Latest news with #SueSmith
ITV News
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ITV News
The Herds animal puppet spectacle comes to the North West
70 life-sized safari animal puppets know as 'The Herds' are to make several appearances in the region. The huge artwork depicts the animals travelling north to 'flee the climate disaster' and is part of Manchester International Festival. Tonight they will be at the Cathedral Gardens in Manchester where they will interrupt a performance by the Manchester Camerata On Friday 4 July they will be in Heywood in Rochdale in the evening. The Herds feature elephants, giraffes, antelope, and lions made from upscaled or recyclable cardboard and plywood. The animals began their 20,000km journey in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in April before making their way through European cities and then arriving in the UK. Councillor Sue Smith, cabinet member for communities and co-operation at Rochdale Borough Council said: 'Seeing The Herds in Heywood is a once in a lifetime opportunity, a combination of dance-theatre, awe-inspiring life-size puppets creating something very powerful and moving. "It's very exciting, The Herds are capturing the imagination of everyone who sees them and I hope through these creatures we will spark thoughts and raise awareness about everything that is happening to our environment worldwide too." The Herds will appear in the residential area around Aspinall Street in Heywood from 7pm on Friday 4 July on a mission to find a way back to nature, before they move to the lake at nearby Queen's Park to find a tranquil oasis. For the final stop on their Greater Manchester journey, The Herds find a fleeting refuge in the wild beauty of Pennington Flash Country Park on Saturday, July 5.
Otago Daily Times
13-06-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Good food is only right
Food is a human right, but beyond that, is the right to food sovereignty. Hagar Ozri talked to two wāhine Māori to find out what it can look like. Sovereignty is a word we need to contemplate — it means authority or autonomy — in a world where the opposite is the lived reality for the most vulnerable, as skyrocketing food prices make the availability of good food slip away. The right to food is the most basic human right. Food is more than a physical need, it is a cultural and spiritual need too, this complexity reflected in the term "food sovereignty". If we listen to the indigenous knowledge and conversations around the issues, would we have some healing and answers to the most pressing issues of our time? I draw inspiration from women leaders. Vandana Shiva, from India, is a fierce advocate for local farmers and the local economy. She fights against corporate take-over of local farms and calls sustainable agriculture "a gratitude agriculture", gratitude to Mother Earth, a non-violent sacred agriculture. New Zealand's Kay Baxter is doing amazing work at Koanga Institute, teaching permaculture and collecting heritage seed varieties. Their seed catalogue says: "We are the seeds of your ancestors, the seeds that have nourished you forever, the seeds that give you life, the seeds that you pass on down as your responsibility to the next generation". I am not Māori, but I find hope from the knowledge of tangata whenua because they link me to this whenua — this land in which I live. I interviewed two inspirational wāhine here in Ōtepoti — doing good work in the community through kai — helping whānau forging connections to the whenua — for social, mental and physical health and wellbeing. Sue Smith is a co-ordinator of a māra kai project, growing food for the Puketeraki Marae and whānau. Rongowai Papuni is a mental health practitioner who developed a programme for healing through working in the garden, learning to grow food. Both women incorporate Te Hua Parakore knowledge in their work — a decolonising indigenous farming framework, regaining knowledge of farming and growing home gardens based on these pillars: (From Jessica Hutchings' website • Whakapapa (genealogical connections); • Wairua (spirituality) • Mana (authority); • Māramatanga (enlightenment); • Te Ao Tūroa (the natural world); • Mauri (life-force) SUE SMITH Sue Smith was involved in permaculture in Sydney for a number of years and completed the certificate in permaculture design in New Zealand in 2021. "I am a member of the Kati Huirapa rūnaka based in Karitane. I spent a lot of time working in permaculture, just as a hobby, just as a fun thing to do ... you always want other people to connect with what you think is a good thing, but sometimes you just have to do it for yourself, and then things happen anyway, if you're open to sharing and conversing and communicating," she says. I started by asking her about food sovereignty. Q. What does food sovereignty mean to you? A. On the micro level, for me, is to have control over the food that I want to eat and knowing that I'm accessing high-quality nutritious kai, so growing my own at home and growing for whānau. On the macro level, what bothers me is that we're not in touch with our local growers. We don't really know where our food comes from, and the food itself, which is a basic human right, everyone should have access to good quality kai, has been commercialised and is in the hands of people that are only doing it for a profit. So, food shouldn't be a commodity, it's a basic human right ... So I suppose for