Saving Lives in Cardiff, review: however familiar the format, it's impossible not to be moved
Then again, the chances of me being able to sit for eight hours manoeuvring a delicate joystick in order to robotically remove a life-threatening tumour from behind the nose of a jolly ex-copper called Terry are next to zero. Thankfully for us, the likes of Prof Stuart Quine, the man in charge of said joystick, are wired differently.
We know the score with the Saving Lives strand by now. Filmed at Cardiff and Vale University hospital, patients with tricky (that's putting it mildly) conditions check in, a mixture of hope and fear in their eyes, to put their lives in the hands of the surgeons they trust to put their lives back on track. Yet, however familiar the format, it's impossible not to be moved by the stories which unfold before our eyes.
Aside from the almost impossibly chipper Terry, we also met Courtney, who, at 27 and hoping to start a family, had been diagnosed with Chiari malformation, a condition where the brain is too big for the skull. You're right, this is where things turned squeamish.
Though the sequences aren't overdone, Saving Lives does feature up-close and bloody operation shots that are not for the faint-hearted. Watching a surgeon painstakingly pick their way through the pulsing scarlet inner workings of a brain is a stiff test of anyone's queasometer.
Of course, no show set in a UK hospital in 2025 can sidestep the issues facing the NHS. And while the problem of ever-growing waiting lists is not front and centre, it's there all the same, with captions of escalating numbers, the implication that surgeons are having to choose which lives to save lurks like a spectre at the feast.
Still, rather like Noel Fitzpatrick's Supervet series, you can tell that the producers strive to steer towards the stories that have upbeat outcomes, however much jeopardy is injected into the story arcs of the cases we follow. But gird those loins because my guess is that future episodes may feature tears for sorrow as well as joy. Because, well, life is like that.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Kelsey Parker breaks silence on baby loss with heartbreaking admission
EXCLUSIVE: Podcaster and Tom Parker's widow Kelsey Parker has devastatingly shared how she told her children about the death of her baby Phoenix and how they are navigating grief Kelsey Parker is "taking each day as it comes" as she opens up for the first time about the loss of her baby Phoenix. The podcast host and widow of The Wanted's Tom Parker sadly announced her third child was born stillborn at 39 weeks in June. She had looked forward to welcoming her first child with partner Will Lindsay, who she found love with two years after Tom's tragic death from an inoperable brain tumor in 2022. After announcing she was pregnant in January, five months later, Kelsey broke the devastating news that the little boy who they had named Phoenix, was stillborn. A bereft Kelsey took time away from social media and from work. Speaking out in her first interview since the tragedy, Kelsey said: "I didn't think I'd be living a relived experience, first losing Tom and now losing Phoenix. "But I think with any grief and loss, you have to take each day as it come and work through it." About one in every 250 births results in a stillbirth, according to the NHS. Kelsey is mum to children Aurelia, six, and Bodhi, four, with The Wanted singer, and now the family have now experienced death again with their younger sibling. "For the kids, it just breaks my heart for them because obviously we wanted the happy ever after and to have Phoenix but that didn't pan out for us," Kelsey says. The mum said when it came to breaking the sad news to Aurelia and Bodhi so soon after they'd lost their father, she used her first encounter with grief to guide her with the latest heartbreak. "I spoke about it like I did with Tom, I just told them the truth. "I think that's all you can do with your children, in anything you're going through, be honest. Because I think people underestimate their children and what their children can cope with. Children have little ears and they listen to a lot of conversations." While filming her documentary, Kelsey Parker: Life After Tom, the mum met a family who lost their dad to suicide. "The children said they felt so shut out because all the adults kept coming and having conversations in rooms and shutting the children out and I think they felt isolated. Whereas I don't want my children to feel like that, they are very involved in the conversations." Kelsey revealed losing their dad Tom actually helped Aurelia and Bodhi grieve Phoenix. "I think for them it actually makes it easier because they've gone through loss, they understand what death is. "We're sort of almost like the Addams Family because we've gone though so much death and darkness. The children are very aware. "Aurelia likes to tell people that her dad's died and her brother's died. She will openly say it, but it's other people's reactions. They can't cope with how honest and open we are. "But it's a fact of life, we are all going to die that is one thing guaranteed. We're going to be born and we're going die." Kelsey has received the love and support from her family during the devastating time, and been supported by Tom's parents who she remains close with. "Noreen and Nige, Tom's mum and dad, have literally been there for me every day since. We were absolutely devastated. I call Noreen all the time, we always talk. "We're going through grief again." Noreen had shared her blessings when Kelsey became pregnant with Phoenix. "I knew she would [be ok with her having another child] because she wants me to be happy," said Kelsey. "She wants her grandchildren to be happy, that's all we want after going through something so tragic. She's just there for me