Tunbridge Wells girl crochets bunting for each chemotherapy round
Kirsty said she was taught to crochet by a family friend last year and had been learning from different YouTube tutorials since.She has crocheted 44 of the 70 "unique" triangles so far and will hang the completed bunting in her local cafe initially, then move it to her hospital ward.Her Crochet for Cancer campaign has already raised more than £9,000 for the charity, and the 10-year-old wants to deliver leaflets about her work "to most of the houses in Kent".Kate said: "It's just so nice to see that the response from the community so far has been fantastic."It really boosts us, because it's going to be a long road ahead."
After her diagnosis Kirsty was hospitalised for two weeks to have a chunk of the tumour, which she has named Terry, surgically removed.She said her chemotherapy symptoms "aren't too bad" and her memory and sight have returned."Because I've had experience of it, I feel more sympathy to even worse stories than my story," she added.Mum Kate said as a parent she felt "helpless" and she just had to "trust in the NHS, who have been wonderful".
'Search for normality'
Kirsty's father Mat said the day they got the diagnosis was "pretty gruesome" and described Kirsty's time in hospital as "some of the lowest points we've had as parents"."You are sleeping on a roll-out bed alongside your daughter, listening to the beeps and the noises all through the night, just looking at her and willing her to get better," he said.Things started to look up once Kirsty returned home, he added, saying the whole family tries to "search for normality, no matter how much medical stuff is going on".He said: "Everyone said to us 'just take it day by day', which is easy advice to give but very hard to follow."You're wondering about where they are going to go to school, what they are going to do, and who are they going to be."This condition has forced us to focus on what we can do today, this week, this month to enjoy ourselves as much as we can."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Leader Live
31 minutes ago
- Leader Live
Thousands of people with debilitating hayfever to benefit from new drug
Betula verrucosa, sold under the brand name Itulazax 12 SQ-Bet and made by Alk-Abello, is an under-the-tongue immunotherapy tablet that contains birch pollen extract. The drug trains the immune system to tolerate tree pollen over three years of daily use. It has been recommended as an option on the NHS for people whose hayfever symptoms persist even after taking antihistamines or using nasal sprays, by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). Severe tree pollen allergies can cause debilitating symptoms for some people during the spring and summer months, including fatigue, breathing difficulties, inflamed sinuses, itchy, watery eyes, and vision changes. Trials show the tablet can significantly reduce the symptoms of severe hayfever by changing how the body responds to allergens. The immunotherapy works by gradually increasing the body's tolerance to tree pollen through controlled daily exposure to small amounts of pollen. Before being given the tablets, patients will require skin prick or blood tests to confirm an allergy to birch tree pollen. Nice estimates that about 27,000 people in England are expected to benefit from the recommendation. Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at Nice, said: 'This treatment will help improve people's quality of life. 'Severe tree pollen allergies trap people indoors during beautiful weather and disrupt their work, education and family life. 'The daily tablet offers genuine long-term relief rather than just managing symptoms.' According to Allergy UK, birch pollen allergy is estimated to affect about 25% of hayfever sufferers. Amena Warner, head of clinical services at Allergy UK, said: 'Many people don't realise how awful it is having an itchy, runny nose, sneezing episodes or itchy, irritated eyes in the pollen season. 'We frequently hear from people who avoid time outdoors, keep doors and windows shut, check pollen counts and try and minimise any exposure, which takes a significant toll on their physical and emotional wellbeing. 'Nice's recommendation is so important because it provides a genuine opportunity for people to manage the root cause of their pollen allergy, offering the chance to break free from this burden and enjoy a better quality of life.' Emil Stage Olsen, general manager UK and Republic of Ireland at ALK, added: 'We welcome this positive Nice recommendation, which is another meaningful advancement for the UK allergy community. 'Our focus is now on working closely with the NHS to ensure eligible patients can benefit from this first-in-class immunotherapy.' The NHS in England will provide the treatment within three months of Nice publishing its final guidance.