me, food sovereignty means that you've got control over the food for you and your whānau, that you know you're giving them good quality kai that you can access easily, and access to culturally appropriate food that nourishes and doesn't poison you. Q. What is the work that you do at the māra kai in Karitāne? A. I am involved in a rūnaka-based project called Kete Kai Ora. This project is about getting fresh vegetables and wild venison to our whānau as a way of building connections to our whenua. Colonisation has led to our people being disconnected from our land and our traditional kai sources. Kete Kai Ora is some small way to fill that void. Kind of a contemporary mahika kai approach. We also have a once-a-month harvest where a few of us will go out there and gather as much as we can, get the meat, which is processed by a butcher, Matanaka Meats, and get that to the whānau by a navigator's role, who drives into town, because most of our kaumātua don't live at Karitāne, and drops food from their whenua to their homes. Our people know that it's good quality, nutritious vegetables and that the venison is good organic meat. The other aspect is seedlings — we've just built a seedling grow house. We're going to grow excess seedlings and share those with whānau so they can perhaps build that level of food security or sovereignty in their own backyards without having to spend a lot of money. We make a lot of our own compost, so hopefully we'll have our own seed-raising mix next year so we can ensure that our families are getting good quality seedlings. It is the process of building that level of self-sufficiency and resilience for our whānau who aren't able to come out to the whenua, actually accessing the whenua in a different way. Q. Do you bring other aspects of hua parakore into your work at the māra kai? A Well, yeah, at the moment we've been exploring the hua parakore framework as a whānau or as a small group. Essentially, that guides us how to interact with the soil and how you interact with the plants and the people. It's really about the food that's shared with people, the manaakitanga that sits with food and the mana that sits with being able to provide our people with good quality food if you're the grower or you're the cook. So there's a whole spiritual aspect to growing food that recognises the impact of the environment around you, right down to the microbial lifeforce that sits in the soil, and how that also sits back with the creation story of Hine-ahu-one and Papatūānuku and Tangaroa and Ranginui and all those elements that sit within the soil and the world around you and that goes into your food. So you're actually feeding your soul or your spirit with good high-quality food. I think there's a damaging effect on our psyche when we're eating rubbish. So, then that goes deep and that is, to me, the help that we really need, to bring in all that content and purpose. It is the deeper meaning behind claiming our right to food and sovereignty. RONGOWAI PAPUNI Q. What does food sovereignty mean to you? A. For Māori, food sovereignty, I think it is a massive topic, so it's hard to condense it into a couple of sentences ... It is reclamation, reclaiming whenua, reclaiming space, reclaiming identity, reclaiming processes and tikanga and the knowledge around kai, around mahinga kai, mahika kai. Those practices are all coming back now, which is great, but you can see there were a lot of generations where it was just lost. Q. How do you implement that in your work, in the mental health field? A. When I think about people we're working with, coming together for a purpose, like a māra kai rōpu, we're bringing people into the whare and we have a process, and the process wouldn't be just come and eat some food, it's come and be a part of growing this food. It's hard looking at "how do you take the skills that we're going to learn here in this space and then take them home", so we get the pen and paper out and get people to sketch out their whare, their house, and how much land they have and kind of start from there and look at what kind of things they would want to be eating so that they can grow those things. So, then that's empowerment and sovereignty, taking those kinds of skills home. We grow things also on site, and whatever was produced people can take home some kai. At the end of the growing season we would have kai. Q. So, it's not just the eating of natural food feeding the physical — also the mental, the spiritual, that is the process of decolonising and giving people mana? A. Yeah, absolutely. The connection. Yes, people would get really excited about it and people are humbled by receiving kai. And in terms of community, we'd have people coming from different ages, different stages of life, different iwi, different backgrounds, and some people would be isolated and then come into the space where they would get to have kōrero and waiata and karakia, and after that learn some gardening skills, and then actually go outside and put some of those skills into action. I think that comes alongside that, having skills, your own skills and knowing how to grow your own foods. It is mana enhancing, so you've got a new skill set from, you know, how do you start, use that, it's giving them connection to the whenua. We think about Papatūānuku and connection with atua. We think about Papatūānuku and Tamanuiterā, Ranginui, Tāwhirimātea, so we've got the wind factor. Tāne Mahuta, and