Health

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor After a young boy was tragically killed while out cycling his friend decided to do something positive and set up a fundraiser for him, which is so successful it has been rolled out across the UK. Tragically Daniel Climance was only eleven when he was killed on a bike ride with his brother and father in Purton, Wiltshire in June 2015. Eleven-year-old Callum Smart and his mum Claire wanted to ensure Daniel’s memory was kept...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor As the old saying goes, March is a month without mercy. March is also Brain Tumour Awareness Month. And one particular type of brain tumour – a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma – is one without any mercy at all. Indeed, it will take the life of the child who has the terrible misfortune to suffer this incurable, inoperable and terribly debilitating illness. The name itself is challenging. Basically, it is a cancerous tumour in the...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor It is a shocking statistic but every five seconds someone in the world goes blind. Almost two million people in the UK are living with significant sight loss and this number is predicted to rise to approximately 2.3 million by 2020. It’s essential, like any other body organ that you look after your eyes. Whilst it may not be a life threatening disease, sight loss can have a devastating impact on your quality of life. 84% of people...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Marathon man Mark Vaz is almost halfway through his outrageous challenge of completing 400 marathons in 365 days despite dislocating his shoulder earlier in the week. Mark is raising funds for Adoption UK as he attempts to become the first man to run 400 marathons in a year – so more than one a day. The current record is 239 marathons. To put Mark’s challenge into context, he will be aiming to run a total...

By Mark Turnbull, Health and Wellbeing Practitioner  Blue Monday….how does it feel? During the last full-working week in January, the Monday is said to be one of the most ‘depressing’ days of the year for many people. But why is that? The evidence behind this suggests that there are several reasons and I think it can be useful to consider them using a Cognitive Behavioural approach. Many of us will have difficult situations and problems to deal with during the post-Christmas...

By Jess Bolton SH:24's graduate business associate.  There’s been an huge amount of chatter recently about whether or not dating apps are leading to an increase in STIs. Back in November we put the question to our twitter followers and 53% of them said no - not exactly conclusive... https://twitter.com/sh24_nhs/status/661127893876137984 As the number of casual sexual encounters goes up the rate of transmission inevitably goes up with it but there is nothing about these apps themselves that promotes unsafe sex....

By John Rendel, founder of PEAS (promoting equality in African schools) The introduction of reusable sanitary pads and lessons to reduce the stigmatisation around menstruation is transforming access to education in Africa. As a girl in Uganda you have less than 25% chance of staying in school after completing primary school and, even if succeeding in getting a school place, a girl will miss three days of school a month simply because of her period. Many girls drop out of...

By Sarah James 1. I can do with a month off, it will be easy! 2. It's only been 4 days! I feel like I've not drunk for at least 3 months. 3. I'm bored of staying in the house, I'm going to go to the pub, I can drink sparkling water and watch other people drink! 4. F/ck that! Back to the house, it's safe there. 5. Suddenly I stop drinking and I seem to have been struck down...

Car servicing and repair company Kwik Fit has devised an innovative way to help you shed the festive pounds. A team of their technicians are trialling a fitness scheme in a London garage which will quite literally help people lose their spare tyres. The crew has teamed up with a personal trainer to devise a system – Fit Kwik – using only car and van tyres. The free 30-minute sessions will include tyre flips, lifts and throws, during which participants...