The Guardian
32 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Difficult' state of NHS maternity care due to Tory inaction, inquiry head says
One of the UK's most senior midwives has said inaction by the previous government over maternity care failures has led to the 'difficult' situation in wards across England and a rise in reports of birth trauma. Donna Ockenden, who is leading the biggest inquiry in NHS history into maternity failures in Nottingham, said the Conservatives had been given a 'blueprint' for how to improve maternity services but that it had not been implemented. 'I think the current government has inherited a really, really difficult picture around perinatal care, birth care and increasing reports of birth trauma. If only the previous government had done what it said it would do, that inheritance would have been very different,' she said. Ockenden is leading a review into maternity services at the Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust, the largest inquiry into a single service in the history of the NHS, with 2,406 affected families taking part. The findings will be published in June 2026. She expressed frustration over the slow pace of change after her report on the Shrewsbury and Telford maternity scandal, which found that 300 babies died or were left brain-damaged as a result of inadequate care. 'We published [that report] in March 2022 and there were 22 immediately essential actions, as well as hundreds of actions for the NHS trust,' she said. 'But with the chaos that followed in the year before the general election, things got lost and we are not as far ahead with those immediately essential actions as we should be.' Guardian analysis has found that the NHS is facing a £27bn bill for maternity failings in England since 2019, significantly more than the health service's approximately £18bn budget for newborns in that time. Ockenden said the figures left her 'deeply concerned', and she stressed that the cost of avoidable maternity harm was felt across 'mental health, other health services, the economy, the wider community, relationships, whole families and careers'. 'This is not the way it should be. I would absolutely not say that families do not deserve compensation when they have a poor outcome, but rather that if the money was invested upfront into making the service safer, then we could make significant strides towards reducing this very significant harm,' she said. She said maternity wards were also dealing with problems caused by high levels of poverty across the country. 'There are a number of families, mothers and children living in destitution – which sounds very Victorian, but I do see examples of that. I hear about it from across the country and I see examples of real deprivation in Nottinghamshire,' she said. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'Maternity services are not an island. What comes in the front door of a maternity unit is that which is out there on our streets, whether that's women living in refugee status, in homeless hostels, women who come to antenatal clinics hungry because it's a choice between giving their children something for breakfast or [the women] eating.' Last month, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, criticised what he described as 'the normalisation of deaths of women and babies' and said: 'We have women who are classed as having a normal birth still leaving traumatised and scarred.' He announced a national investigation into NHS maternity services in England, along with a national maternity and neonatal taskforce comprising a panel of experts and bereaved families. Ockenden said the news was 'encouraging' and that 'hearing, amplifying and acting upon family voices must be the golden thread that runs through it all'. 'It is my hope that the changes outlined in these plans improve perinatal services today and in the future, and drastically reduce the risk of harm. Women and families deserve safe maternity care, always,' she said.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Fat jab makers bet on NHS to be role model for the world
Britain is too fat. One in four people is classed as obese and, on average, they will live nine years less than if they were a healthy weight. They are three times more likely to develop colon cancer and five times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Such statistics are not just a crisis in national health, they are also an economic nightmare for the NHS. 'Obesity has doubled since the 1990s and costs our NHS £11bn a year, triple the budget for ambulance services,' Health Secretary Wes Streeting said last month. 'Unless we curb the rising tide of cost and demand, the NHS risks becoming unsustainable.' It is a threat that the Government is taking seriously, with a new ambition to tackle the problem once and for all. 'We now have the science, technology, and knowledge to end the obesity epidemic, if we seize this opportunity,' Streeting says. A crucial part of the plan is the wide rollout of weight-loss injections which, up until this point, have largely been reserved for those who can afford them. The Government instead wants fat jabs to be available 'based on need and not the ability to pay' and is testing new approaches to speed up the rollout of obesity medicines. Public health officials are not the only ones watching closely. At Danish giant Novo Nordisk, which makes obesity jab Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic, which can be used off-label for weight loss, executives are eager to know what ministers' next step will be. Sebnem Avsar Tuna, its UK chief, says that the Government's plans could prove a game-changer for Novo Nordisk, showing the benefits of these medicines to the world. 