Latest news with #Beckenham
Hans India
4 days ago
- Sport
- Hans India
Long way to go before racism is rooted out: Roland Butcher
Beckenham Forty five years after becoming the first Black cricketer to play for England, Roland Butcher says there is still a long way to go before racism is rooted out of the game and British society in general. Butcher, who shuttles between his native Barbados and the United Kingdom, is currently in England spreading the message of an inclusive society through his autobiography -– 'Breaking Barriers: Barbados to England and Back'. Speaking to PTI, the 71-year-old, who made history by playing three Tests and as many ODIs for England, looked back at his early days as a black cricketer in the '70s and '80s, his last minute withdrawal from the rebel tour of South Africa in the apartheid era and how his story opened the doors for the younger generations who went on to play for the country. 'I am pragmatic enough to understand that something doesn't just finish just like that. The only thing that would finish anything in a hurry is a meteorite. But everything takes time and you chip away at it,' said Butcher, a former batter. 'Racism has been chipped away in England by a foreign person since the 1950s. We're in 2025 and we're still talking about it. So that tells you just how long the process is. 'I think it's a never-ending process. It's one that has to be worked at all the time. So, you know, you've got to keep chipping away. We've got it to this point, but there's still a long way to go.' Butcher was among the many in the cricketing world that were shocked by racism allegations made by Karachi-born cricketer Azeem Rafiq against his county team Yorkshire in 2020, leading to multiple resignations at the club.
The Sun
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Snooker legend's grandson gets England cricket call-up and receives first cap from icon Graeme Swann
CRICKET icon Graeme Swann handed a debut England Test cap to young cricketer Ralphie Albert on Sunday - the grandson of Snooker legend Jimmy White. White took to X to celebrate the moment with an image of the cap's exchange taking place. 5 5 He was delighted for his grandson, who received the cap following his appearance for England U19s on Sunday. The six-time world championship runner-up captioned the post: "Proud day as my grandson Ralphie gets his first England cap for the under 21's from Graeme Swann." Albert took 3/95 on the first day of his squad's first Test against India U19s in Beckenham. Just 17 years old, Albert plays his county cricket as part of Surrey's academy. The left-arm spinner received his cap from Swann, an England cricket icon with 255 wickets to his name in 60 Test appearances. Swann bowled a right-arm off-break for England, Nottinghamshire and his native Northamptonshire between 1998-2013 A big character, Swann was more recently seen on the national stage on Strictly Come Dancing, where he finished seventh. 5 5 Snooker star White is also branching out from his day job. The much-loved potter still plays and has been given a tour card for another year by snooker supremo Barry Hearn JOIN SUN VEGAS: GET £50 BONUS But the Londoner is also set to go up against old rival Steve Davis in a completely different field. The pair are set to go head to head in a DJ clash next month at a music festival where an England football legend will also be on the bill. 5 The 63-year-old, nicknamed 'the whirlwind,' still plays professional snooker, but was relegated from the World Snooker Tour earlier this year due to his results.
Telegraph
19-06-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
City executive sues plumbers after £1m house ‘made family seriously ill'
A former City executive has filed a legal claim against the plumbers who allegedly fitted faulty pipes that leaked excrement through her £1 million home, making her family seriously ill. Danielle Mensah, 45, is also suing the developers who sold her the five-bedroom home in Beckenham, Kent, a decade ago. Mrs Mensah, who has been named in the top 100 women in the City, claims a botched soil pipe from the bathroom toilet caused a build-up of waste that made her whole family unwell. The case alleges that exposure to the waste left the family with chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS) – a condition not recognised in mainstream European medicine. The family said the offending soil pipe was hidden by boxwork and a wall, but still omitted toxins and mould which over time caused symptoms including fatigue, frequent urination, headaches, blurred vision, diarrhoea and vertigo. Mrs Mensah and her husband, Daniel, have initiated a claim of more than £200,000 against plumbers RG Evans and developers Linden Home. The couple, who are parents to children aged eight and two, moved into the development of 48 detached houses in May 2015. According to their High Court claim, both started to develop strange, debilitating symptoms. Mrs Mensah, who now works as a leadership coach, is said to have started experiencing fatigue and blurred vision, while needing to get up 15 times each night to go to the loo, alongside headaches, cramping, vertigo and cognitive problems which cumulatively caused her to take time off work in 2020. She claims to still require treatment for digestive issues, tiredness, insomnia, weakness, headaches and a deficient working memory, as well as anxiety about being reinfected. Her 40-year-old husband also suffered insomnia, frequent urination and fatigue, as well as mood swings, constipation and sweating, but has seen his condition improve from treatment such as cognitive behavioural therapy. Mr Mensah first noticed staining in an en suite bathroom in 2020. A tradesman then allegedly found that the soil pipe had not been solvent-welded and was propped up by plasterboard rather than being fixed by a bracket. Readings conducted by a company called Building Forensics Report found potential contamination from black water and levels of potentially toxic bacteria were between 10 and 100 times the usual level, according to court documents. A survey using a 'Mouldscope'' revealed a 'red' high mould concentration in all rooms bar one, with none showing the green expected for a residential property, the couple claimed. The family said they were advised to sell their home, moving out in November 2020 and into temporary accommodation. The family has accused both the plumbers and developers of negligence and breach of contract or duty, and are seeking damages for their injuries and the distress and inconvenience caused. Vistry Group, Linden's parent company, has said: 'This matter is the subject of active court proceedings and, on that basis, we decline to comment.'
