Latest news with #Debra
BBC News
3 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Teen's skin blister disease stops her from writing and walking
A 13-year-old girl has spoken out about her rare skin condition and the "awful pain" it causes to raise from Stroud in Gloucestershire, has epidermolysis bullosa simplex (EB), which causes painful blisters on the hands and feet. On particularly bad days, she is unable to write, put her shoes on or walk, relying on a wheelchair instead."Its two main causes are heat and friction, so it gets a bit better in winter, but in summer it's really, really bad," she said. To prevent pain and more blisters, Naomi follows a daily routine of lancing her feet blisters and dressing mother, Carly, first noticed a problem when she developed blisters on her hands as she learned to crawl. "We thought, this isn't right, this is different to a normal kind of reaction to something, so we really pushed to get through to a dermatologist who then, luckily, had had training in EB, but had never seen it before," Carly said. Further tests confirmed that Naomi, then just six months old, had condition is often misdiagnosed as other skin problems such as eczema or 5,000 are thought to have EB in the UK. It is also known as butterfly skin, as the skin is fragile like butterfly wings, blistering at the slightest touch. There is currently no mother is now head of a patient support group for Debra, an EB charity carrying out research into the disease. Recalling a woman who was diagnosed in her 50s, Carly said: "She's lived in pain for all that time, not knowing what it is, being told 'you have funny feet, just deal with it'. "That's heartbreaking really, that people are told that kind of thing and aren't given the help they could get if they just knew." But she added: "[The patients] are so positive in the face of adversity and I'm amazed by them every day."
Wall Street Journal
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘El Dorado Drive' Review: A Risky Ride on the Wheel
It is 2008, in the early months of the recession, another way of saying that the residents of the very confidently named El Dorado Drive, on the tattered edges of Detroit's east side, have seen better days. The group includes Pam Bishop, a 42-year-old divorced mother of two, whose pugilistic ex-husband is in high arrears on child-custody payments. Though Pam lacks financial support, she can always count on emotional support from her older sister, Debra, and her younger sister, Harper, from whose vantage point Megan Abbott's muted thriller 'El Dorado Drive' unspools. Money—that is to say money's absence—defines the sisters' lives. The Bishops grew up in an affluent Detroit suburb, but golden places often have short leases. Their father lost his auto-industry job in an earlier downturn and died soon after. At the start of the novel, Debra is drowning in debt from her husband's cancer treatment and Harper is struggling to pay back a secret loan from a secret source for a secret reason. Ebullient, gregarious Pam had married well, but her hotshot husband came a cropper in several business ventures. Divorce followed. So did the move from a mansion to a ramshackle rental on El Dorado Drive. Yet when Harper, a riding instructor, returns to Detroit after several weeks away teaching equestrian skills at a camp in rural Michigan, she is baffled to see Pam in new clothes and a new car—granted, a leased car. Pam's good fortune comes courtesy of 'the Wheel,' which bills itself as a women's empowerment group. It all seems great if you don't look too closely or ask too many questions. But then Pam ends up dead.
