out a knife. When Elianne tried to intervene, she was stabbed.

Elianne was just 15 and hoping to become a lawyer. Her family said in a statement: "Elianne was a beautiful person inside and out who loved Jesus. She was intelligent, thoughtful, kind and had a bright future ahead."

Choose which of these impressive people is your hero of 2023. Come back tomorrow to see who has won.