Daily Mail
19-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE City high flyer sues plumbers and developers for £200,000 over £1m five-bedroom home 'that made her family so ill they had to go to the toilet 15 times a night'
A former high-flying City executive has launched a legal claim against the plumbers who fitted out her new home and the developers who sold it to her, claiming the £1 million house made her and her family seriously ill. Danielle Mensah, 45, spent two decades in finance as an international senior trader, and was named as one of the top 100 women in the City. But after moving into a luxury detached five-bedroom, four-bathroom home in Beckenham, Kent, she and her family say they became ill with a cocktail of mental and physical symptoms. According to their case, they have been diagnosed with chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS) as a result of exposure to toxins in their home. While CIRS is not a formal diagnosis in mainstream medicine, the symptoms and underlying issues it causes are recognized. The couple claim their symptoms were caused by a badly-fitted soil pipe from the bathroom toilet which blocked with human waste and then leaked - but was hidden from view by box work and the wall itself. A waste pipe from a sink also leaked. Now mother-of-two Mrs Mensah, formerly Ballardie, and her husband Daniel are suing plumbers RG Evans and Linden Home for damages, valuing their claim at more than £200,000. They say they had to sell their home and move away because of their illness, and Ms Mensah says she struggled to work because of her condition, and in 2020 was forced to take time off work. She still needs treatment, and suffers from tiredness, weakness, insomnia, headaches, digestive issues, and her working memory is sub-optimal. The couple, who are parents to Maverick, eight, and two-year-old Zara, moved into the property in May 2015, an imposing home spread over three floors, part of a development of 48 detached houses, but say their home was defective. Both developed a variety of symptoms, with Mrs Mensah suffering fatigue, then exhaustion, frequent urination and needing to get up about 15 times each night to go to the loo, headaches, cramping, pains, blurred vision, diarrhoea, vertigo, and cognitive problems. She now works as a leadership coach and speaker after a twenty-year career in finance. Mr Mensah, 40, suffered from fatigue and mood swings, insomnia, frequent urination, and sweating, and his symptoms increased when he spent more time at home during lockdown, according to their High Court claim. Their child Maverick also suffered similar symptoms and is likely to sue Linden and the plumbers separately, the court will hear. Ms Mensah noticed water staining in an ensuite bedroom in 2020, and was told it was water leaking from the soil pipe from the toilet and basin. A tradesman discovered that the soil pipe came apart in his hands at a joint which hadn't been solvent-welded and was completely bunged up with human waste. The pipe had been propped up with plasterboard packing rather than being fixed with a bracket, the claim says. A company called Building Forensics Report said the soil pipe had leaked black water with human bacteroids, high particle counts indicating a possible spread of contamination, and there were potentially toxic moulds on the upper floors where there was also high specific humidity. Levels of potentially toxic bacteria were between 10 and 100 times usual readings, according to the report. A survey using a 'Mouldscope' showed high mould concentrations in rooms rated red in every room except one, which was yellow - with none showing green, the normal level to be expected in a residential property. On the advice of experts, the Mensah family moved out of the house on November 10, 2020, and into temporary accommodation and blame the housebuilders and plumbers for their injuries. They accuse both of negligence and breach of contract or duty, claiming the soil pipe and basin waste were not installed in a workmanlike and professional manner, and failed to ensure the property was fit for human habitation. Mrs Mensah says her condition, chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS), affects the immune system and leads to overproduction of cytokines. She has also suffered a psychological reaction, with anxiety about being reinfected with toxic mould. Her husband's condition has significantly improved as he underwent treatment including cognitive behavioural therapy, but his verbal memory is significantly below his expected optimal level, the court will hear. He also suffers from skin issues, aching, constipation, fatigue, and insomnia. Both are seeking damages for their injuries as well as damages for the distress and inconvenience of having to leave their home in November 2020, and for the inconvenience of having to occupy a series of temporary homes. RG Evans declined to comment but are expected to defend the claim. A spokesperson for Linden Homes' parent company Vistry Group told MailOnline: 'This matter is the subject of active court proceedings and, on that basis, we decline to comment.'
