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Today marked a day I never thought we'd see, as 500 Words launched on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Radio 2 for its sixth blockbusting year. Yes, that's six years, which have seen over 450,000 stories and over 170 million words pour into Radio 2 Towers; as well as the development of the world's first Children's Corpus by Oxford University Press - which studies the way language changes and develops as we age. This is all thanks to the seemingly inexhaustible well of bonkers and brilliant creativity that springs from the imaginations of children all over the UK.

I remember very clearly the day Chris Evans came bounding into the 3rd floor offices at Radio 2 with his customary zeal, fizzing with excitement about his latest scheme.

"I'd like to run a story competition on the radio show" he said. "You know, for kids who think books, reading and writing are not for them. I want to show them that ideas and imagination are the only currency that matters."

"Well that's amazing..." said I, instantly loving the idea and his obvious enthusiasm it, but already feeling the gears click and grind into action at the back of my mind - we broadcast to nearly ten million people on the R2 Breakfast Show, but we'd never run a major on air competition so far, let alone one aimed specifically at children. What kind of response would we be likely to get? How would we judge what came in? Who should judge it? What would the prize be? And most importantly of all...what would you hear on air?

"Great, I'll leave it with you then" said Mr E, and cheerfully bounced off to his next appointment.

What happened next is testament to the drive and resilience of those who have worked on what has become one of the 主播大秀's most prestigious projects. All of them have ultimately gone on to do great things both inside and outside the corporation. Back in 2010, the show’s assistant producer, Day Macaskill, was sent on a fact-finding mission on the inner workings of 主播大秀 competitions for children, and also to talk to experts in child literacy and child protection about what we should do to enable the project would run with credibility and authenticity. We worked closely with the Hay Festival who provided us with impeccable guidance and advice throughout. They hosted our final for the first four years of the competition.

We encouraged the nation's teachers and librarians to get involved by signing up to judge the first round – we simply could not run this competition without their support; attracted expert assistance (from the likes of The National Literacy Trust; The Scottish Book Trust and The Reading Agency) to manage the intermediate adjudication stage; and then engaged the biggest children's authors working today to act as our final judging panel. We called on celebrities who would excite the children, their parents and the wider Radio 2 audience to come and read the winning stories at the final.

Chris was across every detail. It was important that what we developed ultimately reflected (and eventually transcended) anything he had originally envisaged that evening when he dreamt the whole competition up.

Our friends at Blue Peter advised us that if they received 25,000 entries to a competition then they knew they had a hit. Well, the first year of 500 Words saw 30,000 children enter. This number swelled to 74,000 in year two; 92,000 in year three; 118,000 in year four and 120,421 in 2015.

Our judging panel has subtly altered throughout the course of the competition, and we are proud to count the likes of David Walliams, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Anthony Horowitz and Lauren Child amongst our alumni. This year's returning panel of Charlie Higson, Malorie Blackman, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Francesca Simon are joined - in a very special turn of events for 2016 - by new judge HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.

We were hugely honoured when The Duchess helped us launch last year's 500 WORDS with Chris Evans at a primary school and even more thrilled when she offered to host the 2015 final at St James' Palace and hold a reception for the children and their parents afterwards.

HRH and her team could not have been more helpful and supportive last year - even when we brought with us two live acts (The Vamps and Will Young), a full strength gospel choir, a host of superstar readers including the likes of Sir Kenneth Branagh, Charles Dance and Jeremy Irons, fifty excitable children and their parents, a full production team and OB crew…and our ringleader in chief Mr Chris Evans himself!

Anyway, not unduly put off and keen to continue her interest with 500 Words for 2016, as mentioned, the Duchess has agreed - for the first time ever - to act as judge in a competition. And in another Royal first, thanks to a fantastic idea from AP Vicki Perrin - HRH has agreed to appear in animated form for our launch film.

Also new for 2016, we are holding this year's final at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on Bankside in London, which not only ties in with the 主播大秀's celebration of Shakespeare, but means that we can offer every single child who enters the competition the chance to be at the event on Friday 27th May - as they will all be entered into a random ticket ballot to win a seat alongside a parent/guardian.

And coming to Radio 2 next month is 500 Words: The (Short) Story So Far – presented by Sheila Hancock which tells the story of the first five years of 500 Words (Thursday 18th Feb at 10pm).

So the stage is set. Chris Evans has announced 500 Words 2016 is now open for business. We have judges aching to read your tales, and actors limbering up ready to bring your words to life. The children of the UK are poised over their keyboards scratching their heads, desperately searching for that moment of inspiration. Which all begs the question...What story will your son/daughter/niece/nephew/neighbour write?

Helen Thomas is Editor, 主播大秀 Radio 2 and Radio 2 Digital 

• more about 主播大秀 Radio 2's 500 Words short story writing competition on the Radio 2 website.
• about the 500 Words Final 2014 in a blog post written by blog editor Jon Jacob
• about the 主播大秀's journalism learning project 主播大秀 School Report