Princess of Wales bursts into laughter after presenting sprig of shamrock Irish Guards
Catherine, who is colonel of the regiment, missed the celebrations last year after being diagnosed with cancer.
The princess, who is gradually returning to public duties following her treatment, presented traditional sprigs of shamrock to officers and guardsmen at the Wellington Barracks in London on Monday.
The princess appeared to be in fine spirits as she was seen laughing with the guards, before kneeling down to pet Turlough Mór, the Irish Wolfhound who works as the regiment's mascot.
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Scotsman
5 hours ago
- Scotsman
Monifieth care home colleagues scoop coveted awards
Catherine Lappin, General Manager at South Grange Care Home in Monifieth has been crowned General Manager of the Year for the North East & Scotland Division in the Barchester Care Awards 2025 and is through to the national round of judging. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Sam McLean, Head of Maintenance at South Grange care home has also been crowned Maintenance Champion of the year for the North East & Scotland Division. The Barchester Care Awards celebrate the staff who go the extra mile for the benefit of the 13,500 residents living in Barchester's 267 care homes and private hospitals across the country. Categories range from 'Registered Nurse of the Year' and 'Carer of the Year' to 'Dementia Care Champion' and 'Activities Coordinator of the Year'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Over 5,000 nominations were received from homes and hospitals across the UK. All entries were a very high standard and both Catherine and Sam are over the moon to have been named the winners for the North East & Scotland Division beating hundreds of other nominees. BHC As the winners for North East & Scotland Division, Catherine and Sam are through to the national finals in which the overall winner is decided. They will join winners from across the UK at a special awards event in October to celebrate their outstanding achievements and discover if they have won a national award. Gill Conway, Senior Activity Coordinator said: 'This is an amazing achievement and the whole home is supporting Catherine and Sam. We are so proud of them both. They both deserve the recognition for all of their hard work they put into South Grange'
Daily Mirror
14-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
'My baby son almost died from measles - it's a terror no child should have'
As concerns grow over a recent measles outbreak in the UK, mum and author Catherine Cooper has shared her experiences of caring for her baby through measles, and the anger she felt towards those responsible It's been 22 years, and Catherine Cooper has never forgotten when her eldest child, Toby, contracted measles. Now she has a stern warning for anti-vax parents who actively choose not to vaccinate their children against potentially deadly diseases. Toby was just eight months old when he caught measles, a highly infectious and potentially harmful viral illness that begins with cold-like symptoms and then a rash. Catherine, now 54, believes Toby became infected at the creche at the gym she used to go to, back when the family was living in South London. At the time, Catherine's "normal little baby" was too young to have the MMR vaccine, which offers protection against measles, mumps, and rubella. Looking back, the distressing situation she found herself in makes her angry. READ MORE: 'My daughter died after getting measles as a baby - this is my plea' Sunday Times bestselling author Catherine, who now lives in the South of France, told the Mirror:" I don't think I was a particularly fretful mother. I mean, obviously, he was my first child, but I wasn't someone who was overly fretful. I wasn't someone who was at the doctor every five minutes or anything with him." Although Toby had had all the vaccinations he was supposed to have in the first few months of his life, but had to wait until he was one to have his MMR jab. Catherine noticed there was something up when Toby developed a rash, red eyes and a temperature, and took him to the doctor's. She recalled: "He was obviously ill, but normally if he was ill, I'd give him Calpol and keep an eye on him and normally, like most babies, he'd be better later that day or the next day. "But that time, I think maybe it was because of the rash, I thought, 'No, that's not really right, he needs to go to the doctor'." Catherine thankfully managed to get a doctor's appointment quite quickly. She was also fortunate in that their "doctors were pretty good, particularly with babies". After ringing the GP's surgery and informing them that her baby had a rash, Catherine and Toby were brought in quite quickly. She remembered: "I remember somebody, I think it was probably the doctor, saying, 'Okay, let's see that baby with the rash next because we don't want him sitting around in the waiting room'. So I took him in, and it was a middle-aged doctor, and she said, 'Well, you know, I'm sorry to tell you, but it looks like he's got measles'." Expressing the shock she felt upon hearing this distressing news, Catherine added: "I was like, 'what?' Because, as far as I was concerned, that was something that didn't really happen anymore. It was really rare. And she actually said, 'Do you mind if I show my colleague, who is a younger doctor, because she's probably never seen a case of measles before?'. And I said, 'No, that's fine'. So she brought her in and they had a look at him." The stunned mum was then told to take her child home and care for him there, all while keeping "a close eye on him". After a quiet week of being treated with Calpol and lots of rest, Toby came out the other side absolutely fine. She knows, however, that things could have been very different, and that her son had been very "lucky". In severe cases, measles can result in serious complications, including meningitis, blindness, pneumonia and seizures. A child recently died at Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital from measles, which has expressed alarm over "the increasing number of children and young people who are contracting measles". For Catherine, this incident brings back dreadful memories. At the time when little Toby fell ill, South London was something of a "hot spot" for parents who weren't getting their kids vaccinated. This was back when many still followed the