A regional daily is being guest edited by a disabled teenage university student today as part of an annual charity auction.

Every year Liverpool Daily Post editor Marc Thomas donates his seat for one day to the city’s NSPCC branch for auction.

An anonymous businessman triumphed this year and donated the prize to Claire House, a local hospice which offers respite and end-of-life care to seriously-ill children including the sister-in-law of Manchester United footballer Wayne Rooney.

Catherine Alexander, who is from the Wirral and studying English Language at Lancaster University, suffers from a muscle wasting disease and has respite care at Claire House.

The 19-year-old told HTFP: “Claire House picked me as they know I am interested in journalism.

“I am looking forward to it but also a bit nervous. I’ll be going to news conference and I’ve seen the website but I’m not really sure yet what else I’ll be doing yet.

“I’m interested in feature writing and I’m hoping to contribute something to the university newspaper.”

She added: “I still go to Claire House quite a lot and it’s been a big part of my life.”

LDP editor Mark Thomas said: “We are delighted to welcome Catherine to come and spend a day in the editor’s hot seat.

“I’m looking forward very much to meeting her, introducing her to the team at conference, and then putting my feet up for a change while she does all the hard work of editing the paper.

“Being editor of a daily newspaper is one of the best jobs there is. It is a big responsibility, but also very exciting, as you direct how you want the next day’s edition to be, and then watch it take shape.

“I’m sure Catherine will love it. I just hope she doesn’t get too attached to the job, and let’s me have my office back!”

When the LDP ran the initiative last year a local businessman won the auction and wrote a powerful leader piece about how badly he felt the Labour Party had been treating the people of Liverpool.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown found out about his column and wrote to the guest editor personally.