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Scientists say a gene variation could contribute up to 155g (5.5oz) to a child’s birthweight. The gene studied is believed to act as a growth suppressor, reducing birthweight. But the UK-based researchers found a particular variant passed down from the mother can add 93g (3.3oz) to the birthweight, or 155g if passed down from the [...]

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… Second, the Chancellor’s decision to increase the basic state pension in line with earnings looks even worse today. It was always going to be too expensive. But in the light of what has become known as the “granny tax”, the Chancellor is penalising responsible pensioners (with incomes from work or savings) and favouring those [...]

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Mary Allen Hardison was recognised by the Guinness Book of Records on Tuesday for the feat, undertaken after her 75-year-old son Allen went paragliding and she decided not to be beaten. Four generations of her family – from children to great grandchildren – were on hand to watch her take off, rigged up in tandem [...]

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Spending time in a loving family environment can help boost children’s vocabulary and make them more emotionally secure, it found. While the experience of being in a more formal setting such as a nursery can help prepare children for starting school, even this was not a major advantage in the long term, the study concludes. [...]

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We love it when our daughter and her two children come from London to visit us in Northumberland. However, recently they came and brought an almighty dose of flu, which flattened my husband and me. He had to cancel work, and I was bedbound for a week. Is it OK to ask her, politely, not [...]

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Kevin Keegan liked his with one-and-a-half sugars while Jackie Milburn preferred one with milk and two. Remembering how the boss takes his tea is a matter of national pride for Kath Cassidy, who has been making cuppas for Newcastle United’s managers and players for 44 years. Yet, despite slaking The Magpies’ thirst for all those [...]

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The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) expressed concern that so many people are “banking on the death of a loved one” to see them through their old age. The pensions group urged working people to start saving to prevent the “deep shock” of having a poor retirement. A survey by the NAPF, which represents [...]

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The difficult conversation happened last summer. Grandma and I were chatting on the phone when she mentioned having been to a funeral. “Oh,” she said in her down to earth Yorkshire way. “The vicar did keep spouting on. He wouldn’t shut up.” Ah, Grandma, you’re talking about the eulogy? Where they say nice things about [...]

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The difficult conversation happened last summer. Grandma and I were chatting on the phone when she mentioned having been to a funeral. “Oh,” she said in her down to earth Yorkshire way. “The vicar did keep spouting on. He wouldn’t shut up.” Ah, Grandma, you’re talking about the eulogy? Where they say nice things about [...]

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She may be on track to become the world’s richest woman, but her children probably aren’t in the mood to celebrate that. Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart, worth an estimated A$20bn, reportedly advised her children to “go to work and reconsider their holidaying lifestyles and attitudes” before being granted access to the family trust established [...]

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Beverley Jeffs tampered with her own medical records and even forged a signature on the elderly man’s will, Derby Crown Court was told. The 52-year-old manager allegedly also stole more than £70,000 from two elderly residents which she used to fund her comfortable lifestyle. But her fraudulent past was uncovered after retired Rolls-Royce engineer William [...]

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But the article, about a newly-opened branch of the chain Olive Garden in Grand Forks, went “viral” after an online battle broke out over whether it was sweet or snigger-worthy. The 700-branch Olive Garden serves low-key Italian-American food, and is known for its family-friendly ambience rather than fine dining. It occupies a space in the [...]

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My mother died in 2009, aged 106. As I was 73 at that time, this meant I had a “mummy” for much longer than most people do – and as no one is fully grown-up until both their parents are dead (so they say), I presumably remained a child well into old age. Certainly, I [...]

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It is not often that Jedward can be seen with sombre faces looking downbeat and calm. However, the pop singing double-act even styled their hair to match their moods as they attended a funeral for their late grandfather. John and Edward dropped their trademark quiffs and said goodbye to James Grimes at St. Munchin’s Church, [...]

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Like many first time buyers, Eleanor Desma recently found herself in a tricky position. The 26-year-old charity worker couldn’t afford to buy a property in London with her husband Mario, so the couple were renting and trying to save for a deposit. But their £600 a month rent in Uxbridge, plus bills and travel expenses, [...]

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As the Deputy Prime Minister and the leader of his political party, one can safely assume Nick Clegg is not likely to take orders from many people. However, the Lib Dem leader has revealed that he still told what to do on a daily basis – by his own mother. Mr Clegg made the astonishing [...]

