Health

Council chiefs who were shown a video of a mum struggling to carry her disabled son up 30 stairs still refused her priority housing - because she made it to the TOP. Sharon Arkell, 38, and Richard Mikkelson, 37, live with Tommy, four, and his little sister Susie in a second-floor flat. Tommy cannot reach it unaided as he suffers from muscular dystrophy, a progressive illness which means he'll soon have to use a wheelchair permanently. So mum Sharon carries...

Are online medical consultations the way of the future? Is it possible to just fill in an online form and receive both a diagnosis and prescription in a couple of minutes? If this is true, it means that you will no longer have to join long queues just to see a general practitioner. You will be able to consult with a general practitioner online and receive your prescription medication the next day. This seems almost of unimaginable. How can it be...

Alison Rooks leads Macmillan Cancer Support’s Energy Advice Team, who offer help to people with cancer with energy worries. Whenever I tell people I work for a cancer charity, they immediately assume I’m a nurse. Everyone knows the terrific work nurses do, yet less well known is the fact that people with cancer need a wide range of support. You wouldn’t think it was the case but people are much more likely to call our support line about financial worries...

I’ve got a friend who, despite being one of the most lethargic people I know, has got calves the size of tree trunks. To the innocent bystander he’s a physical anomaly. This is a man who has spent the best part of his life on a diet of cheese toasties and Walkers crisps, who would struggle to ride a bike without stabilisers and thinks squats are what you do when you can’t get to the toilet, and yet he can...

Migraine is a complex condition with a wide variety of symptoms. About one in seven people suffers from migraine and it is most prevalent among adults of working age. It is ranked globally as the seventh most disabling disease among all diseases, responsible for 2.9% of all years of life lost to disability (YLDs), and the leading cause of disability among all neurological disorders. For many people the main feature is a painful headache. Other symptoms include disturbed vision, sensitivity...

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Here, Jackie Harris, Clinical Nurse Specialist at Breast Cancer Care, talks about the importance of checking your breasts, and what you should be looking for… Signs and symptoms When you think about breast cancer, you’re likely to think of a woman finding a lump in their breast. But in reality, there are many different signs and symptoms to look out for. A Breast Cancer Care survey found that a third of women aren’t regularly...

A young woman who battled cancer was able to pass her test first time, after taking driving lessons on the way back from chemotherapy treatment sessions. Brave Katie Rickett, 17 passed the tough driving test a mere two weeks after the end of her treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Katie was sadly diagnosed back in May with the cancer, which develops in the lymphatic system, and like all cancers can be fatal. She was givien treatment by the teenage cancer ward...

Like most people, I find it’s a huge effort shoe-horning exercise into my life between a job, social life and a relationship. So when Massimo Stocchi got in touch to tell me about electro muscle stimulation, I was game. He promised that, in one 20-minute workout at the Emx Squared studio, I’d burn a chunky 2,000 calories – the equivalent of eight hours of conventional exercise. The only (terrifying) catch was I’d be hooked up to wires and getting zapped...

A young woman, only 18, was told she was not thin enough for help to cure her eating disorder. On hearing the news she couldn’t be helped her weight plummeted to a potentially lethal 5st 10lb, before she was able to get help. Lorna Beattie, was studying at St Andrew’s University, and living on only 200 calories a day, not much more than a piece of fruit and exercising for hours a day. She knew she had a problem and...