Latest news with #suffering
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Kate Beckinsale shares heartbreaking news her mother has passed away after 'immeasurable suffering' as she admits she is 'paralysed' with grief
Kate Beckinsale has shared the heartbreaking news that her mother Jude has passed away after 'immeasurable suffering'. The star took to Instagram on Thursday night to share that she died in her arms on July 15 and admitted she is 'paralysed' with grief. Sharing a compilation of snaps she penned: 'I don't want to post this. I am only posting this because I have had to register my mother's death certificate and it will soon become public record. 'She died the night of July 15th in my arms after immeasurable suffering. I have not picked all the best photos, nor the best videos, because I cannot bear to go through my camera roll yet. 'I deeply apologise to any of her friends who are finding out this way or through the press, but I cannot go through her phone . 'I am paralysed. Jude was the compass of my life ,the love of my life, my dearest friend. The vastness and huge heart of this tiny woman has touched so many people who love her dearly. 'She has been brave in so many ways, forgiving sometimes too much, believing in the ultimate good in people and the world is so dim without her that it is nearly impossible to bear. 'Mama, I love you so much. This has been my greatest fear since finding my father dead at five and I am here. Oh my Mama.. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I am so sorry.'
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
I have suffered from dizziness for months and my life is in limbo. What is wrong with me? DR SCURR has the chilling answer
I have suffered from dizziness for months. It started years ago but my dizziness has never lasted for such a long period. My life is in limbo as I'm fearful of going anywhere. Irene Smith, Dundee.
Forbes
02-07-2025
- General
- Forbes
Following Your Passion
It's easy to overlook the value of figuring out what you are truly skilled at. Passion indeed sparks inspiration, but without competence, it often burns out. The words 'passion' and 'compassion,' unsurprisingly, share a similar Latin root, 'pati,' meaning 'suffer,' and 'compati,' translating to 'suffer with.' The word passion traveled the winding road from Latin to Old English, to Old French. Romans associated suffering with Prometheus, so the Christian application of passion as it refers to Jesus's suffering and death also remained intact, but we might scratch our heads at how suffering arrived at the widespread usage to mean strong and barely controllable emotion and an intense desire or enthusiasm. However, if you think about it, any of us who have loved intensely and lost love understand passion in this context, just as do any of us who have acted on our passions for producing art (including writing books!) or the passion required to start a business, for with all things requiring intense emotional outpouring, there will be disappointment, setbacks, and jarring moments of self-doubt. Suffering, my friends, is part of the human condition. But I'll tell you two things: 1) once we link passion and compassion, when we realize that 'suffering with' others, sharing their pain and disappointment, seeing our unity in the human condition and its inevitable ups and downs, we find a pathway to acting on the pure joy found in passion alongside the intense emotion that comes with our stumbles; and 2) the hard things we will encounter never outweigh the rewards of acting on our passion. 'Follow your passion' is advice we hear all the time. It's easy to overlook the value of figuring out what you are truly skilled at. Passion indeed sparks inspiration, but without competence, it often burns out. Likewise, relying solely on what you are good at—without any emotional connection can lead to a mechanical and mundane life. 'The Bloom Within' — A poetic celebration of inner beauty and growth. The rich background feels floral and expansive, suggesting a soul in full bloom. As you may have gathered already if you have perused this website at all, I have passion for many things, including my work as a clinician, an artist, and photographer as evidenced by the images you'll can view in the gallery and those that illustrate my book Fractured but Fearless. The art I produce is a pure expression of my emotion, work that brings me great joy, work for which the reward is entirely intrinsic and 'success' is measured in the process of creating and in the satisfaction of having created. And, yes, as anyone who participates in artistic expression in any form—writing, music, dance…in any medium you might name—there is often suffering along the way, suffering in trying to get the process right, in recalling memories or loved ones now passed, in translating emotions we don't fully understand. I make my living by practicing medicine and as a healthcare executive, but both of those pursuits are every bit as much passion ventures for me as are art, photography, and writing. The pursuit of excellence in healthcare is a personal crusade fueled by a deep-seated passion to make a tangible difference in the lives of my patients. When I first began to expand my vision of the impact I could have in healthcare by becoming an entrepreneur, one hospital CEO asked me, 'Dr Ali, why do you want to expand your services to another market?' I replied, 'Destiny is a very big word for a small man like me, but I feel this is mine. I don't have to fix everything, but I would like to do my part.' 'Echoes in Silence' — Suggests thoughtful introspection, with a calm atmosphere where the mind echoes inwardly, reflecting past experiences. Part of the beauty on this Earth is that we are all driven by different passions. We are as unique as snowflakes. Some argue that people place too much emphasis on passion, that passion can be unrealistic, that passion cannot necessarily pay the bills. They, in short, see life as filled with necessary suffering. And while it is true that we all must accomplish some essential things to keep ourselves alive, who are we to judge another's passion? I think often of an elderly man in a small village in my native Pakistan. He has a perpetual smile on his face. He laughs with ease. He has few material possessions. He lives a simple life. But he is close to his family, finds real pleasure in sipping tea with cherished friends, likes to be outside in pleasant weather. In the West, we might accuse this man of not having ambition, but perhaps he has found happiness we have missed. If true, it is because we have mistaken an understanding of his passions. Our own passions may be different. They may be more 'ambitious.' But whatever we do in this life, should we not find extreme emotion in participating in the things in which we find meaning? No matter the nature of our passion, will we suffer along the way? Of course. Life's not just sunshine and rainbows. Moments of relief, rebellion, experiment, and freedom are as much a part of the fabric of life as challenges and uncertainties. That's the beauty of it all—the messy, intricate, and wonderfully unpredictable journey we call life. Let's meet it with passion.