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Folk group the “Buranovo Grannies” will compete in the Eurovision Song Contest, after winning a televised contest in Moscow to represent Russia. The six grandmothers beat 24 other acts – including a duet between 2008 winner Dima Bilan and Tatu’s Yulia Volkova – with song Party For Everybody. Buranovskiye Babushki, from the Udmurt Republic, say [...]

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Grant Shapps, the local government minister, highlighted the impact on pensioners of the so-called mansion tax as Tory opposition to the proposal mounted. Mr Shapps’s department would be responsible for implementing any plan to increase council tax for expensive properties which Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, has publicly ruled out. Nick Clegg and Vince Cable [...]

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The mother of a young EuroMillions winner has today spoken of her heartbreak after he vowed she would never meet her future grandchildren. Julie Topham, from Nottinghamshire, was shocked when son Matt issued the stark warning in a letter banning her from his life. Ms Topham, 49, had written to the 22-year-old after discovering he [...]

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Two inseparable friends who went to school together, worked together and even honeymooned together have died within a week of each other – after being best pals for almost 100 years. Annie Walsh and Ivy Turner, both 99, were born a month apart and were said to have never had an argument throughout their lives. [...]

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The figure is up by almost a third from £10,000 just five years ago, according to a report by Scottish Widows, the pensions and investment company. The money is being loaned by parents to help their children get on the property ladder, pay off debts and fund day-to-day living. However the money is not just [...]

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A great grandfather has made a claim as Britain’s longest-serving church chorister, after singing in the same choir for 83 years. Richard Henry, 90, joined the St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church Male Voice Choir in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, as a boy soprano at the age of just seven in 1928. When his voice broke he developed [...]

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Soaring household bills, childcare costs, long working hours … modern families are under such extraordinary pressure that many are turning to a new superhero for help: the flying granny. Research by the Daycare Trust points to a trend in working parents who, struggling to afford childcare, are finding it cheaper and easier to fly in [...]

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Gambling charges against 40 elderly women, including a 98-year-old, who held weekly poker-and-bridge parties in Cyprus, were dropped yesterday by the country’s Attorney General. The women, mostly in their 70s, were surprised to receive a court summons this week after one of their parties was raided by police in 2009. Among them was 98-year-old Eftychia [...]

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My mother passed away in early January. This week, the taxman hit her with a £100 fine for failing to send in her self-assessment form on time – and is threatening to add £10 a day to the penalty until the end of April, potentially a further £900. This is not one of those “how [...]

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A decade in which the birth rate has increased markedly, driven in part by the arrival of young workers from Eastern Europe and elsewhere, has helped slow the relative rate at which the population has aged. It means that Britain is now projected to go from having the second highest proportion of retired people in [...]

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A grandmother who worked for the Land Registry helped a gang make millions by stealing the homes of the elderly and vulnerable. Surjeet Chana, 64, was a key figure in a plot that involved a solicitor, a bank manager and drugs traffickers seeking a second source of income. The gang targeted empty houses – some [...]

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A woman accused of running her 9-year-old granddaughter to death as punishment for eating chocolate was captured on a school bus videotape saying she planned to run the child ”til she can’t run no more,’ a prosecutor told a judge Thursday in announcing capital murder charges. Joyce Hardin Garrard, who faces a potential death penalty [...]

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People often grumble as they get older that they find it harder to sleep. Now a large study of adults has found the reverse may be true. The telephone survey of 150,000 Americans found sleep quality seems to improve over a lifetime, apart from a blip in middle-age. People in their 80s were least likely [...]

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When a strand of cotton fell from one of her gloves as she was out shopping, Valerie George didn’t even notice. So the 71-year-old grandmother was astonished when a council warden pointed out the thread on the pavement – and handed her a £75 spot fine for dropping litter. ‘I couldn’t believe my eyes,’ she [...]

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Brad Pitt’s family have sent a public plea for the actor to visit his grandmother ahead of her 90th birthday. The Moneyball star, 48, has not seen Betty Russell, who resides in a sub-standard nursing home in Oklahoma, for over four years, according to his great-aunt. Speaking to The Sun, Mary Ann Lanier said: ‘Betty [...]

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A grandmother suffered dehydration and died after  hospital nurses failed to give her enough water to drink. Irene Seddon, 75, developed kidney failure because she was deprived of fluids for more than a week over the Christmas period. Her health deteriorated at Whiston Hospital in Merseyside and she picked up a fatal case of pneumonia, [...]

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It is the nation’s most famous cheerleading squad, reserved for the best-of-the-best in the world of prep doubles, pyramids and liberty stunts. But the audition process is an open affair, and anyone is able to throw their hat into the ring, so to speak, when it comes to trying out for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. [...]

