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Sky News
08-04-2025
- Sky News
Graduated driving licences for young people 'could have saved my daughter', says bereaved mother
A mother whose daughter was killed in a car crash has said tougher laws for new drivers could have saved the teenager's life. Speaking on The UK Tonight With Sarah-Jane Mee, Sharon Huddleston called on the government to bring in new laws to "help save young lives [and] give teenagers a future". Caitlin Huddleston, 18, was a passenger in a vehicle which collided with a van in July 2017. The crash killed both Caitlin and the driver, her friend Skye Mitchell, also 18. A backseat passenger and the van driver were left with severe injuries. Skye had passed her test just four months before the crash, which occurred after she "entered a bend slightly too fast for her experience and lost control", Ms Huddleston said. The car then spun on to the opposite carriageway and in front of a van travelling in the opposite direction. Ms Huddleston later "found out about a law called a graduated driving licence which could have saved my daughter's life". In 2023, around a fifth of people killed or seriously injured in Great Britain in car collisions involved a young driver. Graduated Driving Licences (GDLs) have been introduced in a number of other countries including Canada, where it takes at least 20 months for a new driver to gain a full driving licence by earning in stages. Young drivers working towards their full licence face extra rules such as not being allowed on the roads between midnight and 5am, and a limit on the number of under 19-year-old passengers. 2:18 As reported by Sky News' Dan Whitehead, evidence shows deaths among 16 to 19-year-old drivers in Canada have fallen by 83%. But the government has previously stated it has no plans to introduce GDLs, saying they could "unfairly" penalise young drivers. "Our children have been penalised from living their lives," Ms Huddleston said in response. "We want this implemented to help save young lives, to give teenagers a future. Our children's futures were taken from them. "These children who are killed on the roads, they're being penalised from living their lives, we shouldn't have to bury our children," she continued. Ms Huddleston was joined on The UK Tonight by Dr Ian Greenwood, whose daughter Alice died at the age of 12 after a speeding, young driver crashed into a car she was travelling in with her mother and sister. Dr Greenwood said: "They were speeding, they were distracted, it's a rural road. "It's almost like doing a bingo for the risk factors of a graduated driving licence - other than alcohol, they were all present in that crash." The driver of the car and his passenger also died, he said. 1:57 A Department for Transport spokesperson told Sky News: "Every death on our roads is a tragedy and our thoughts remain with the families of everyone who has lost a loved one in this way. "Whilst we are not considering Graduated Driving Licences, we absolutely recognise that young people are disproportionately victims of tragic incidents on our roads, and we are exploring options to tackle the root causes of this without unfairly penalising young drivers."
Sky News
24-03-2025
- Health
- Sky News
Woman who can smell Parkinson's disease describes moment she realised her husband had it
A woman who can smell Parkinson's disease has described the moment she realised her husband had it. Joy Milne told Sky's The UK Tonight With Sarah-Jane Mee about how her rare condition of hyperosmia, an incredibly sensitive sense of smell, helped her sniff out the disease in her late husband, Les. She said: "Well, when you know, you're saying to your husband 'well you're smelling, you're not having enough showers and you're not brushing your teeth enough' and various other things, it doesn't go down well to start off with does it?" "We continued like that for a while, and then I thought I've got to stop this, he's not terribly pleased, I'll just have to keep quiet." But when Mr Milne was around 29 years old "there was a definite change, a very distinct change," she said. And by the time he was 31 "his smell had completely changed" and other things had "begun to happen", leading her to think "maybe he had a brain tumour". A neurologist eventually diagnosed Mr Milne with Parkinson's. Ms Milne said she later went to a Parkinson's meeting in Perth, Scotland, and noticed "by the time I left, I could tell you who had Parkinson's, who did and who didn't". "Now, there were over 30 people there. And, you know, I was quite able to do that." She described her ability to Dr Tilo Kunath from Edinburgh University, who worked with Perdita Barran, professor of mass spectrometry at the University of Manchester, to devise an experiment to test Ms Milne's ability. Professor Barran told Sky News: "We had to do an experiment to separate the obvious movement symptoms of people with Parkinson's disease from the smell." They had people wear T-shirts and then put the T-shirts in bags, which were given to Joy, who "was 100% correct in smelling the T-shirts and diagnosing from a T-shirt whether someone had Parkinson's or not". Professor Barran said: "So that was the first incredible step change, because it actually meant we could diagnose someone from the material that they were wearing, from clothes." They now use gauze or Q-tips to collect samples and analyse them using a method called mass spectrometry, which "weighs molecules and helps us to find out what they are". The method allows Ms Milne to smell molecules while they are identified by the machine. Professor Barran explained: "So we split them. Some go to be weighed and some go to Joy's nose. And that allows us to code to find out which of the very complicated mixture of molecules we have on our skin from skin swabs, are to do with the disease, are the ones that smell of it." Asked how it feels to walk past someone who might smell like they're carrying the condition and whether it's difficult to carry on walking by, Ms Milne said: "It is very difficult, but I have signed a non-disclosure because it is unethical. It is and I can't do anything about that." Pressed on whether she finds it a blessing or extremely difficult, she said: "I think, because it's a genetic thing in the female side of the family, my grandmother did warn me when she trained me, she did warn me not to use [it]. "She said I would find it very difficult unless I made the decision that I would go ahead and do it. And I have made that choice. I was a nurse, a carer for my mother-in-law and my husband with Parkinson's and really it was the right choice. I think it was the right choice."
Sky News
31-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
Traitors' Alexander Dragonetti opens up about his brother's story as he reveals whether he is 'friends' with fellow contestants
The Traitors finalist Alexander Dragonetti has inspired people to donate more than £70,000 to a charity after he spoke about his brother's story on the show. In an interview on The UK Tonight With Sarah-Jane Mee, Mr Dragonetti said more than £70,000 had been raised for Mencap, an organisation supporting people with learning disabilities. "The response has been fantastic. Anybody who supports or raises awareness on what to me is an incredibly important topic, I'm so incredibly grateful. The response has been fantastic." The former British diplomat opened up about how his late brother, who had Global Developmental Delay and autism, saying for a week a year his brother would go to a summer camp where he also volunteered to help other children. The 38-year-old described how his brother would be "the centre of attention", adding: "Everyone would flock around and he had this energy where he just drew people to him. And he was also slightly cooler than I was. I just stood there and waved, bathed in his reflected glory. It was such fun for him." Mr Dragonetti said his brother, who died aged 17, would have been really excited to see him appear on TV as part of the BBC show. He said while it is "fantastic having special needs children" it can also be "really challenging", adding: "Often parents don't have much of a voice. And if I can create or help to create that voice for parents to help get them the support they need, that would be probably my most proud outcome from the show." 'I was actually texting Leanne during the final episode' Mr Dragonetti did not win the latest series of The Traitors. He lost to project manager Jake Brown and former soldier Leanne Quigley, who won the £94,600 prize pot. But after a tense finale, is he still friends with his fellow contestants? "We actually are all friends now," he revealed. "I was actually texting Leanne during the final episode, saying 'I'm so sorry to have accused you,' and she was texting me saying, 'Oh my God, I got it so wrong.' "So we've actually become really close since the end of that. And it's been really nice to get to know each other in a slightly less pressurised way."
