Latest news with #KatherineDawson
BBC News
03-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Howden disability basketball team appeal for more players
A basketball team for adults with disabilities is appealing for more members so it can compete in tournaments. Howden Warhorses Friends was set up in East Yorkshire in July 2024 and currently has eight members aged between 26 and 56 years old with disabilities including Down's Syndrome and brain injuries. Katherine Dawson set up the group after her sister Helen, who has Down's Syndrome, was lonely and was not getting much physical exercise. She said: "We just realised that sport has such a value in helping people connect and feel part of a team." The 46-year-old, who is one of a small group of volunteers, said: "She was so lonely before and she found it really difficult. Just having this has been really good, just to see her have friends."She's got so much to give. I think sport allows her to do that in a way that meeting socially, in a pub setting, is just not something she finds easy to do. But get her on a court and she comes alive."The group supports people with disabilities play basketball and gives them opportunities to make friends, have fun and get more physically said she loved playing basketball, especially as "it's a chance to meet my friends every week"."I'm more energetic and better for it," she said. "I'd love to compete. It would mean everything to me." John Smithson was involved in a road accident in 2013 and said he had broken his neck in three places, as well as his left femur and ribs. He said he had been unable to walk since the accident and he needed to use a wheelchair. Mr Smithson, 32, has been a member of Howden Warhorses Friends for four months. "I come here to exercise and to meet new people and also to get out of my house," he said. "I love it. I didn't think being in a wheelchair would make it easy for me to play basketball but with the adjustable nets it makes it a perfect height for me to play." The group is free to join and sessions run every Sunday morning at Read School in Drax. Participants learn skills including passing, blocking, shooting and then play a game. Ms Dawson said she hoped the club would grow to 15 players to allow it to enter competitive tournaments. "We'd love to grow it," she said. "Basketball is a sport that I think can easily be adapted. It's a team sport and I think it hopefully reduces people's sense of loneliness and isolation as a result." Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
ABC News
11-06-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Calls for federal IVF regulation and DNA testing after second Monash embryo mix-up
IVF activists are calling for an urgent meeting with the federal health minister, and are suggesting children born through assisted reproduction should be DNA tested. It comes after the latest embryo mix-up this week, involving Monash IVF. The fertility giant apologised for a second time in as many months, for incorrectly transferring the wrong embryo to a patient. The company announced to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) the bungle had occurred last week at its laboratory in Clayton, Melbourne, resulting in a patient receiving her own embryo "contrary to the treatment plan which designated the transfer of an embryo of the patient's partner". Two months ago, the company revealed a Brisbane patient was mistakenly implanted with another patient's embryo. That patient gave birth to a baby who had no genetic link to her in 2023, but Monash IVF only discovered the error in February this year after the birth parents asked to transfer their remaining embryos to another provider. In a letter to Mark Butler and other Australian health ministers, who will meet in Melbourne tomorrow, IVF activists Anastasia Gunn and Katherine Dawson called for federal laws to regulate the assisted reproductive technology (ART) industry and the establishment of a national central donor register. While Victoria has been governed by ART laws for more than a decade, Queensland's legislation to regulate the industry was only passed last year. The women have argued IVF mix-ups are not "rare mistakes", as industry professionals say. "These are the direct consequence of systemic failures," the women said in the letter. "While some impacted families are choosing privacy, we are stepping forward to speak out, on behalf of all the people who can't, and all those who will discover they have been harmed." In Ms Gunn's case, her three sons were conceived through donor sperm at the Queensland Fertility Group between 2006 and 2014. She and her partner paid for the same donor to be used for each child. But DNA testing now shows their eldest son is not biologically related to their two younger boys, who have both been diagnosed with health conditions. QFG has maintained its records show the same donor was used for all three children. Given the latest issues, Ms Gunn has urged all ART patients to consider DNA testing of their children. "At best, it will give them peace of mind," she told the ABC. "At worst, it will show the degree of lack of regulation and adherence to standards that these clinics have engaged in. "The clinics should be offering this DNA testing to whomever requests it. If they have nothing to hide, then they would be happy to do so." Sydney Law School lecturer and Sydney Health Law (Centre) deputy director Christopher Rudge said these IVF events and mistakes were "relatively rare" however, he shared others' concerns that it was "hard to know without specific data". Victoria's health regulator is investigating the latest Monash IVF incident. Dr Rudge said the state's regulatory authority — the Secretary for the Department of Health — has a range of powers, including being able to impose specific conditions on a provider's registration, suspend it if there are grounds to do so, or refer matters for prosecution. He said the system was "well regulated" in Victoria, adding "the real key is for those regulations to be used" and for enforcement to take place. "I note some calls for a uniform federal form of regulation or oversight, however I think if there was a federal instrument it would probably look like the Victorian one looks like already," he said. "So it's probably more a matter of the Victorian regulator taking action." In a statement, Mr Butler said he had put the regulation of the IVF sector on the agenda for the health ministers' meeting on Friday. The ABC approached Monash IVF and QFG about DNA testing. Monash IVF referred the ABC to the fertility company's ASX statement and QFG failed to answer any questions.