te taiao also, our nature, our atua, are all there, so there's connection happening, not only with other people, but our environment too. Q. So when you work with mental health, what is your method? A. The programme that I developed is based over three months, one growing season. We had a bit of funding from Te Pūtahitanga (tēnā koutou — thank you to them) and from then I was, like, OK, what do we need? We need tools, we need soil, it was all from the ground up, and then I need to design a programme. OK, so what method are we going to use in the garden. And we didn't have a lot of space so I just thought we'd go with a crop rotation process. So, we had three garden beds and then we just brought in the soil, we got seeds for whatever we wanted to grow and then we planted the seeds and then we watched them grow over the period of three months and, in between that, we learned about soil quality, soil health, pest management, crop rotation and what that means and how you do it. The sessions would start with karakia, followed by a waiata, then a learning session, we learned about maramataka and then we'd look at what mahi we needed to do, what work needed doing in the maramataka. You have the skills now to take this back to your whānau. You got me thinking about Te Whare Tapa Whā when you talked about pillars and, yes, that's like taha whānau, taha tīnana, taha hinengaro and taha wairua so that's like your community or social spaces, the body, the mental space and the spiritual elements. Gardening, you can incorporate that into food sovereignty and food practices, as it's a health model that's utilised here. If you are well in your thinking, and you're well in your body, and you're well in your social spaces, they all link in and link up, so it just makes sense to me, if you're not feeling well, you need to go outside. And I think also, being Māori, māori means natural, to be natural. Tangata whenua means people of the land, and we don't live those ways any more. So, for me, everything in terms of healing just needs to go back to that ... but our environments today, social ways of being in the world are quite different to that, like, almost quite the opposite. So, it's just taking really small steps ... As small a thing as opening your door, going outside. Ginger, kumara and tofu pie This is inspired by the recipe for ginger crunch kumara cheesecake from Kai Feast, by Christall Lowe — this is a vegan version. Ingredients For the crust 250g (1 packet) gingernuts biscuits ¼ cup / 100g coconut oil For the filling 2 medium-sized kumara — to yield 2 cups, peeled, cooked and mashed — cooled 400g tofu — 1 block of soft natural tofu. I use the locally made tofu (can use silken, but do not use firm). 250g coconut cream 2 Tbsp tapioca flour (or cornflour) ¼-½ cup soft brown sugar (I like it not too sweet so I use ¼ cup) ¼ tsp salt 1 Tbsp orange zest 2 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice 2 tsp ground ginger Method To make the crust: • Oil a 22-24cm springform cake tin (line the bottom with baking paper). • Place a third of the biscuits in a food processor at a time and process to crumbs, place in a bowl. • Melt the coconut oil, add to the bowl and mix well into the biscuit crumbs. • Press the crumb mix on to the bottom of pie dish / cake tin. To make the filling • Add all ingredients into the food processor and blend well — start with the tofu and kumara then add the rest. • Place filling into prepared pie dish / tin. • Bake for 45 min at 180°C. • Drizzle with brown rice malt while hot. • Serve when completely cooled.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The Good Stuff: Bella Vista veteran commemorates 100th birthday week at D-Day remembrance
BELLA VISTA, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — One Bella Vista veteran marks not only a milestone birthday, but the legacy of the shipmates and heroes he'll never forget. There are not many days that 100-year-old World War II veteran K.B. Smith finds himself just sitting at home, but when he does you will often find him sitting at his desk in his office. 'It's like going through a photo album over the years,' said K.B. while pointing toward all of the photos on the wall. Some of the frame photographs include one with an airplane he used to own when he was a pilot with the civil air patrol. Another is a horseback photo taken many years ago when he once served as a deputy. There were also a number of photos from through the years of K.B. and his wife of 73 years, Sue. 'We met on a blind date on December 1, 1950,' he said with a smile, adding, 'She took good care of me.' Like she did a year ago when the two traveled to France to attend the 80th D-Day Remembrance event in Normandy. For K.B., it truly is a full-circle moment for him. On June 6, 1944, he was a crewmember of the U.S.S. Satterlee. 'We were the first warship to fire on the French coast, up close,' shared K.B. about their role providing support to the Army's 2nd Ranger Battalion that was faced with the near impossible mission of scaling the 100-foot cliffs at Omaha Beach. 'The real heroes are the ones who went up the cliff,' added K.B. The Good Stuff: Parent on the Run It is an historic role he and his shipmates have proudly shared through the years, including fellow Navyman John Seiwart, from Wisconsin, who he reconnected with in 2015. 