Health study seeks British Bangladeshi and Pakistani volunteers
British Bangladeshi and British Pakistani people aged 16 and over are asked to provide a small saliva sample at participating GP practices and hospitals, complete a short questionnaire about their health and agree for Genes & Health to securely link to their NHS health data.They can also sign up online and be sent a saliva kit to complete at home.Volunteers will be asked to give their consent to be contacted again and some may be invited to take part in further studies based on information from their samples and NHS data. The study will contribute to analysing genetic differences and towards the development of new drug treatments that are safe and effective.It has already made important discoveries, including the identification of genetic factors specific to South Asian people that leads to earlier type 2 diabetes onset.Participants can withdraw at any time and samples and information are kept separate from personal details.Researchers said the study was working with people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities as "they are significantly underrepresented in genetic research, meaning that they may not benefit from research discoveries and new treatment".Dr Ahmed said she would request everyone from the two ethnic groups to participate, "just like some 65,000 people, who have already participated in the other parts of the country".The study is supported by the government-funded Medical Research Council and medial charity Wellcome Trust.Selected sites are open in towns and cities including Oxford, Reading and Aylesbury.The study aims to recruit 100,000 people living in England by the end of 2028.
You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Doctors dismissed woman's common symptoms for months... until they discovered she had a deadly colon cancer
A Pennsylvania woman was diagnosed with deadly cancer after being dismissed by doctors. Rylie Toomey, 27, was in the midst of planning her wedding and training for a half marathon when she was struck with unbearable abdominal pain in October 2024. She rushed to the hospital, where doctors performed a CT scan and insisted she was just constipated before sending her home. Doctors told her the same thing when she returned every few months for testing, until she ended up in the emergency department screaming in pain this past April. She was also suffering from a fever. She said: 'In my head I was like, I think I'm going to die - that's how much pain I was in. 'I felt like I was being stabbed, and my belly was super bloated, too. It felt like I was just going to explode.' Toomey had suffered a perforated bowel, meaning there was a hole in her intestinal wall. During that hospital visit, another CT scan detected stage four colon cancer that had spread to her liver and lungs - and she became one of the thousands of young Americans who have been diagnosed with colorectal cancer despite living healthy lives. Toomey told 'When you hear, "You have cancer," you're just like, that can't be right. That can't be me because leading up to this, I was so healthy. 'To hear that I had colon cancer just didn't make sense, just because you feel like colon cancer is linked to unhealthy people or people who eat unhealthy or the elderly. 'I just was not expecting that at all.' The American Cancer Society estimates over 154,000 Americans will be stuck by colorectal cancer this year, including about 20,000 under 50. While this is roughly in line with two decades ago, the disease is rising sharply in younger groups. From 1999 to 2018, the rate of colorectal cancer in the under-50 population rose from 8.6 cases per 100,000 people to 13 cases per 100,000 people. Colorectal cancer diagnoses in 20- to 34-year-olds is set to increase by 90 percent between 2010 and 2030, and rates for teenagers have surged 500 percent since the early 2000s. Lifestyle factors like diet, lack of exercise and a sedentary lifestyle have all been blamed, though these causes fail to explain why physically fit people like Toomey have increasingly been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The latest evidence, published in April, also suggests childhood exposure to a toxin released by E. coli bacteria could increase the risk of colorectal cancer by triggering inflammation and altering the balance of the gut microbiome. Marijuana was also linked to colorectal cancer in a recent study, as it is thought to block tumor-suppressing cells. Toomey told that she regularly plays lacrosse, runs and cycles and sticks to a healthy diet. She also has no family history of colon cancer. About one in five colorectal cancer patients are diagnosed like Toomey, after a bowel-related emergency often caused by the tumor growing, recent research shows. Toomey is now receiving chemotherapy every two weeks and regular immunotherapy infusions, with eight treatments left. Treatment forced her to push back her wedding, which was supposed to take place last month, and schedule it for June 2026. She said: 'It's definitely something that keeps me going right now. It's kind of hard to stay positive in situations like this, but this is something that's bringing me joy and keeping me going.' Friends have set up a GoFundMe page for medical expenses. Toomey is also urging other young people with symptoms to get checked out immediately and push for answers, even if doctors are dismissive. She said: 'I just don't want anybody to ever go through something like this. I think this happened for a reason so I can help others.'
