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The bond between sisters Luan Moreton, Kim Jones and Jemma Dennis could not be any stronger. Losing their 32-year-old mother, Rita, to breast cancer in 1986, when they were 12, seven and four, they share an exceptional closeness. What they didn’t know until five years ago, however, is that they share something else too; something [...]

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The health of our children and young people matters to us, and it matters to them. We want them to understand what makes them healthy, what keeps them healthy, and what to do when they have worries, are not feeling so good, or are simply ill. In this week’s Scrubbing Up, Barbara Hearn, deputy chief [...]

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This is the touching moment a young daughter tenderly cuts her cancer-stricken mother’s hair to prepare her for chemotherapy. In the intimate video Lola Etchells, 6, is also shown shaving the head of her mother Sarah, 44, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last September. Intimate: Lola carefully clips her mother Sarah’s hair The footage [...]

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How could we have forgotten about vitamin D? Suddenly newspapers are reporting that one in four toddlers do not get enough and rickets is emerging again. The chief medical officer in England, Dame Sally Davies, has reminded doctors that children under five are one of a number of groups who need supplements. A recent survey [...]

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A young mother is lucky to be alive after the sore arm doctors diagnosed as tennis elbow was in fact a deadly flesh eating bug. Kate White, 32, thought she’d suffered a bad reaction to an insect bite after she spotted a tiny pus-filled boil on her left elbow. But when it refused to heal [...]

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A mysterious disorder which exhibits symptoms similar to Tourette’s has affected more students at the same high school. Earlier this month, it was reported that 12 female students, who all attend Le Roy High School, in New York, had been diagnosed and were being treated for the unexplained illness. That number has now risen to [...]

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England’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, is concerned that young children and some adults are not getting enough vitamin D. According to the BBC, she is to contact medical professionals about government guidelines which recommend that some groups, including under-fives, may require daily vitamin D supplements. Not receiving enough of the vitamin can lead [...]

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The Russell’s Pit Viper’s highly toxic venom kills thousands every year – but a bite from this sometimes vicious snake can also reverse puberty. A study in The Lancet showed that 29 per cent of people who survived Russell’s Viper bites later suffered from hypopituitarism, which results in men losing facial and pubic hair, women [...]

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A mother has been given 18 months to live after  doctors failed to diagnose her cancer more than a dozen times. Ruth McDonagh, 46, pleaded with GPs for two years to test her for the disease but was repeatedly ‘fobbed off’, and  dismissed as ‘neurotic’. Medical records show she visited GPs 13 times complaining of [...]

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A quarter of all toddlers in the UK are lacking Vitamin D, according to research. Vitamin D supplements are recommended for those people at risk of deficiency, including all pregnant and breastfeeding women, children under five, and the elderly, but 74% of parents know nothing about them and more than half of healthcare professionals are [...]

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Many children are spending plenty of time playing outside in the sun – but are failing to wear protective sunscreen, according to a new study. A shocking three-quarters of pre-adolescent children are not wearing any suncream, despite warnings about skin cancer and associated risks of skin exposure to sun. And, though young, many appear to [...]

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Eighteen-year-old Muhammad Miah has never been able to eat. While many people are trying to eat less after the excesses of the festive season, Muhammad cannot even drink tap water. “The water has got to be boiled or be mineral water otherwise my gut doesn’t like it. My stomach is very sensitive.” A serious gut [...]

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We’ve just come home from looking at the Turner prize nominations at the Baltic centre, just round the corner from where we live in Gateshead: Hattie, our three year old, stroppy as usual; Martha, six, floated around; Ed, eight, was loud in his disarmingly exuberant attitude towards life in general. Roger and I enjoyed the [...]

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More than 100 mothers at a London hospital have donated umbilical cord blood to save lives. All gave birth at University College Hospital which today officially launched its donation centre. Since the NHS unit opened six weeks ago, nearly a third of women given the option to donate – 140 – have done so, potentially [...]

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Marcus Trescothick, the former England cricketer, and Jonny Wilkinson, England’s 2003 Rugby World Cup winner, are supporting the campaign to get more people to talk openly about mental health problems. The Department of Health has provided £16 million for the Time to Change campaign, aimed at children in schools and youth clubs and via social networking [...]

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A wife who cared for her dying husband has revealed that the experience made her mentally ‘crash’ – essentially driving her to the brink of madness. Speaking to ABC News, Catherine Graves, 45, described the trauma of caring for her husband, who had brain cancer, and explained that the lack of support she felt as [...]

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A mother-of-three plagued by illness has told how her problems have been linked to an insect bite suffered 20 years ago. Adelle Huckins, 31, has been blighted by a range of medical conditions including migraines, severe fatigue, sickness, hearing difficulties and a drooping left eye. But it was only last year that she was able [...]