Metro
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
Shocking story behind Jennifer Aniston's latest role as a 'narcissistic mother'
An eight-year-old Jennette McCurdy sits in the car with her mother, Debra, stuck in traffic on a long drive home. It's been a tough day for the little girl – she screwed up her audition for the latest network police drama, Without A Trace. These sorts of auditions were usually bread and butter for a child star like herself: Jenette was petite and cute, with big blue eyes that could well up with fat, blinking tears on cue. But today, her heart wasn't in it. She couldn't cry in front of the casting director. The audition went badly, with Jennette explaining in her own words that she had 'tanked'. Now sat in a frosty silence with mum Debra, the littel girl is compelled to speak: 'I don't want to act anymore,' she says. Debra's face contorts, 'like she had just eaten a lemon', Jennette remembers. Then the screaming starts. It's a reaction the young actor was more than used to. While this was all a familiar scene, it didn't make it any less scary. So, after making her declaration, Jenette quickly backs down, muttering to her mother to 'forget she ever said anything'. Almost instantly, the mood changes, and Debra starts giddily singing along to a Phil Collins song like the moment never happened. This harrowing moment is just one tale from Jennette McCurdy's memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died, a breath-takingly frank and painfully truthful account of life under an abusive and manipulative parent who pushes her daughter into the cutthroat and problematic industry of child acting. Just this week it was announced that the 2022 book, which spent over 80 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, was being brought to screen as an Apple TV+ drama. Jennifer Aniston will not only be executive producer, but also star in the 10-part series as her narcissistic mother, with Jennette also on board as a co-writer. By day, Jennette was a hugely adored child star, becoming a household name across the globe as the wisecracking tomboy Sam Puckett on Nickelodeon series iCarly, eventually landing her own spin-off series, Sam & Cat, alongside Ariana Grande. While it looked as if the actor was living every child's dream, reality was far more painful for Jennette. As well as having to navigate her mum's outbursts, manipulations and abusive behaviour, she also found life on a hit children's TV show, and dealing with directors, producers and executives, increasingly difficult. Eight years after her departure from the world of children's TV and with the world of acting firmly in her past, Jennette turned her attentions to writing, with I'm Glad My Mom Died exploring the struggles she faced as an abused child in a similarly abusive industry. The book's title is designed to disarm, with the iCarly star detailing the horror she suffered at the hands of Debra, who passed away in 2013, both darkly comic and deeply heart-breaking in equal measure. When Jennette was just two years old, her mother was diagnosed with aggressive, stage four breast cancer. She nearly died from the disease, with some of her behaviours manifesting following her treatment. Having seen her mother suffer so much had a huge impact on the child star, who was desperate to make her happy. In the early chapters of I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recalls her sixth birthday party, where she wished her mum could stay alive another year as she blew out the candles on her birthday cake. The fear of loss meant the former child star acquiesced to mother's demands, even if it made Jennette feel uncomfortable: agreeing to become an actor, taking up 14 dance classes a week, being pushed to audition for shows, even letting her mother wipe her bottom and clean her in the shower until she was 16, as to not upset her. Jennette speaks openly in the book about how such pressure resulted in anxiety, shame and self-loathing, which then manifests in alcohol addiction and poor relationships. Her anorexia and bulimia, which got so bad she rotted a tooth from constant vomiting, was directly instilled by her mother from an early age. Debra, who weighed 6.5 stone herself, encouraged strict calorie counting when Jennette was pre-pubescent so she could keep landing herself younger roles, and was seen as a way for them to 'bond' as they both shared small salads to keep their weight down. While Jennette knew her attitude to food was deeply unhealthy, she struggled for years to recover, constantly relapsing. Defying her mother's wills, be it about food or anything else, gave Jennette brief pleasure, she explains in the book – but she also carried a long-term fear of Debra finding out. When her cancer returned, any of Jennette's perceived 'wrongdoings' (such as putting on weight or having secret boyfriends) became a stick Debra was more than willing to beat her daughter with – despite Jennette's success meaning she was effectively the sole provider of their family's income. In one vicious email exchange, Debra tells her: 'YOU caused my cancer to come back. I hope you're happy knowing this. YOU have to live with this fact. YOU gave me cancer. 'PS: reminder to send fridge money. Our yoghurt has soured.' In an interview following the book's publication, Jennette acknowledged her mother may have had mental health issues of her own. 'She never sought help, never worked on any of her stuff,' she explained. 