Irish Times
30-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
The Story of a Heart author Rachel Clarke: ‘I couldn't stop thinking about this story'
The Story of a Heart is a beautifully written account of how the lives of two families – both facing immeasurable suffering – become inextricably entwined through the donation of a heart from a nine-year-old girl with catastrophic brain injuries to a nine-year-old boy with end-stage heart failure. First published in 2024, with compassion and clarity, Rachel Clarke draws readers into the details of the lives of Keira Ball's family, who made the decision to donate her organs when they realised that she wasn't going to recover from the injuries she suffered in a car crash which also left her brother Bradley and her mother Loanna seriously wounded. 'I couldn't stop thinking about this story when I first read about it in 2017,' explains Clarke, a palliative care doctor and former broadcast journalist. The two families had told the story of their meeting to journalist Jeremy Armstrong. This meeting broke all the rules of anonymity, usually sacrosanct in organ donation protocols. It came months after Loanna Ball reached out to Emma Johnson, the mother of Max, after the Ball family received their anonymous letter of thanks. READ MORE In her Facebook message to Johnson, Ball wrote: 'I think you may have our daughter's heart and it's the most beautiful heart in the world.' Max's identity was already public after the Daily Mirror had earlier told the story of his long wait for a heart transplant as part of its campaign for opt-out rather than opt-in legislation for organ donation. (When the legislation for opt-out organ donation was introduced into Britain in May 2020, the law was called Max and Keira's Law). The Story of a Heart will bring readers to tears again and again as the details of parents and siblings spending time with their youngest sister before she died are told in parallel to that of a young boy, hanging on by a thread, knowing that he will die without a heart transplant Clarke made contact first with Keira's family, meeting them for several hours, asking them to consider her telling their story. 'They immediately said yes, but I gave them a few months to change their minds. When they didn't change their minds, I approached Max's family and the NHS Blood and Transplant,' she explains. Therein began four years of research and interviews with family members and key health professionals who cared for both children and worked on the transplant teams. The Story of a Heart will bring readers to tears again and again as the details of parents and siblings spending time with their youngest sister before she died are told in parallel to that of a young boy, hanging on by a thread, knowing that he will die without a heart transplant. In June, Clarke won the 2025 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction for her extraordinary book. The prize, which complements the long-running Women's Prize for Fiction, was first awarded in 2024 after research found that female non-fiction writers were less likely to be reviewed (26.5 per cent of non-fiction reviews in national newspapers were allocated to female writers) or win prizes than their male counterparts (one in three prize winners across seven UK non-fiction prizes over the past 10 years were women). In the story, Clarke writes: 'From the moment Keira was fatally injured, her heart began a journey so momentous it was scarcely believable. First, there was the emergency chest compressions at the scene of the crash… Next, the strange metaphysical limbo between life and death as Keira lay in intensive care, warm, flushed, apparently sleeping, yet somehow – unfathomably - brain dead. Then, the moment when her heart was stilled by an anaesthetist's drugs so that the surgeons, silently at work within the cave of her chest, no longer faced a moving target. 'From there, the light-aircraft dash halfway across the country to deliver the organ, chilled on ice, into gloved and poised surgical hands. Finally, the intricate knitting of the heart's great vessels into another child's torso – and the agonising wait to see if its chambers would resume their vital work.' As well as telling the personal stories so sensitively, Clarke weaves through the book rich details of medical research and history. Such as the origins of intensive care units or the importance of immunosuppressant medicines or how the heart is the first of our organs to form and the last to die. Or how, one in five children die while waiting for an organ transplant. She also includes details such as how surgeons will sometimes write up operation notes for teddy bears, used for comfort, distraction and to demonstrate to a child certain procedures. And how a nurse can find time to bring a distraught sibling for a hot chocolate while his younger brother lies in hospital close to death. Clarke draws readers into the lives of these brave and dignified families sharing a time in their lives when they are at their most vulnerable. 'How Keira's family in the darkest, bleakest circumstances can summon all their strength to look outwards to save others from the fate that befell them,' she says. [ How to be an organ donor: 'The surgeon said he wasn't going to take my kidney out if I wasn't sure' Opens in new window ] Keira Ball's family have since set up the charity, Inspired by Keira, to raise awareness of the importance of organ donation and to support families in the south of England confronting the sudden loss of a child. And while she chronicles in detail the 'the modern day miracle of transplantation' and the hundreds of health professionals who make it happen, Clarke is also cogently aware that more organs are needed to be donated. 'When then [UK] prime minster Theresa May brought in the legislation for opt-out organ donations, it was to be called, Max's Law,' explains Clarke. But, after Max himself said it should be called, Max and Keira's Law, it was. Seven years on from his transplant, Max Johnson has just completed his GCSE exams. Similar legislation to allow opt-out rather than opt-in (ie, assumption that the person agrees to donating their organs unless they have specifically registered their objection to it) was introduced into Ireland in June 2025 . 