'I think there's a big opportunity for the UK to be a role model,' she says. 'We just need to speed up in terms of getting into the actions, so it's not just on paper ... This is what needs to be shown, at the population health scale, to the entire world: what could be the outcome in a real-world setting.' Test case for the world In other words, Britain could be the test case for the world. If Wegovy can dramatically improve Britain's health – and cut costs – then surely other countries will follow. The Government says it is exploring whether it could bring in a new payment model for weight-loss treatments, so that it would pay pharmaceutical companies based on how well their drugs made the nation healthier. For now, details over the Government's plans remain sparse. The fat jab plans are part of a wider obesity strategy, which also includes curbing calories in supermarkets and getting the country exercising. Ministers have yet to publish a comprehensive strategy. The pharmaceutical industry is not yet clear on which weight-loss drugs could be offered more broadly, nor how they will be rolled out to patients or whether weight limits guiding who can qualify for the jabs will be softened. So far only Eli Lilly's skinny jab Mounjaro is offered on the NHS through GPs. Novo's obesity jab is currently just available through specialist weight management clinics on the public health service, although can be bought privately. Still, both jabs have strict requirements over who is eligible. A person would need to have a BMI of over 40 – classing them as severely obese – as well as at least four of five specific health conditions, which include type 2 diabetes and sleep apnea, to qualify for a weight loss jab when seeking the treatment through a GP. There are concerns that current limits means the drugs are too restricted. 'We should be doing it for people who are becoming obese,' says one government adviser. 'That way, we can get them down to something that looks close to a normal range and then they can go back to work and start paying taxes.' Old habits die hard However, there are concerns that public health officials may resist a broad roll-out of the fat jabs after years where obesity was viewed as a behavioural issue, not something to be treated with medicine. 'The problem is this is very contrary to the status quo in this field, which is: we think you should stop eating, and then you won't be as fat,' the adviser says. There is a 'culture war within the health system between the old school public health doctors who say it's all about behavioural change, and the people who say, 'Hang on a minute, we haven't done so bad with statins, we should do the same with obesity''. 'Wes is probably more inclined to go for the latter view. The trouble is, Wes is not making the decisions. It's being made by a whole load of old-school doctors.' Drug bosses are anxious to see any signs of progress. 'We just need to speed up in terms of getting it done,' says Avsar Tuna. A speedy roll-out could provide not just a boost for Britain's health but also a shot in the arm for Novo Nordisk, which has been struggling in the US. It has faced weaker demand for Wegovy after a boom in cheap replica fat jabs. In May it blamed the copycat drugs – which were allowed by US regulators because of supply issues at Novo Nordisk – for forcing it to slash sales and profit forecasts. Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen was unexpectedly ousted as chief executive at the same time. The arms race in weight loss Regulators have since banned the cheap replicas. Still, it is facing a more existential threat in the form of rival Eli Lilly, amid growing uptake of the US company's Mounjaro weight-loss jab. In a recent head-to-head trial, Mounjaro beat Novo's Wegovy for weight-loss. Barclays analyst Emily Field says she has heard anecdotally that patients prefer Mounjaro too. 'When you look at the side effects in terms of patients that discontinue the drug because they're not feeling well, the two drugs look very similar,' she says. 'But when you actually talk to doctors, they disagree with that. They say that patients just feel better on the Lilly drug.' Novo Nordisk has been racing to develop new medicines to show it can compete, though investors are not entirely convinced. Its share price is down more than 50pc over the past year. Field says the company was 'really hampered' by the fact it was hit by shortages last year. Avsar Tuna says the company has enough capacity to meet demand. 'I can say that we don't have any supply challenges,' she says. If the NHS were to rapidly step up orders, she believes Novo Nordisk could deliver. 'I think it's a positive problem to look at,' Avsar Tuna says. 'If the NHS really comes back and says, tomorrow, I want X number of products from you to be able to give it all to patients, that would be a good dream to have.' Whether the call will come is another matter. Government advisers remain concerned that public health chiefs will try to stand in the way of a sweeping roll-out. 'If you ask me, they're in a bit of a muddle about these drugs,' says one insider. Still, Streeting is clearly convinced that they are the answer to Britain's weight problems. 'This Government is determined to bring revolutionary modern treatments to everyone who needs them, not just those who can afford to pay,' the Health Secretary said last month. 'There can be no doubt that these drugs will support our shift from sickness to prevention and be a game-changer for millions.'
