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One notices more talk of postnatal depression in fathers. I use the word “talk” advisedly, scientific proof still being in short supply. Were hormonal levels tested? Was postpartum bruising measured? How about the emergence of a human head in what – in deference to what might be your leisurely Sunday breakfast – I will refer [...]

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For many of us, getting a good night’s sleep is a measure of our wellbeing. Getting an early night is frequently held up as a cause for celebration, while burning the candle at both ends is for some a sure-fire route to coming a-cropper.

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Breast cancer sufferers in remission have been told for the first time it is safe for them to become pregnant. Previously doctors have feared that pregnancy can boost levels of oestrogen in the body and cause the most common form of the cancer to return. However, the new findings, presented at the European Breast Cancer [...]

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The latest round of legal action over closure proposals for a leading hospital’s children’s heart unit has reached the Court of Appeal. Last November the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, west London, won a High Court battle over a consultation exercise which led to proposals to close the unit down. The hospital says its future [...]

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Services for women and children’s health are a foundation stone of modern societies around the world. Public health services just about anywhere start by addressing the things that most affect the health of their children, from maternity care, to obstetrics, immunisation of babies and provision for healthy children. It is accepted and understood that these [...]

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Core children’s health services in Devon may be about to be privatised, in a move critics have warned is a foretaste of the breaking up of the NHS that will take place when the government’s health and social care bill becomes law. The Guardian has learned that NHS Devon and Devon county council have shortlisted [...]

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A teacher who spent nine “nightmare” days in hospital with malaria says she was verbally abused, neglected and even threatened by staff. Chandini Wilson, 48, described her stay at Queen’s Hospital in Romford as the worst experience of her life and is considering legal action. She claims her care was so poor that her husband [...]

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When his son was diagnosed with a rare medical condition that attacked his kidneys, Duane Harvard, 51, didn’t think twice about donating one of his own. But his grateful 10-year-old son Raphael has nicknamed him ‘Superdad’ as a result. ‘I don’t think of that, it was a privilege, an honour, it’s the least I could [...]

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Pupils in England should have better access to their school nurses and be able to text them to make an appointment, the government says. Under a plan to improve health in schools, it says nurses must also improve the way they respond to pupils’ complex emotional and learning needs. Ministers consulted 300 young people when [...]

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When James Redford began suffering agonising stomach pain, fevers and weight loss in his teens, he and his family just put it down to a mysterious bug or him being a ‘nervous child’. For two years, James put up with his symptoms and didn’t visit a doctor. It was only when a TV programme described [...]

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Children are turning up at school too tired to learn properly, with a small but rising number staying up late to gamble on line. A survey of 250 primary school teachers showed nine out of 10 believe pupils are too tired to pay attention. Nearly a quarter of teachers let children sleep in a corner [...]

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A mother battling deadly brain cancer is to be forced to spend hours each day taking her son to school by bus because council bosses will not let him attend the same local primary as his brother. Michelle Amey, 35, can no longer drive after surgery to remove a brain tumour so will have to [...]

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Like most siblings, the five Gregory brothers had never lived in each other’s pockets. Occasional phone calls, family gatherings or special anniversaries were fitted around work commitments and bringing up their own children. But the death of the eldest brother, Derek, from prostate cancer in 1986 revealed a legacy that has forced them all to [...]

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Mr Ketley, who has a mental age of two, was attacked at St Ebba’s Hospital in Epsom. His mother, 64, of Bognor Regis, West Sussex, heard what happened when she called to check up on him. She said: “I was horrified. He was quite heavily sedated and wasn’t able to defend himself.” After the attack [...]

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A painful womb condition affecting two million British women has been linked to a greater risk of ovarian cancer. Women suffering endometriosis are three times more likely to develop the disease, say researchers. A study has identified three types of ovarian cancer which are more common in women with endometriosis, a condition that also affects [...]

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A little girl bleeding from a head wound was turned away from a doctor’s surgery – because she wasn’t registered as a patient. Four-year-old Libby Finlow suffered a serious cut on her head when she fell against a wall whilst running along a corridor at the Waters Green Medical centre in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Her parents [...]

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Eilish Colclough, 44,  a former businesswoman, was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer five years ago and was told that at best she had five years to live, at worst, just one or two. She lives in Buxton, Derbyshire, with her husband Anthony, 44, and five children, Emma, 25, Megan, 19, Abigail, 18, Jemima, 15, and [...]

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More than 150 paediatricians are calling on the Government to scrap its controversial Health Bill, saying it will have an “extremely damaging effect” on the health of children. In a damning letter to The Lancet medical journal, members of the UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said there was “no prospect” of improving [...]

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More than 2,100 women and girls in London have sought hospital treatment for genital mutilation over the past six years, figures revealed today. The extent of the suffering in the capital was revealed for the first time after Freedom of Information requests by the Evening Standard. The figures showed that 2,167 women – almost one [...]

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Cuddling her baby son in her arms, Natalie Glascott-Tull appears like any ordinary first time mother overjoyed at her precious new arrival. But the 31-year-old has more reason than most to celebrate the birth of baby Nathanial – because he is the child she never dared dream she would ever have. The former nursery assistant [...]

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A woman is celebrating the birth of her ‘miracle’ child for helping doctors spot advanced cervical cancer. Vanessa Stuart, 27, wasn’t due a smear test for another two-and-a-half years but during a check-up the day before she went into labour, nurses detected a lump. Despite the discovery, the mother-of-three gave birth naturally to her youngest [...]

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Babies whose mothers undergo cancer drug treatment during their pregnancy do not appear to suffer any long-term harm, according to a groundbreaking study. When a pregnant woman is diagnosed with cancer, she and her family and doctors are faced with difficult decisions about her health and that of her unborn child. It is known that [...]

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Mrs Swain found a lump in her breast and before going into hospital for tests she did a pregnancy test. “The natural reaction is to be over the moon that I was pregnant but we were so full of apprehension about what would happen,” she said. She was diagnosed ten years ago when there was [...]

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It is one of the rarest conditions in the world, affecting just one in a billion people. However, in an incredible quirk of fate, three sisters have all been blighted by a condition known as werewolf syndrome – where they are covered from head to foot in thick hair. Savita, 23, Monisha, 18, and 16-year-old [...]

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A paediatrician has been suspended and a hospital matron ‘removed’ from a Cumbrian hospital where police are investigating the deaths of six patients within eight months, it has emerged. Police began their investigation after a coroner raised concerns following the deaths of at least four babies and two mothers at Furness General Hospital, in Barrow-in-Furness, [...]

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Consuming too many fizzy drinks increases your risk of developing asthma or the severe breathing condition Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD), new research suggests. Researchers in Australia examined the health and soft drink consumption of 16,907 people aged 16 and over in South Australia during 2008-2010. One in 10 drank at least half a litre [...]

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Zinc supplements can triple the survival chances of young children with pneumonia who are deficient in the mineral, a study has found. Taking zinc had a dramatic effect on death rates – even though it did not shorten the time severely ill children took to recover. The metal is found in shellfish, meat, egg yolks [...]

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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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