The Sun
15-06-2025
- Health
- The Sun
My family is haunted by finding my 9-month-old brother dead in his cot after we put him to sleep the wrong way
I WILL never forget the morning we found my nine-month-old brother Neil dead in his cot. Mum had come to wake me first so we could get the baby up and dressed together. 6 6 I was three and a big girl now, with big sister responsibilities and a grown up-looking bedroom with orange flowery wallpaper - the sort interior designers now call retro. I was already awake, and I held mum's hand as we walked to Neil's room. She let me go in first. I peeked over the top of the cot and said: 'Neil's not there, where is he?' Mum rushed over, pulled the blanket back and her face was frozen. It was so scary. Did I scream or was it her? Someone screamed. And then it becomes a blur. The shockwaves of that morning continue to affect our family, from Beckenham, London, over 40 years later. It was February 1973, and cot deaths, as they were then referred to, were something that happened to other people, spoken about in hushed tones, and, let's be honest, often viewed with an element of suspicion. It was also a time when the best-selling book on babies, which had pride of place on my parent's bookshelf, told mums and dads to put tots to sleep on their stomachs and wrap them up warmly. In 2025, thank goodness, there is far more awareness of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) - the sudden and unexpected death of a baby where no cause is found - which killed my brother. We now know the safest way is on their backs and a cool environment, with no danger of overheating, but SIDS still affects around 200 families every year in the UK, and the emotional toll of the losses remains as difficult as ever. Beautiful' baby boy dies after mum fell asleep cuddling him into her when he woke up crying in the night After Neil died, my mum Carol and dad Ian became advocates for the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, which is now The Lullaby Trust. Dad, a journalist, wrote a heart-wrenching story for the local newspaper, which described that terrible morning. I even stayed up 'late' with nan and grandpa to watch him speak about it on the BBC TV show Nationwide, and there were numerous bake sales at local fetes to raise funds. When my brother Andrew came along in 1974, I think it was this very newspaper that published an article with a photo of our family alongside an article about how it's possible to exist after losing a child. We looked happy - but the problem was, we were falling apart. We'd had no proper support, no room to grieve, and we still had so many questions about how and why Neil was gone. This came to something of a halt when dad's job took us to live in Paris. A line of some sort was drawn, except, of course, it wasn't. We were left with the black silent hole of his absence. There was nothing that could fill the ghastliness of my son not crying CarolNeil's mum Mum threw herself into Paris life. She had learnt French as a teenager and had already lived there in the 60s, working as a bilingual secretary for the Ariane space project. But she had changed. I knew it, and I could feel it more and more as I grew older. Dad's job, now foreign correspondent, took the family to different places - Brussels, Jerusalem, Bonn. Mum played the part of the supportive other half, but she had lost her mojo. She'd had all sorts of ambitions - teacher training college, a master's degree, the job for Arianne - but she never really went back to work. Over time, she stopped being sporty, when she used to play tennis, hockey and swim a lot, and she put on weight. There was drinking, perhaps not that unusual in an expat journalist house in the 70s and 80s, but still, it was different. Don't get me wrong, Andrew and I had a marvellous childhood, full of love, fun holidays, travel, fascinating people, and lively chats. But as we got older, we could feel the tension growing between mum and dad. 6 6 One day, there was yet another stressful exchange between our parents, with mum flouncing off to bed. This time, Dad, teary-eyed, said: 'She has never been the same since Neil died.' I was stunned. I had never heard him say Neil's name before. I must have been about 18. I'd grown up used to saying: 'Oh yes, I had a brother who died of cot death,' without really connecting the words with my memory of that morning or my understanding of what it must have done to my parents. After that, I did ask a few more questions. My aunt sent me that first article dad had written; my uncle agreed that mum was never the same since Neil's sudden death. Then, in 2000, Dad died, aged just 59, of cancer. He missed meeting his first grandchild, my daughter, Izzy, by four months. What is sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)? Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden and unexpected death of a baby under the age of 12 months where no cause is found. Around 89 per cent of deaths happen when the tot is under six months old. It is relatively rare, with 182 babies dying from SIDS in the UK in 2021. While doctors don't know exactly what triggers it, there are ways to significantly reduce the chances of SIDS occurring: Put your baby on their back for all sleeps - day and night Share a room with your baby for the first six months Place your baby on their own, clear, flat sleep surface (e.g. cot or Moses basket) Keep your baby smoke-free during pregnancy and after birth Never sleep on a sofa or armchair Do not co-sleep if you or anyone in the bed has been drinking alcohol, smoking, or taking drugs or medication that makes you drowsy These things are especially important for babies who were born prematurely or of a low birth weight, as they are typically at higher risk of SIDS. Source: The Lullaby Trust Again, this was all played out in public, with dad writing his final article days before he left us. He described his feelings, the ones he wouldn't talk to us about, to the readers of The Times newspaper. In that article, he wrote: 'My pregnant daughter has a little lump inside her kicking and fighting for life. 'I have a little lump in me which is kicking and fighting for my life and it will win.' He must have been thinking about Neil, but, again, we did not talk about it. Dad's death catapulted mum into a deep despair. More drink, angry moods, strange behaviour, until eventually, she moved to a home in Deal, Kent, where she left us in February 2025. Did my mum resent me because I survived? In her last years, mum had started talking about Neil, but our relationship was so strained by then, I didn't have the courage to ask her more. Did she resent me because I survived? Was she worried that Andrew might feel he was here because Neil wasn't? Did she blame dad for the media coverage? So many questions. In the end, I asked none. Who could ever get over the death of a child? I can't imagine anything happening to my amazing three children, Alfie, Maddie and Izzy, or to my brilliant niece and nephew, currently living, as fate would have it, in Paris. My family's experience could have turned me into an anxious mother. But by the time Izzy arrived, there was so much good advice on how to keep babies safe when they are sleeping, I was able to build a bedtime and sleep routine quickly, and with confidence. It's thanks to The Lullaby Trust, the charity that mum and dad were such great advocates for in its early days. We were pleased to reconnect with them when mum died to make them the beneficiaries of all donations for her. It was at mum's funeral that I met her friend from the local writer's club. She asked me if I had read mum's story, written as part of their '17 minutes series', where members were given 17 minutes to write something down. 6 You have heard my story, now here is my mum's. Carol Anne Murray, mum of three, survived by two, written in 17 minutes, 45 years after losing her son, Neil. We talked together, Ian and I. We spoke about everything under the sun, except for the one great hole that was in our lives. How could it have happened? We had a beautiful daughter, chatty and bubbly. We now had a son. How wonderfully lucky, we thought, one of each. How neat. But then, one morning, I went to his cot to get him up and there was no response. The unbelievable had happened. Why? How? I screamed. Ian came upstairs. He was silent. It was then that I knew he had already gone into the bedroom and found what I had found. He had gone downstairs in disbelief. We called an ambulance, of course. We hoped desperately that something could be done. But what could they do? They just swaddled him and took him away. We were left with the black silent hole of his absence. Later that day the doctor told us that it was certainly a case of SIDS. It now had a name. But that was all. There was nothing that could fill the ghastliness of his not crying. Neil had cried a lot. I wondered if his crying had been a warning. Had he known all along he would die? But there was no going back, his absence was so obvious. Our daughter's tears said it all. We would never be able to see him again. One day, as we walked home from nursery, we passed by a dead pigeon. 'Hmmmm,' she commented. 'He's just like Neil Bruce John, he won't move again either.' Her philosophical analysis became an acceptance. We went on to have another son a year later. Forty years later I still feel it, just as if it had happened yesterday. I have never forgotten Neil Bruce John. The ABCs of safer sleep EXPERT help is freely available from The Lullaby Trust, which exists to keep babies safe by offering advice, and support grieving families. By investing more than £12million in research, the charity has overseen the reduction of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) by 80 per cent, saving 30,000 babies since 1991. It wants all families to know the ABCs of safer sleep: A lways sleep your baby on their b ack, in a c lear cot or sleep space. Following these rules, day and night, will help reduce the risk of SIDS. If you are grieving, you can find support on The Lullaby Trust website, by calling the bereavement helpline on 0808 802 6868, or emailing support@ 6