advice of anti-vaccine activist and fraudster Andrew Wakefield, whose 1998 Lancet MMR autism study inaccurately linked autism to the MMR vaccine. Alarmist publicity over this widely debunked study resulted in a steep decline in vaccination uptake, resulting in various measles outbreaks. Between the years 1996 and 2002, rates of MMR vaccination dropped from 91.8 per cent to 81 per cent in England and Wales. In some regions, including in London, the coverage rate dropped to less than 60 per cent. For parents like Catherine, who fully support vaccinations, they too were left suffering as outbreaks spread into creches and nurseries. She's now urged others to consider other people's children as well as their own before making what is all too often viewed as an individual choice. Catherine said, "It hadn't been my choice. He wasn't old enough for MMR. If I had chosen for him not to have MMR, then I would have blamed myself, but I didn't because he wasn't old enough, so I blamed whoever had made that choice, almost for him, really. "And I think this is what people don't really appreciate, is they're not only making a choice for their own child, they're making a choice for all the other children or people that that child potentially comes into contact with. "And particularly if you're really immunosuppressed or if you have other illnesses, it can be particularly dangerous. But even for a healthy child, it can be dangerous." Disgraced Wakefield was struck off the medical register for "serious professional misconduct" in 2010, following an inquiry by the General Medical Council (GMC), while The Lancet has now fully retracted Wakefield's discredited study. Unfortunately, Wakefield's shadow still looms large and, in a world of widespread misinformation, experts have noted a disturbing trend. Indeed, as per the UK Health Security Agency, there were 2,911 laboratory-confirmed measles cases in England in 2024 - the highest annual number on record since 2012. With a wealth of readily available information at their fingertips, one could presume that today's parents would have the ability to research and debunk myths with greater ease than those before them. Catherine isn't surprised to find this isn't the case. Her own painful experiences have left her with "an almost unhealthy interest" in misinformation and conspiracy theories. She explained: "It's mainly the growth of social media. It's now very easy to take your theory and get it out there, and if you do it in the right way, I mean, the right way for you, people will believe it. I think back in the day, I guess these people probably still existed, but they couldn't get their message out quite so rampantly. "In some ways it is surprising because with the internet it should be easy to keep yourself informed, but in some ways it's not surprising because there's so much bad information out there that's very easily accessible and of course, the way the algorithms work, once you start looking at this thing, you're fed more and more and more until it becomes self-perpetuating." Toby is now a 23-year-old engineering student, but for Catherine, the memory of caring for her sick baby remains, and the ordeal has had a significant impact on her life. It even inspired part of the plot of her second novel, The Chateau - although you'll have to purchase the twisty thriller for yourself to find out more. The fictional world aside, Catherine now takes every opportunity she sees to spread awareness about the importance of vaccinations and tackling health misinformation. However, she admits it isn't always easy to persuade those who are already stuck in this fixed mindset. She reflected: "It seems to have blown up so much, particularly since Covid. I do think it's a worry because once somebody's got into this mindset, it's very, very hard to get them out of it. While I do like to speak about my experience of this, part of me knows that it's probably not going to make that much difference because people who are really, really ingrained in it are going to just be like, 'Oh okay, well she would say that'." Issuing a warning to others, Catherine continued: "I think people kind of have the attitude of, 'Oh, it won't happen to me, it won't happen to my child, and it does happen. Toby was lucky; he was fine, but some children aren't."
Daily Record
14-07-2025
- Daily Record
Dumfries shopper raises hundreds of pounds for charity with Aldi's Supermarket Sweep
Catherine Handleigh took part in a five-minute trolley dash for Children's Hospices Across Scotland. A Dumfries shopper has raised hundreds of pounds for charity with an Aldi Supermarket Sweep. Catherine Handleigh took part in a five-minute trolley dash inspired by the popular TV gameshow for Children's Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS). And as well as taking home a trolley full of goodies worth £559.59 for herself, Aldi Scotland donated the cash equivalent of Catherine's haul to CHAS. Every year, the charity supports more than 500 babies, children and young people across Scotland with life-shortening conditions and their families. Every penny raised through the Aldi scheme this year will go directly to CHAS, with £10,000 pledged in support. CHAS medical director, Annabel Howell, said: 'We're so grateful to Aldi Scotland and to Catherine for raising such a fantastic amount through the Supermarket Sweep in Dumfries. 'CHAS currently supports 12 families in the Dumfries area, and this kind of local fundraising helps us continue delivering specialist palliative care in family homes, in our two hospices, and in partnership with NHS teams in Scotland's three children's hospitals. 'With the support of partners like Aldi, we can be there for families facing the unimaginable, offering expert care, compassion and comfort every step of the way.' Aldi Scotland group buying director, Graham Nicolson, added: 'Our annual Supermarket Sweep holds a special place in the Aldi calendar, and we're so pleased to bring it back for another year. "Congratulations to Catherine who managed to raise a fantastic £559 for CHAS, while snapping up a whole load of Aldi favourites for herself. 'CHAS is an incredible organisation which does invaluable work for families in Scotland. "We are committed to raising as much money as possible so the charity can continue to provide vital hospice care to children with life-shortening conditions, and unwavering support to families during the most difficult moments imaginable.'