'I completely empathise with mental illness, but the fact that she didn't try to change it, that's a more complicated feeling for me.' Within the book, we also see Jennette seek therapy to try and tend to some of the wounds her mother left entrenched after she dies from cancer aged 56. The first therapist she goes to listens as she describes her mother's behaviour in detail, before broaching the idea that, maybe, her mother was an abuser. It's a concept Jennette couldn't comprehend. 'My whole life, my entire existence has been orientated to the narrative that Mom wants what's best for me,' she writes. 'If she didn't… that means my entire life, entire point of view, entire identity has been built on a false foundation.' It may have taken a long time, but the actor says she has finally come to terms with her childhood trauma – although she hasn't entirely forgiven Debra for what she suffered at her hands. In the book, Jennette acknowledges she has reached a point where she can sit within the two complex and conflicting opinions she has of her mother. She understands how Debra treated her was deeply wrong, and yet still misses her because she admired some of her qualities: her infectious happiness, her pep talks and childlike spirit. Now, without having to appease a controlling mother, Jennette is able to live her life in a way she chooses to, discovering her true identity. Living in Los Angeles, she has signed a two-book deal following the success of her memoir, and hosted two podcasts, Empty Inside and Hard Feelings, both of which explore difficult and taboo topics. And, of course, there's the TV series based on her book. In their announcement, Apple said: 'The dramedy will centre on the codependent relationship between an 18-year-old actress in a hit kid's show, and her narcissistic mother who relishes in her identity as 'a starlet's mother'.' More Trending Looking back on her life, Jennette confessed in a 2022 interview: 'I genuinely felt I had no identity without my mom. I didn't know who I was. I felt terrified, incompetent and incapable. 'Eventually, the process for me was realising that those feelings were her conditioning. That was her voice, not mine, but it took a long time to get to a place where I could identify that I was, and am, glad that she died.' I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (Simon and Schuster) is available to buy from all good bookshops. View More » A version of this article first appeared in September 2022 . MORE: Dark TV show 'compared to Ozark' dominates Netflix charts MORE: My date saw nothing wrong with him and his mum's sleeping arrangement MORE: 'It's all I've been watching': TV fans crown the best streaming service
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bride Questions Friendship After Friend Leaves Wedding Twice. Then She Skips Her Pal's Birthday Celebration
A bride is upset over her friends leaving her wedding party twice In response, the bride and her new wife opted not to go to their friend's birthday celebration Commenters weighed in on the situation via Reddit, where the majority were uncertain who, if anyone, was in the wrongOne bride may be holding a grudge for no reason. A 25-year-old woman shared on Reddit's "Am I the A------" forum that she is skipping her friend's birthday party after she ditched her wedding twice. The woman said she married her partner, a 24-year-old woman, in an intimate ceremony with only eight guests. After the ceremony, the group went to a nearby conservatory so the couple could take photos. During that time, two guests, Bailey and Debra, "started to have their own photoshoot literally in front of us." The bride cheered them on, but Debra got embarrassed and stopped posing for photos. When the wedding shoot was over, the brides noticed that their two friends had left. "All of our families and other friends were very upset that the two of them left but we just played it off like it was okay and that is just how they are," she wrote. Later, the group went to a bar for an afterparty. The original poster (OP) wrote that Debra and Bailey arrived late, but were still chatty and participated in the games. During the party, Bailey mentioned that she was planning to celebrate Debra's birthday party. The date happened to fall on the same day the brides were "looking to go on a trip." But the trip was not planned, so the brides said they "should be able to go." Shortly after, Debra returned to the group and complained about the price of the drinks at the venue. The evening continued and the OP wrote that Debra and Bailey expressed that they were hungry. However, the brides said they did not want to get food at the venue. Debra and Bailey then decided to see a friend who was bartending nearby and said they'd be "right back." The brides found out from the bar that their two friends had closed their tab. Later that night, Debra and Bailey told them that they would not be "coming back to the house with everyone" because they were heading home instead. The OP and her wife ultimately decided to go on their last-minute "little honeymoon weekend" that fell on the same date as Debra's birthday. But when they let their friends know, the two ignored their text messages. Now, the woman is wondering if she's in the wrong for "not going to Deb's birthday after they left our wedding celebration not once but twice." People in the comments were quick to criticize the entire group, stating that they were all in the wrong, but also noting that the brides did not plan a very welcoming wedding. "They weren't being good guests but you don't sound like a great hosts," one person said. "You should have covered the tab for the drinks after the wedding. You didn't even feed your guests." Another stated that the poster was in the wrong, "but not for skipping the birthday." The commenter wrote, "Did they know ahead of time that absolutely nothing would be provided at your wedding? From your writing, it sounds like people watched your wedding, then had to watch you get photographed, then went to a spot where no food or drinks were covered." They added: "Most people would've declined that invitation if they knew the whole plan." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories. A third person wrote that the wedding "was selfish and poorly planned." "To be clear, they did not leave your wedding twice. They left your photoshoot and your after party," they wrote. One commentator was more sympathetic to the couple, writing, "As a friend, I would have thought that [Debra and Bailey] would understand that you just got married and would like some time alone. Most of this seems like more of a miscommunication to me." They encouraged the brides to reach out to the couple after their trip. "Have your honeymoon and then make contact to catch up. It's probably nothing at all," the person wrote. Read the original article on People
Daily Record
02-07-2025
- Daily Record
Speedboat driver arrested over death of 'loving' Brit mum in jet ski crash
He has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and being in charge of a boat while under the influence of alcohol. A speedboat driver has been arrested over the death of a "loving" mum who passed away after a crash between the vessel and the jet ski she was riding. Debra Wright died in the arms of her husband Chris after tragedy struck in the Costa Del Sol on Saturday. Chis swam out to her after the incident and held her until she passed away. Guardia Civil in Malaga said Debra had been a passenger on a jet ski which was struck by a speedboat and that, despite efforts to resuscitate her, she was pronounced dead at the scene. And the force has now confirmed that the driver of the speedboat has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and being in charge of a boat while under the influence of alcohol. Liverpool Echo reports that Chris, who is the chair of Ashton Town Football Club, told the Times that he "swam to her to hold her in my arms until she passed away" following the horror crash. Paying tribute to his wife, of Haydock , Merseyside, he told the paper: "My darling wife was a 47-year-old mother of four wonderful sons Stuart, Jack, Josh and Leon and a nanny to seven beautiful grandchildren. She was an incredible sister and doting daughter. "She was our compass, the glue to bind the family. An amazing woman whose glow would fill any room. She was so enigmatic, inspirational and loving. Our family will never be the same." Debra's son, Stu McDonald, also paid tribute to his mum in a post on Facebook which read: "Mum, I never knew how much I needed someone until now, I'm so sorry that I didn't tell you just how much I loved you every single day. You meant the world to me. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. "We've been through it all, I can't even believe I'm even writing this. I'm so angry and upset, totally lost, I don't even know how to move forward without you. "You are my mum, my best friend, I wish I could swap places with you, if I could knowing you would be OK I would do it in a heartbeat. It would be impossible to thank you for everything you have done for us, you loved me when I couldn't love myself. "You've backed me every step of the way. I really hope I made you just the tiniest bit proud. You know I was never one for a Facebook post, but this is just for you. Sleep tight mum, I miss you so much. Life will never be the same without you." Leon Wright, another of Debra's sons, said: "Mum you were one of a kind. Words can't describe how much I'm missing you right now. You were the life and soul of every party, I am so happy to be called your son. "I couldn't have asked for anyone better to be my mum. I just want to say thank you for all the great memories you have given me, thank you for all your support you have given me. "Thank you for all your love you have given and thank you for everything else that you have done for me. I will make sure Riley and Ava know how amazing their Nanny Deb was and they will never forget you." Councillor Danny Fletcher posted on social media: "Extending my heartfelt condolences following the tragic passing of Debra, beloved wife of Ashton Town FC Chairman, Chris Wright. "What an amazing family, done so much for our community. My thoughts are with Chris, his family and everyone at Ashton Town FC. Anything that Wigan Council can do to help, they will be there." In a statement, Ashton Town Football Club said: "It is with deep sadness and a heavy heart that on behalf of Ashton Town FC we announce the tragic death of Debra Wright, the wife of Chris our chairman, who was tragically killed while on holiday in Spain. "Our family are in mourning at this sad time and we ask for time for Chris and his family and everyone at the club to be able to start to come to terms with this tragedy. RIP Debra, fly high sweetheart x."
