Health

Secondary breast cancer is often overlooked, including during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. There remains confusion over what “secondary” breast cancer means and there are many misconceptions that women and men living with the disease hear daily – that if they’ve finished treatment they must be better, they can’t have cancer because they look so well, or that they know how long they will have with family and friends. Secondary breast cancer is when breast cancer cells have spread...

A dad who was told he had a trapped nerve after collapsing at home was given the devastating news he is suffering with an incurable brain tumour. Neil Grist had gone to a sports therapist and was doing exercises to help relieve the tingling in his legs when he suddenly suffered 16 seizures in a day. Paramedics who came to Mr Grist's home when he first suffered a fit and fainted in March this year said the pain he suffered...

A teacher unwittingly saved the life of a six-year-old pupil after urging her to get an eye test - which revealed a massive brain tumour. Nia Ferris, 31, noticed something was wrong with Evie Hughes' vision and advised her parents to consult an optician in case she needed glasses. But they were stunned to be told their daughter was completely blind in one eye because of a slow-growing tumour which had probably been there since birth. Evie was rushed to...

A hospital is beating bed-blocking by sending elderly patients to a care home - at a THIRD of the cost of keeping them on wards. An entire floor on a newly-built care home has been commissioned so patients from Yeovil District Hospital in Yeovil, Somerset, can leave hospital. Pensioners who no longer need to be monitored by medics but are not able to live safely and independently at home can go there. And instead of sitting on hospital wards waiting...

Human intestines have been grown in the lab and transplanted into rats - offering hope of new treatments for serious gut disorders, scientists have revealed. The breakthrough could combat the organ donor shortage crisis, leading to better therapies for Crohn's disease and even cancer. It opens the door to creating tissues for patients "on demand" with no risk of rejection - ending the need for drugs, says the team. The technique involves creating a three-dimensional biological scaffold made with human...

A medical implant to correct congenital heart defects has been developed that grows with the child. The use of such devices has been thwarted because they are a fixed size - and cannot expand as young patients get bigger. Scientists said the new growth-accommodating implant inspired by a toy could revolutionise cardiac repair - and also be adapted to correct diseases in other parts of the body. Co senior author Professor Pedro del Nido, chief of cardiac surgery at Boston...

There has been a ten-fold increase in global childhood obesity over the past four decades and now 20 per cent of American children are obese. Leading scientists called for a sugar tax, cheaper fruit and veg and a curb on processed food as it was revealed girls in the USA had the 15th highest obesity rate in the world, and boys had the 12th highest obesity in the world. Although figures have levelled off there is a ticking fat time...

Colin is 34 and from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, he asked not to be pictured...this is his story I was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2003, when I was 20. The diagnosis followed an acute psychotic episode, which doctors thought was because my drink was spiked with combination of drugs that could have been lethal. This doesn’t happen in all cases, but for some people with schizophrenia there can be a single trigger for the symptoms. I’ll never know for sure, but...

Through a recent survey of 2,000 people at Shout Out UK surrounding their campaign around World Mental Health Day, they found out a shocking statistic – that 36% of young people believe Brexit has impacted their mental health. They sent out this survey as mental health issues are on the rise, especially amongst young people, and it’s important for them to see the impact Brexit has had on people’s mental health, and not just on our economy. Through their discussions...