'Changing the law has helped but not as much as people thought. Awareness is what counts. Make sure that you have signed opt-in for organ donation on your driver's licence and tell loved ones what your wishes are and ask your family members and children what their views are on organ donation,' she says. Because, in spite of the opt-out legislation now in place in Britain and Ireland, ultimately, it's the family who decides when facing the death of a loved one. 'If that person's wishes to donate their organs are known, 90 per cent of families will say yes, but if that person's wishes are not known, only 40 per cent will say yes,' explains Clarke. Clarke says that studying medicine as a mature student, she has always 'cared about patients as people, not just body parts'. She says that she firmly believes stories such as this display such deep humanity, making them an antidote to the depressing newspaper headlines and 'doom scrolling' that we all do. 'It says something very profound about our species,' she adds. [ Waiting for an organ donor: 'It was the beginning of the hardest chapter in our family's life' Opens in new window ] Clarke now works as a palliative care consultant in a hospital in England. 'I knew when I returned to study medicine as a mature student [she was 29 when she left broadcast journalism to train as a doctor] that I wanted to work in oncology, haematology or palliative care,' she explains. But that didn't stop her writing. Her first book, Your Life is in My Hands chronicles her life as a junior doctor. Next came, Dear Life, a book exploring death, dying and end-of-life care. And in 2020, she wrote Breathtaking, a book about the first wave of Covid in the UK which was later adapted for a television series. Clarke says that while being around dying people makes a lot of people nervous, she finds the combination of the physical and moral challenges fulfilling. 'End-of-life care is profoundly important. There is a huge amount you can do for people at the end of their life. 'In my work, I see more of the goodness, strength and decency people are capable of. It's not just the physical complications we have to deal with, but the suffering that comes with having to lose everyone in the world dear to you.' And, yes, it has influenced her entire philosophy of life. 'We are all a whisper away from tragedy. Living your life holding on to just how precious it is is an important way to try to live. We never get enough time to be with the people we love.'
The National
30-06-2025
- The National
Children must not remain casualties of war
The most blameless and innocent victims of any war are almost certainly always children. While witnessing death and devastation of war at any age is likely to take its toll, the effect on young people, by all indicators, is especially harrowing. In an annual UN report released earlier this month, 41,370 grave violations against children were documented and verified by the UN last year – a 25 per cent increase since 2023. While in much of the world where peace reigns, schools are now either out or about to close for the summer, there are hundreds of thousands of children in Palestine, particularly in Gaza, and millions collectively in conflict zones around the world, who are excluded from the privilege of even going a day without the terror of violence, hearing the sounds of explosions and encountering bloodshed. Summer holidays then are a far cry for these children, whose regular developmental milestones have been cut and swapped with desperation, tragedy and chronic hunger. 'Unimaginable horrors' is the phrase Edouard Beigbeder, Unicef's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, used in May to describe the situation where more than 50,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. Given the human cost of war and the resultant extensive suffering that children are left to deal with for the rest of their lives, the notion that modern warfare is targeted or surgical is utterly misleading, as has been evident in several parts of the world. Air strikes and attacks on aid distribution need to stop. Killings need to stop. Children need to be able to live a normal life An unfortunate truth is also that prolonged conflict often brings about a fatigue and desensitisation to such bleak realities to the wider world. But such images must not be allowed to lose their power to compel international stakeholders, including world leaders, to push for a ceasefire and long-term peace, implying then also a better future for children deprived of normality. Already the stunted progress in the five areas of child-related UN Sustainable Development Goals – namely, survive and thrive, learning, protection, and poverty – should be a wake-up call for how adults all over the world are failing children caught in conflict zones, losing their homes and all too frequently their limbs, parents, and their right to normal growing-up years. The other grave crime is the recruitment of children in armed conflict. To prevent this heinous offshoot of war, child protection units must be strengthened so that their remit to protect innocent children from being exploited and given arms can be more effective. To this end, the UN does have an action plan, which includes implementing national campaigns and getting access to military camps and bases to ensure no children are in the ranks. Each day of continued war, with efforts to secure ceasefires being stalled or scuttled, is another strike in the tally of a collective moral failure to protect children from an increased risk of falling into a cycle of aggression and or extremism. The plain fact that bears repeating, after too many months of 'unimaginable horrors', is that the air strikes and attacks on aid distribution need to stop. Killings need to stop. Children need to be able to live a normal life, not being casualties of war. Leaders everywhere must realise this and keep working towards diplomatic solutions to end all conflicts. As Mr Beigbeder said of this unconscionable reality that has continued for far too long: 'How many more dead girls and boys will it take?'
