Woman who had skin cancer warns of sunbed danger
She said she used oil for sunbathing, adding: "I didn't use high-factor sunscreen or cover up when I was out." In 2022, her partner noticed a white patch on her face.She said: "I thought it was just pigmentation, because it didn't look like a mole or what I took to be the usual signs of skin cancer. "Even the GP thought it was pigmentation. "But I wasn't happy because it just didn't look right so I pushed for some tests."A biopsy revealed she had basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer which develops from cells found in the deepest part of the outer layer of the skin.For most people, this type of cancer does not spread.It can be removed by surgery and no further treatment is required. However, Ms Verrall's carcinoma needed a deep and lengthy incision to remove all traces of it.
Around 3,100 people are diagnosed with skin cancer every year in the south-east of England, according to Cancer Research UK.Ms Verrall, who runs an industrial door company, said she is now passionate about urging people to look after their skin."What I went through was traumatising and I don't want other people to experience that," she said.Beth Vincent, Cancer Research UK health information manager, said: "Getting sunburnt just once every two years can triple the risk of developing skin cancer, compared to never being burnt. "Even on a cloudy day, the sun can be strong enough to burn between mid-March and mid-October."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
One in four Britons guilty of unsafe habits that risk deadly food poisoning: How many do you use?
A quarter of Britons are risking potentially deadly food poisoning in their desperate attempts to save cash, an official report warns. Food safety watchdog The Food Standards Agency (FSA) found 23 per cent of people had engaged in what it called 'risky practices' in the home kitchen. This included over one in 10 lowering the temperature they cooked at, as well as how long they ran appliances like ovens and hobs for, in a bid to cut down on energy bills. One in 10 Britons were also guilty of turning off their fridge or freezer for periods of time, or raising the internal temperature of the appliances to save cash. Heartbreakingly, more than one in 20 people surveyed reported eating food that needed to be cooked or reheated cold as they simply couldn't afford to cook it. The FSA said their survey—which recorded food habits in the survey group from August 2023 to March this year—showed 'risky practices' peaked around Christmas time, rising to 28 per cent. Not heating food enough before eating or storing it at too warm a temperature risks allowing germs that cause food poisoning to survive. Food poisoning is generic term for a foodborne illness that triggers symptoms like vomiting and diarrhoea. It can caused by various pathogens including campylobacter bacteria, salmonella and E. coli, bugs that data suggests are on the rise in Britain. Just last month health officials warned that cases of salmonella had surged to their highest level in over a decade. As whole, food poisoning cases an estimated 2.5million people to fall ill in the UK each year. While the vast majority of cases are mild, food poisoning can be deadly for some groups—like the elderly—with an estimated 200 fatalities per annum. Such infections can lead to serious dehydration which can lead to fatal complications and the germs can also sometimes trigger sepsis a potentially deadly overreaction by the body's immune system. Data also showed when it came to food concerns most people were worried about rising food prices, with almost 9 in 10 saying saying it was a source of anxiety. Michelle Patel, deputy director of analysis at the FSA, said the results showed how Briton's budget concerns were contributing to them gambling with food poisoning. 'Our latest annual data shows that food prices remain a top concern for most people,' he said. 'It also shows that many people are doing risky things to save money.' Mr Patel said Britons can visit the FSA's new advice page on food safety to learn more about how to reduce their risk of food poisoning. In particular the regulator advises people to aim to have the food reach 70°C (158F) for two minutes while cooking though this can vary depending on the specific food and cooking method. If you don't have a food safe thermometer the FSA says to check food is steaming throughout and that in particular meats like chicken are cooked all the way through with no pink meat left. When reheating food, people should ensure it is heated above 63°C (145.4F) to avoid what it called the 'Danger Zone' where bacteria can grow quickly and make you ill. For same reason the FSA advises people ensure their fridge is between 0 and 5°C (32-41F) and their freezer is set to -18°C (0.4F) as this stops or inhibits the growth of potentially dangerous bacteria. The FSA report is based on a rolling survey of 2,000 people living in England, Wales or Northern Ireland which is held every month.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Fiona Phillips hasn't cooked in two years and has no time for her dressing room full of fabulous designer clothes, heartbroken husband Martin Frizell reveals as TV star battles Alzheimer's
