The most read stories of the year on the Wimbledon Guardian website included an appeal to save the life of a leukaemia sufferer, a bookmaker’s murder, a huge warehouse fire and reports poisonous false widow spiders were infesting the borough.

Typically it is disaster and chaos that draws the greatest number of readers each year, but in 2013 it was the heart-wrenching tale of Kevin Kararwa, only 24, of Canterbury Road, Morden, is currently in hospital after a relapse of his acute myeloid leukaemia diagnosed in April last year.

An appeal for a bone marrow donor grabbed the attention of the public and this story went global, with readers from the United States and Zimbabwe getting in touch to offer their support.

Almost 30,000 people read the article and we hope this will help find Kevin the donor he needs in time.

Sadly the next most read story was the sole murder in Merton in 2013.

Father of two Andrew Iacovou was working in Morden Ladbrokes as shop manager on a quiet Saturday morning when he was attacked and killed by Shafique Ahmad Aarij.

In response both this paper and our sister publication The Sutton Guardian has launched a campaign calling for safer working conditions for bookmakers staff.

The original news of the murder gather more than 20,000 readers, and later the CCTV images released of Aarij attracted an additional 10,888.

Our next big story of the year was a real viral sensation.

False Widow spiders have been in the country for a number of years, but reports of sightings in early autumn sparked a national obsession with the creatures.

Many of our readers sent in pictures of potential false widows and we received a number of reports of bites that saw the spiders remain in the news for a fortnight before the hysteria was over.

Finally our fifth most read story came as thousands of people across Merton and beyond looked into the sky to see a column of black smoke above Mitcham.

The Wimbledon Guardian team scrambled into action on this Sunday afternoon, getting pictures from the scene, and information from emergency services about the impact the fire was having on the traffic in the area.

In all 2013 has been a hectic year full of inspiring, tragic and downright bizarre news.

From December 29 we will be giving you a brief review of the year as we all prepare for 2014.