'Over the years we narrowed it down to just two,' K.B. said when he and John realized they were the only two known survivors from the Satterlee from D-Day. When John passed away in August, it left K.B. as the lone remaining voice of the Satterlee. Without question, K.B. wanted to return to Normandy for the 81st annual remembrance. But this trip would be without his wife, Sue, who passed away just months ago. So, on May 31st, K.B. boarded an international flight to France with his good friend and fellow veteran Chuck Hammake. And to K.B.'s surprise, there was a surprise birthday party awaiting him on June 1, his 100th birthday. The party was hosted at the home of John Seiwart's son, Patrick, who just happens to now call Paris, home. K.B. added, the only thing that could top being treated to a surprise celebration is honoring those who lost their lives in the fight to liberate France from Nazi-Germany. 'It gave me a warm feeling to be a part of that. I tell you; tears came down my cheek and I'm not ashamed to admit it.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
‘NHS says I'm too big for surgery — now I'm spending my pension on weight-loss jabs'
With every step she takes, 72-year-old Sue Smith is in agony. The retired NHS clinician has been on the waiting list for a knee replacement for four years and walks, she says, as though her leg is broken. Despite her daily battle with pain, Ms Smith has been repeatedly denied surgery — because she is obese. But she has also been given no help by the NHS to lose weight, as waiting lists for such programmes soar. She is now forking out hundreds of pounds per month to pay for a weight-loss injection so she can have the operation she so desperately needs. Speaking to The Independent, Ms Smith — who has physically deteriorated so dramatically that she now uses a mobility scooter — said: 'I'm not lazy. I want my life back, but I'm stuck in a vicious cycle of trying to lose weight for this operation. I'm 72 years old now and am desperate for a knee replacement. 'What will they do — wait until I can't walk at all? Or I fall over and break my leg?' The Independent revealed last week that obese patients are being taken off waiting lists for life-changing hip and knee replacement surgery and being refused referrals as the NHS cuts costs. National guidelines make clear that weight should not be used to restrict patients' access to joint replacement surgery. But research has revealed more than a third of NHS areas are blocking patient access based on their body mass index (BMI). Ms Smith, who suffers from osteoarthritis, said she was told before the Covid outbreak that she needed an operation. At that time, she was fitter and slimmer and may have been eligible for the procedure, but was instead treated with steroids and physiotherapy. During the coronavirus lockdowns, the former NHS speech and language therapist struggled to maintain an active lifestyle. She was referred again for the operation in 2020 but was turned down — because her BMI was 43 — and told to lose weight. Her GP attempted to refer her for the operation three more times, but she was rejected on each occasion because of her size. Years later, with a BMI of 42, she remains above the threshold which Maidstone and Tonbridge Wells hospital set for her to be allowed an operation, she told The Independent. She said: 'The only way forward for me is to get down to this fantasy weight. I just want a knee replacement so I can exercise normally.' But Ms Smith is yet to receive any specialist weight management support from the NHS. She was finally referred for support services in January 2025 — more than four years after she was first told she could not have her operation due to weight — but was told the wait was at least 18 weeks. She is still waiting and has not heard when she will get an appointment. The Independent revealed that, in some areas, patients are waiting years for access to NHS weight loss management services. Desperate to get her operation, Ms Smith sought to get weight-loss jabs through the NHS. But, in another blow, she was told by her GP that they could not prescribe it. Under current rules, which are tightly controlling the use of such jabs, only specialist weight-loss management services can prescribe these drugs. Ms Smith has paid around £1,000 since February to have the weight loss jab Mounjaro privately, which she said has helped her to lose 18 pounds. She said: 'I get a pension from the NHS, it's about £200 a month, so really, I'm using that for this injection. I really want to have my knees done so I can move forward. I've had to buy a mobility scooter, which I don't use every day, but I have to sometimes. I don't want to be in it; I never wanted to have one. I only use it when I have to, which is once a week... It's awful, I just feel like a lesser being.' Ms Smith said that, following a recent X-ray, her GP told her knees are 'worn out.' Initially, Ms Smith said she only needed one knee replacement, however, the wait has led to her now needing surgery on both. A spokesperson for Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said: 'We understand how upsetting it can be for anyone living with ongoing pain, and our teams are committed to ensuring patients receive the best possible care. While we can't comment on individual cases, referrals for surgery are assessed on a case-by-case basis, and a range of clinical factors are reviewed. 'These include, but are not limited to BMI, and enable our clinicians to ensure the surgery is safe and appropriate.'