Fiona Phillips has not cooked in years and has no time for her dressing room of designer clothes as she battles Alzheimer's, her husband Martin Frizell has revealed. The former GMTV host, 64, was diagnosed with the brain disorder in 2022, aged just 61. It came after she left the former ITV breakfast show in 2008 to care for her father, who suffered from it too, dying in 2012, after her mother lost her life to it as well, in 2006. Her husband and former editor of This Morning Mr Frizell, 66, left the ITV chat show after ten years in February to care for Ms Phillips. She has now written a memoir, Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer's, with the help of her husband and journalist friend Alison Phillips, about her diagnosis. Ahead of its release on July 17, her husband has now spoken out about some of the most heartbreaking impacts of the disease. Mr Frizell said all her favourite hobbies and interests are now gone - she has not cooked in two years and wears the same T-shirt and trousers every day. He asked The Telegraph: 'What do I do with all these clothes?' And of her previously beloved cookery books, which now lay piled in the basement: 'Do I take them to the dump?... She's never going to open one again.' Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, an umbrella term for symptoms associated with ongoing brain function decline. It is a progressive condition, meaning symptoms and their severity develop gradually over years, affecting memory, thinking skills and other mental functions. There is currently no cure but there are medicines which can somewhat alleviate symptoms. In the UK, more than 70,000 people live with early-onset dementia and nearly a million live with dementia more broadly. Mr Frizell, who married Ms Phillips in 1997 and shares two children, Nathaniel, 26, and Mackenzie, 23, with her, started by contributing a few paragraphs to his wife's memoir. But he ended up generating more than 24,000 words as his anger about the lack of support for those with Alzheimer's and research about the disease. He recalled when she was diagnosed and given a leaflet on living with the disease that had a old couple with a Zimmer frame on it. It completely jarred with how young she was, having only just turned 61, Mr Frizell said: 'She was wearing skinny jeans and high-heeled boots. 'This was a degenerative disease for old people like the ones on the leaflet.' The couple first put her symptoms - brain fog, social withdrawal, mood swings, depression and anxiety - down to the menopause. But the change in Ms Phillips - previously always the life and soul of the party - was so stark, Mr Frizell knew at heart there had to be something more at play. Despite her family history of Alzheimer's, Ms Phillips' diagnosis is not genetic so cannot be passed to her sons - a relieving result of tests they had to wait an agonising two weeks for. She is instead 'predisposed' to it, a more common means of developing Alzheimer's than directly inheriting it. Factors that increase someone's predisposition to the disease include family history, the presence of certain genes and other health problems like diabetes, heart issues and high blood pressure. His wife has always been active - so Mr Frizell wondered if her diagnosis could have been caused by stress. At one point, during her turn on GMTV from 1993 to 2008, she was starting work at 3am, taking part in Strictly Come Dancing, bringing up her young sons, and caring for her parents, who lived far away in Wales. But he also thought it could be their lifestyle in their younger years - which saw them regularly drink a bottle of wine each every night. Mr Frizell said he feels guilty about this - as well as for taking his wife's place promoting the book, done only out of necessity as she is not well enough. He also feels bad about sometimes speaking about her in past tense - but the heartbreaking thing about dementia is it has seen her already gradually start to fade away. The pair met as roving reporters on GMTV, with Mr Frizell proposing after just four weeks. It was her genuine kindness, in the cut-throat world of reporting, that caught his eye - and the pair soon wed in Vegas. Mr Frizell, who has also edited GMTV and Loose Women, now cares for Ms Phillips full-time from their home in the Wandsworth area of south London. With needed breaks for podcasting and sailing and the help of his sons, he gets by. They briefly found a drug which stabilised her condition - albeit requiring him to inject her stomach three times per day - but its effects only lasted a year. She has now declined considerably over the last 12 months, needing help with basic tasks like brushing her teeth, developing more confusion, pain, delirium and psychosis and mostly staying inside It is hard sometimes, he says, to remain patient and calm when forced to repeat himself to her over and over again. 'I'm not going to be the Mother Teresa of Wandsworth', he said. But he insisted they are coping currently without professional help, with Fiona still having periods of being present, lucid and herself. She still, for instance, makes perceptive comments, or recalls lyrics from an old song, or remembers to water the plants. Her diagnosis has affected their shared life as a couple though, with many friends no longer inviting them out - and, on one occasion, actively moving tables at a cafe to avoid them. They are perhaps scared by the change in her, by their own mortality or by simply not knowing what to say, Mr Frizell ventured. The couple have never once discussed her having Alzheimer's explicitly since she was diagnosed - she knows the way it is going and it is too upsetting to be reminded. Its progress feels unstoppable, with the test for the disease 50 years old and the drugs the same as the ones her mother used before her death nearly 20 years ago, in 2006. Mr Frizell is determined, though, to not let those favourite interests of hers - of looking glamorous, of eating delicious food - to completely erode. He regularly helps her get her hair coloured and nails done. And the best thing his friends - afraid of getting it wrong - could do, he said, actually, is to cook for them, leaving something on the doorstep. It comes after Mr Frizell appeared on This Morning yesterday to tell hosts Alison Hammond, 50, and Dermot O'Leary, 52, about his wife's progress. The former editor shared some deeply sad details about how challenging family life has been since Fiona's diagnosis three years ago. He said: 'In the book, there's a picture of her at the end of our road, the most recent picture I took, only a few weeks ago. 