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A grandmother on her way to her granddaughter’s Christening was killed in a freak accident when a driver suffered a coughing fit. Veronica Hartley, 65, was standing with her husband John on a pavement in Plymouth, Devon, when Roy Pellett crashed his car. Pellett had suffered from a severe coughing fit and closed his eyes [...]

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The daughter of a 77-year-old woman who has not been seen for a week has said she is “not giving up hope” of finding her mother safe and well. Elizabeth Stevenson went missing from her home in Pitlochry, Perthshire, at 14:00 last Tuesday. She has Alzheimer’s and has been described as “extremely vulnerable”. Her daughter [...]

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Some relatives of pensioners are hiding their parents’ full wealth to avoid paying care home fees and many local authorities are failing to use the available legal powers to claw the money back. “I don’t think greed was the absolute motive. They just thought the council should pay and if there was a legal way [...]

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A woman declared dead after she suffered a massive heart attack astonished doctors and her grieving family when she suddenly came back to life. Relatives of Lorna Baillie were devastated when a team of medics withdrew treatment after spending three hours trying to revive her. The family gathered around her hospital bed to say their [...]

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What is all this fuss about families being “forced” to live together, with three generations in one house, because many of us can no longer afford to live separately? Reports last week, based on research from Ancestry.co.uk, refer to a return to Victorian times, but why use the term “forced”? What’s so terrible about grandparents? [...]

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Television presenter Fiona Phillips has claimed a ‘chemical cosh’ of dementia drugs robbed her father of the final weeks of his life. The former GMTV host described how her father Neville was given a vast cocktail of medicines which left him so heavily sedated he was ‘totally out of it’. His medication covered two sides [...]

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Roger Simpson said he saw a little girl running outside her home but did not give it a second thought. Police said he witnessed a murder in progress. Authorities said nine-year-old Savannah Hardin died after being forced to run for three hours as punishment for lying to her grandmother, 46-year-old Joyce Hardin Garrard, about eating [...]

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The cot has been put together, the nursery has been painted and the baby clothes are neatly folded. You are about to give birth and everything is ready – or is it? Have you thought about how you will handle the “grandzillas” when your new baby arrives? Will your parents and your in-laws be fighting [...]

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A grieving daughter has been ordered to pay £3,000 to a nursing home because she did not give a month’s notice of her father’s death. Sue Cann, 54, was told she had incurred the costs because a period of 28 days had to be paid in the event of a resident ‘moving out or passing [...]

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She spent her retirement  helping the homeless after a career at the forefront of education. In return, perhaps she could reasonably have expected to be cared for in her old age. Now, at the age of 93, Phyllis Wallbank fears she will lose her house after being sent a bill from the council for nearly [...]

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The 71 year-old pensioner, believed to be a local, and her grandson were found following a search on land and by RAF helicopter at Holywell village, near Castle Bytham, Lincs. Police believe believe the pair, who police declined to name, may have drowned while feeding ducks on the pond, which is situated on a farm [...]

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Scott Henson is a self-described Texas redneck, white and middle-aged. His granddaughter Ty — the five-year-old daughter of his goddaughter — is black and Mr Henson often finds himself babysitting her. And that pairing has apparently drawn the suspicion of police in Mr Henson’s hometown of Austin, Texas. Twice in three years, he has been [...]

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Mrs Barrett, 28, was taken to the High Court by her aunts and uncles, who claimed that her religious grandmother objected to the young woman’s lifestyle. She had been named in Irish-born Bridget Gabrielle Murray’s will drawn up months before she died aged 87 in July 2010. But the matriarch’s sons, David and John Murray, [...]

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A rare bottle of whisky has sold for £44,000 – around £1,700 a nip. The bottle of Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve was sold at auction in London to an anonymous bidder this weekend. It is the second of 11 bottles to be released to the public. The first sold at Bonhams in Edinburgh in [...]

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As Sting rolls back the years on tour around the country, he has received a timely reminder of his real age. Mandrake can disclose that the 60-year-old rock singer has become a grandfather. His son Joe Sumner is celebrating the birth of his first child, two months after he surprised friends by announcing that he [...]

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The family of a pensioner killed in a hit-and-run crash today asked “What have we done to deserve this?” Retired mechanical engineer Roberto Lopes Da Silva, 70, was crushed by a stolen VW Golf as he stepped from his parked car outside his home in Hayes on Tuesday. Two men fled on foot leaving him [...]

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