The Independent
06-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
‘NHS says I'm too big for surgery — now I'm spending my pension on weight-loss jabs'
With every step she takes, 72-year-old Sue Smith is in agony. The retired NHS clinician has been on the waiting list for a knee replacement for four years and walks, she says, as though her leg is broken. Despite her daily battle with pain, Ms Smith has been repeatedly denied surgery — because she is obese. But she has also been given no help by the NHS to lose weight, as waiting lists for such programmes soar. She is now forking out hundreds of pounds per month to pay for a weight-loss injection so she can have the operation she so desperately needs. Speaking to The Independent, Ms Smith — who has physically deteriorated so dramatically that she now uses a mobility scooter — said: 'I'm not lazy. I want my life back, but I'm stuck in a vicious cycle of trying to lose weight for this operation. I'm 72 years old now and am desperate for a knee replacement. 'What will they do — wait until I can't walk at all? Or I fall over and break my leg?' The Independent revealed last week that obese patients are being taken off waiting lists for life-changing hip and knee replacement surgery and being refused referrals as the NHS cuts costs. National guidelines make clear that weight should not be used to restrict patients' access to joint replacement surgery. But research has revealed more than a third of NHS areas are blocking patient access based on their body mass index (BMI). Ms Smith, who suffers from osteoarthritis, said she was told before the Covid outbreak that she needed an operation. At that time, she was fitter and slimmer and may have been eligible for the procedure, but was instead treated with steroids and physiotherapy. During the coronavirus lockdowns, the former NHS speech and language therapist struggled to maintain an active lifestyle. She was referred again for the operation in 2020 but was turned down — because her BMI was 43 — and told to lose weight. Her GP attempted to refer her for the operation three more times, but she was rejected on each occasion because of her size. Years later, with a BMI of 42, she remains above the threshold which Maidstone and Tonbridge Wells hospital set for her to be allowed an operation, she told The Independent. She said: 'The only way forward for me is to get down to this fantasy weight. I just want a knee replacement so I can exercise normally.' But Ms Smith is yet to receive any specialist weight management support from the NHS. She was finally referred for support services in January 2025 — more than four years after she was first told she could not have her operation due to weight — but was told the wait was at least 18 weeks. She is still waiting and has not heard when she will get an appointment. The Independent revealed that, in some areas, patients are waiting years for access to NHS weight loss management services. Desperate to get her operation, Ms Smith sought to get weight-loss jabs through the NHS. But, in another blow, she was told by her GP that they could not prescribe it. Under current rules, which are tightly controlling the use of such jabs, only specialist weight-loss management services can prescribe these drugs. Ms Smith has paid around £1,000 since February to have the weight loss jab Mounjaro privately, which she said has helped her to lose 18 pounds. She said: 'I get a pension from the NHS, it's about £200 a month, so really, I'm using that for this injection. I really want to have my knees done so I can move forward. I've had to buy a mobility scooter, which I don't use every day, but I have to sometimes. I don't want to be in it; I never wanted to have one. I only use it when I have to, which is once a week... It's awful, I just feel like a lesser being.' Ms Smith said that, following a recent X-ray, her GP told her knees are 'worn out.' Initially, Ms Smith said she only needed one knee replacement, however, the wait has led to her now needing surgery on both. A spokesperson for Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust said: 'We understand how upsetting it can be for anyone living with ongoing pain, and our teams are committed to ensuring patients receive the best possible care. While we can't comment on individual cases, referrals for surgery are assessed on a case-by-case basis, and a range of clinical factors are reviewed. 'These include, but are not limited to BMI, and enable our clinicians to ensure the surgery is safe and appropriate.'