'And she's looking great and she's smiling and she's got her coat on. And what you don't know is she thought I'd kidnapped her. This was us going out. 'Because you get delusions because you get so worked up. She keeps saying, "I want to go home".' Asked by Alison if she still recognises him, he said: 'She does recognise me most of the times. Doesn't quite know that I'm her husband but she knows who I am.' Martin shared another heartbreaking detail too: 'Every now and then, she'll want to go home to her parents and I haven't got the heart to say they aren't here.' He explained how he copes with this instead: 'You say, "Let's get our coats on, let's get our shoes on", we go out, go round the block a couple of times and come back in. And she says, "Oh, I'm home now".' What is Alzheimer's? Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, in which build-up of abnormal proteins causes nerve cells to die. This disrupts the transmitters that carry messages, and causes the brain to shrink. More than 5 million people suffer from the disease in the US, where it is the 6th leading cause of death, and more than 1 million Britons have it. WHAT HAPPENS? As brain cells die, the functions they provide are lost. That includes memory, orientation and the ability to think and reason. The progress of the disease is slow and gradual. On average, patients live five to seven years after diagnosis, but some may live for ten to 15 years. EARLY SYMPTOMS: Loss of short-term memory Disorientation Behavioral changes Mood swings Difficulties dealing with money or making a phone call LATER SYMPTOMS: Severe memory loss, forgetting close family members, familiar objects or places Becoming anxious and frustrated over inability to make sense of the world, leading to aggressive behavior Eventually lose ability to walk May have problems eating The majority will eventually need 24-hour care
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Experiment finds yoghurt can lower house temperature
People across the UK would have had their windows open and fans on to try and keep cool in the midst of the third heatwave of the there would likely have been few trying out one university lecturer's alternative method to lower the temperature in a Ben Roberts, a senior lecturer in healthy buildings at Loughborough University, said applying yoghurt to the outside of windows can lower the temperature by up to 3.5C (38F).He has pointed to the results of a month-long experiment to show the method has brought results. He said: "We can't get houses to cool down during the day. "That's a real problem for a lot of people, so we've started to look at shading solutions, stopping sun getting into your house during the day."In May, Dr Roberts and PhD student Niloo Todeh-Kharman conducted an experiment on two identical test houses at Loughborough University by putting yoghurt on the windows of one, but not the experiment found the indoor temperature of the house with yoghurt on the windows was on average 0.6C (33F) cooler, but up to a maximum of 3.5C cooler when it was "hot and sunny". According to Dr Roberts, the yoghurt forms a thin film on the window itself and reflects some of the incoming solar radiation as it is a light means not as much heat passes through the told the BBC the yoghurt smells for "30 seconds when drying" but that as soon as it has dried "the smell disappears".Dr Roberts said the idea came from a conversation with Tom Greenhill, the author of the Heatwave Toolkit website, who was thinking of "low-cost ways" which could stop added Mr Greenhill tried putting yoghurt on his own house but that it had never been their experiment, the scientists at Loughborough University used a supermarket-brand of Greek yoghurt that has a fat percentage of about 10%. When he saw the results of the investigation, Dr Roberts said he was "quite surprised" as he did not think it would be "that effective".He added that when they carried out experiments with tinfoil - which blocks "pretty much" all of the incoming sun's heat - they saw a maximum temperature drop of 5 to 6C (41-42.8F), so he was "pleasantly surprised" with the results from the yoghurt Roberts said: "It shows the importance of treating windows and heat shielding solutions for windows to reduce overheating.""We see a lot of excess summer deaths, so very simply if you can keep your home cooler we'll reduce the number of excess summer deaths happening and we can improve people's health and wellbeing," he added. Dr Zoe De Grussa, research manager at the Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers, added: "It's not your everyday hack, I would say, but anything you can do to put on the outside of windows is going to be of benefit to stopping sunshine coming in and heating up the internal environment."