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
Air ambulance called to Ozzy Osbourne's home before he died
An air ambulance was called to Ozzy Osbourne's country home before he died, it has emerged. The helicopter landed in a field close to Welders House, the Black Sabbath singer's Grade II listed house in Jordans, Buckinghamshire, on Tuesday morning. Urgent calls from the house had led the emergency services to believe Osbourne's life was in danger, MailOnline reported. The singer's death at the age of 76 was announced in a statement by his family on Tuesday night. Police officers are not thought to have attended the property, and the death has not been referred to the county's coroner. The helicopter was reportedly dispatched from the Thames Valley ambulance base at RAF Benson in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, 27 miles from Osbourne's home. It was seen landing at 10.30am before taking off again at around 12.30pm. The crew were airborne for around 15 minutes before landing in the grounds of the house. They were with Osbourne for around two hours, it was reported. One resident, who did not wish to be named, told MailOnline: 'I went out to have a look and saw that it was landing close to Ozzy's house. 'All of us were talking about it and wondering what had happened. We immediately feared it may be for him as he was known to be in fragile health.' A spokesman for Thames Valley Air Ambulance said: 'We can confirm that our helicopter was dispatched to provide advanced critical care at an incident near Chalfont St Giles yesterday.'
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
Washington state hides how many people die by assisted suicide
Washington state will no longer release data on how many people choose to die by assisted suicide. The Washington State Department of Health (DoH) has scrapped its annual report showing how many people are choosing an assisted death, blaming budget limitations. By law, the health service is required to publish a yearly report that breaks down the number of deaths by age and demographics. It also includes accounts of the reasons patients choose an assisted death, which campaigners have said are an 'essential' guardrail to ensure vulnerable people are not being coerced into ending their lives. However, the health service said it has taken the 'difficult decision' to suspend producing the report to free up staff to 'prioritise patient safety and other critical work'. The move has sparked dismay among doctors and disability rights campaigners who warned that it creates 'serious risks of abuse'. Dr Ramona Coelho, a family medicine practitioner based in London, Ontario, told The Telegraph: 'An accountable assisted suicide regime requires oversight. 'Assisted suicide is not a medical decision; it is a legal act, with specific eligibility criteria and procedural safeguards that must be met. 'A lack of reporting creates serious risks of abuse, negligence, and erosion of public trust.' 'Transparency is essential' Experts have warned that scrapping reporting will lead to a lack of oversight of assisted deaths in the state. 'When the state plays a role in the premature deaths of its own citizens, transparency isn't optional – it's essential. But without full, accessible data on assisted suicide, the public can't know whether cases are rising or falling, or if vulnerable groups are disproportionately affected,' said Rebecca Vachon, the director for Health at Cardus. 'So, this isn't just a data issue; it's a question of life and death. If anything needs to be cut, it's assisted suicide itself – not the public's right to know.' Jessica Rodgers, a director at Patients Rights Action Fund, said scrapping reporting could lead to abuses going unreported. 'This data, which consistently shows patients request lethal drugs for reasons of disability, not wanting to be a burden and concerns around the costs of treatment, is the foundation of accountability,' she said. 'Simply to ignore this provision begs the question of what else is ignored and what abuses remain unreported.' 'No longer following own laws' Alexander Raikin, bioethics expert at the Ethics and Public Policy Centre, said the decision represents one of 'the largest assisted suicide programmes in the United States no longer following its own laws'. The state adopted the Death with Dignity Act in 2009, becoming the second US state after Oregon to legalise assisted dying. The law, which allowed terminally ill adults to request medication to end their lives, was expanded in 2023 to reduce the 15-day waiting period to receive lethal drugs to seven days, and allow nurses to prescribe and mail medication to patients. Since passing the legislation, the number of people in the state who have opted for an assisted death every year has increased by more than 500 per cent to 524 people, according to 2023 figures. While the most common age to choose an assisted death in Washington is between 75 and 84, there were 28 people aged under 54 who died under the scheme in 2023. The DoH has been locked in a funding battle over the Death with Dignity programme, which cost $225,000 in 2025. In a policy document, the department argued that current funding levels are 'insufficient to deliver data and reporting that reflect the department's commitment to data usability and transparency'. As a result, the DoH said it has made 'reductions', including ending its annual reporting.
