This could be a bloody long list! I exclude any historical figures. Just ones I cam across one way or another in my lifetime.

Neil Armstrong would certainly have to be on my personal heroes list, I take the point that all the Apollo crews were objectively pretty much equally heroic but if the point of the thread is who became - for whatever reason - heroes [ito me[/i then Armstrong it is. What he achieved made a great impression on me, and started off a lifelong interest in astronomy. But I well remember Collins, I remember as a kid thinking what it must be like, so near and yet so far.

Woody Allen. I really get his humour and his take on life.

Jimmy Thompson, Keith Mumby and and Karl Fairbank. When I was a kid watching the Northern, I was just in awe of them. Trevor Foster.

Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. They redefined music completely for me, made me realise that they could write and sing about anything, and in a way that resonated.

David Attenborough. Just inspirational.

Coe, Ovett and Cram. Could never wait for the next instalment.

Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton and Pelé. The epitome of sportsmen. Probably throw in George Best too.

Freddie Trueman, Geoff Boycott and Brian Close. Bishan Bedi and Muralitharan, Merv Hughes and Dennis Lillee, Viv Richards, Clive LLoyd, Michael Holding. Cricket as she should be played.

Great thread this. I could go on for yonks.

They were about to be transported to Australia for 7 years for daring to unite in protest at the starvation wages they were being paid.

Some on here would doubtless call them, the good old days.

blimey JC, that's an heroic story but what a choice to have to make ?

my missus' condition is 'terminal' but she still has palliative options to make life 'liveable' but i'm sure the day will come when the options run out...

if you can imagine 1955 (I was I year old) - my dad was diagnosed with a brian tumour about the size of a marble apparently - remember this is 1955 - he was sent to St Barts in London and underwent more tests, the cheif surgeon told him there was no cure and a quick death was certain but, if he wanted to take the risk he could be a guinea pig in research brain surgery techniques, along with 7 other guinea pigs - well, after surviving 4 years in POW camps in Austria & Germany he wasn't afraid so he agreed to have the surgery - basically the surgeon drilled a hole about 1.5 inches into his skull and with some pliers and a blade reached in and cut out the tumour - to get to the tumour he had to cut through several nerves including the nerves serving the right side of his body - my dad survived but was deaf in his right ear and had only 50% use of the rest of the right side so he limped and couldn't see too well with his right eye for example because the nerves serving the muscles wouldn't keep the eye open so he did exercises to keep the muscles as strong as possible - now my dad not only brought up three sons with my mum but also built up a decent business which kept us fed and watered - he used to go to London once yearly for a check up but 30 years after the operation the specialists said he was 'cured' and not to waste their time any longer...he died in 2005 at the age of 86 some 50 years after the 'experimental' operation...now that's what I call a hero !

He'll soon get hung,drawn and quartered by many of our lot if he isn't doing the business this time next year.

Worthy, just for that top lip.

who are those people under the tree BTW FFS ?

it's not the London Broncos fan club holding their AGM is it ?

Freddie Mercury.

a) dream on

b) transported to Oz and sent back to play RL in the SL

c) agreed

wouldn't the lot from Peterloo be classed as 'heroes' for fighting for the rights of man ? just as much as that lot in Dorset did ?

and how about people like William Wilberforce and John Howard and others who did so much for social reform ? surely they would be classed as real 'heroes' ?

We'll induct him seeing as he was born in Hull.

This will probably earn me some flak, but my ultimate hero is Jesus Christ.

He came to Earth, lived a sinless life and taught us invaluable moral lessons.

But most importantly he was responsible for the most heroic gesture one could imagine – he laid down his own life so that we might live. He was lashed, beaten and humiliated. He was made to carry the instrument of his death through the streets of Jerusalem whilst men and women spat horrendous abuse at him. He was then nailed to a cross and taunted by his tormentors. He suffered in this fashion for several hours before eventually succumbing to death.

And what did he say whilst he was being murdered? [i“Father, forgive them”.[/i

Jesus may not have played the guitar well, acted in a few good films or have flown into space. But he had more courage than the rest of this sorry list of suggestions put together.

Judas Iscariot wasn't a bad old stick, agree?

...and the thing is he was just "ordinary", he wasn't a big tough lad, quite the opposite really but what was important to him in those last few weeks was taking a trip into the dales to have dinner in a pub with his wife, having just two more nights out with us, going to Elland Rd one more time, and he couldn't have enjoyed any of that being filled full of chemicals in the hope that it would buy him one more week of being filled full of chemicals and feeling like crap.

As someone else has mentioned you can find that sort of heroism in many people with terminal diagnosis, I know my own mother wouldn't ever talk about the cancer that eventually killed her, didn't let it stop her doing anything until the very last week, you often wonder how you would cope but it would appear that its a common thread through many lives.

I like to be lashed, beaten and humiliated - but I pay for that.