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Parents with children affected by the muscle-wasting disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), say they will fight to get testing reinstated in Wales. Screening to diagnose newborns was withdrawn at the end of November by the Welsh government on the grounds the test was no longer reliable. Wales was the only country in the UK to [...]

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Losing one’s hair at any age would be hard to cope with. But high school years, already blighted by teenage insecurities and potential bullies, must surely be more challenging still. Now one young alopecia sufferer has described exactly what it feels like to go through life without hair. Olivia Rusk, 14, from Fishers, Indiana, has [...]

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A 23-year-old died of cervical cancer because doctors said she was too young for a smear test, her devastated family have claimed. Mercedes Curnow, from Cornwall, first went to her GP at 20 years old but her mother says her symptoms were ‘ignored’ because of her age. After a year of doctors visits, Ms Curnow [...]

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A chemical widely used as a preservative in cosmetics, food products and pharmaceuticals has been found in tissue samples from 40 women with breast cancer. A number of studies since 1998 have raised concerns about the potential role of these parabens in breast cancer as they possess oestrogenic properties. Oestrogen is known to play a [...]

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A mother has revealed how she accidentally saved her own life when she coughed up – an inoperable cancerous tumour. Claire Osborn, 37, felt a tickle in her throat moments before hacking up a 2cm long heart-shaped lump into a tissue. She took the growth to her GP and a biopsy revealed it was metastatic [...]

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Sheffield Hallam University said it had started “incident control procedures” following the death of the student. Clive Macdonald, director of student and learning services at Sheffield Hallam, said the university was “working closely” with the Health Protection Agency. Anyone concerned about their health should see a doctor, he added. via BBC News – Sheffield Hallam [...]

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A young ‘miracle’ mother claims a two-month NHS delay in approving specialist cancer treatment has left her facing death and unable to beat the disease. Kerry Dunn, 46, asked her local Primary Care Trust to fund £18,000 Cyberknife radiotherapy treatment in October to help battle cancer in her mesentery tissue. But the mother-of-one, who gave [...]

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Apples. In a study of 1,000 men and women, those who ate apples regularly were 3.7 times more likely to have damage to their dentine — the layer of the tooth below the outer covering of enamel. Surprisingly, those who drank fizzy drinks regularly had no additional risk, found researchers at King’s College London Dental [...]

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Schoolchildren may be able to boost their classroom performance by getting out on the playing field, a study suggests. A review of previous research found evidence that physical activity can improve academic achievement in children and teenagers. Scientists in the Netherlands pooled data from 14 studies with sample sizes ranging from 53 to 12,000 participants [...]

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Requiring hospitals to publish exposure levels could eradicate huge variations in doses

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U.S. manufacturers of the drug to control hyperactive patients are struggling keep up with demand.

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A troubling taboo and how one man’s depression has left his loving family bereft

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Women are asking for sperm to be taken from their dead or dying partners to allow them to become fathers from beyond the grave.

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Catherine Powell urges others to make New Year weight-loss resolutions
‘You can completely change your life. I hope I can help others’

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Claire Fennemore, 31, discovered her Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) implants had ruptured after seeking medical advice for severe pain down the left side of her body.

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A hero council-worker saved the life of a seven-year-old girl when her heart stopped suddenly during a carol service.

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The difference in size means brain is not as effective

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A child of three is among hundreds of youngsters receiving hospital treatment for eating disorders, a report has revealed.

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70-year-olds can be trained to make accurate decisions as quickly as younger generations

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Patient’s brother had travelled from Laos to UK to donate kidney but pulled out at last minute

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During worst episode, Alisha was sick 100 times in 24 hours

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For a single parent with a sick child, the help offered by the Rainbow Trust is vital

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Moment that UK’s youngest eye transplant patient sees her mother for the first time

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Not for the mother who’s allergic to Christmas trees, tinsel, mince pies and turkey

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It helped her to write after memory loss from radiotherapy

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The NHS is facing a chronic shortage of family doctors after official figures showed some GPs were responsible for 9,000 patients.

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Malt extract, the post-war tonic for children, has been relaunched.

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Taking your child to hospital can leave you open to being accused of causing their injuries. Parents nowadays are inundated with so much well-meaning advice from so many sources, it seems almost impertinent to proffer any more. But they do need to be aware of how to combat the hazards, when taking their children to [...]

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Thousands of British women will be left to foot the bill for removal of faulty breast implants despite a decision by the French government to pay for 30,000 operations following safety concerns.

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A sick young girl from Canada, who charmed the Duchess of Cambridge when presenting her with a bouquet of flowers and a heartfelt hug, has been declared cancer-free.

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Eight per cent of women are affected by premenstrual syndrome

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Transplant surgeon becomes first ever to donate his own kidney after mother falls ill

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A transplant surgeon has joined the ranks of organ donors by giving up one of his own kidneys to save his mother’s life.

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