and she's a massive, massive support. "We spoke to each other every day since losing Phoenix and she was just as devastated as as every family member because she wanted that happiness for me and the kids." Kelsey decided to announce Phoenix's death with an emotional and touching poem, which was titled: "For Phoenix, Born Sleeping, Forever Loved." It read: "The world grew quiet as you arrived. So loved, so longed for, yet not alive. Our precious boy, our angel light. Born with wings, took silent flight. "We named you Phoenix, brave and bright. A soul of love, of warmth and light. Though we never heard you cry, you'll live in hearts that won't ask why." Kelsey's poem for her late son concluded: "No breath you drew, no eyes to see. Still, you mean everything to me. You'll journey with us, softly near. In every sigh, in every tear." Sharing her decision to post the poem, Kelsey said she was feeling 'raw' about the loss but wanted to be honest about what had happened. "I knew everyone was going to be so devastated for me because the messages I've had. [People say] 'how can you go through this again? You've lost the love of your life, now you're going through this'." Kelsey still finds grief in the public eye hard, but there are some aspects that add comfort. "People know on a public level what I've been through so if I had lost Phoenix and had to go and do the school run and people didn't know, I think that would be really hard because people would be saying 'where's the baby'." Kelsey has decided to slowly return to work as she navigates her grief. She has teamed up with Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub for a campaign aiming to get people to revisit memories trapped in old phones, so the device can be donated to someone who needs it. "Work gets me through hard times," Kelsey shared. "Some people don't like work, I love work. I am trying to take it slowly, ease myself back in." She has been supported by her Mum's the Word podcast co-host Georgia Jones during her break away. "Georgia has actually been a massive support and she's messaging me each week and checking in and making sure I'm okay," Kelsey shared. She also threw herself and her kids into routine following Phoenix's death, something she is finding harder now it is the school summer break. Sharing the reason behind her tough decision, Kelsey confessed: "I think that was important for people to see me at the school and for the kids to see that you have to be strong and you have to be brave however tough life is. "You have to be brave and show up and that's what I try and do. Show up for my children so they can look at me and go, you know what, my mummy's very strong. She will get us through anything." Yet, not everyday is straight forward in grief. "It's the same when I lost Tom, you have really, really s**t days that you actually can't get out of bed and you think, am I ever going to get through this? But I have two children that need me. You can literally be one second laughing, the next minute crying. Grief hits you different times." Kelsey Parker is supporting Virgin Media O2 and Hubbub's Community Calling initiative to encourage people to donate unwanted smartphones to those who need them. Through Community Calling – an initiative set up to tackle digital exclusion – unused, working devices can be rehomed to someone in need. More information can be found at
Times
6 hours ago
- Times
I swore at the Queen. She was very kind
An invitation to meet the monarch might make anyone anxious. There's the dress code and the correct royal address, plus the bowing or curtsying to think about. So when John Davidson was asked to meet Queen Elizabeth in 2019 he could be forgiven his nerves. 'It was already daunting,' Davidson says. 'But for people like me, pressure and stress make you do your absolute worst.'His troubles began as his car entered Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh and police inspected the vehicle's underside with little mirrors on stalks. Donaldson opened the car window and began shouting: 'A bomb! I've got a f***ing bomb!' By the time he was in front of Her Majesty, all royal protocol was out the window, the voice in his head too hard to control. 'F*** the Queen!' he shouted.'Her Majesty was very kind. She was as calm and assured as my granny. She was very good about it,' Davidson says. Welcome to the extraordinary world of Tourette syndrome. The Queen made allowances for Davidson (he'd already shouted 'I'm a paedo!' in the tapestry-lined hallway) because he was there to receive an MBE for his work raising awareness about the condition. • Read expert advice on healthy living, fitness and wellbeing According to NHS England, Tourette syndrome affects one in a hundred school-age children, but it's almost certainly not what you think it is. Coprolalia (swearing) affects about 10 per cent of those with the condition; echolalia (repeating others' words) and palilalia (repeating one's own words) are more common. Up to 85 per cent also have conditions including OCD, ADHD, anxiety and autism. Physical 'ticcing', which might involve exaggerated blinking or twitching, is common too, although in Davidson's case it includes grander gestures such as shoving loved ones towards traffic or putting hands over a driver's eyes when they are at the wheel of a car. 'The tic urge often comes when I'm anxious, stressed or tired,' he explains, 'and then it's an exhausting mental battle telling myself, 'John, that's the absolute worst thing you could do in this moment,' and then trying not to do it.' Davidson was a happy-go-lucky kid who grew up in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. He loved playing football and riding his BMX. Aged ten he had his tonsils and appendix out in quick succession. 'I'll never know the trigger, but after that last operation I began to feel different,' he recalls. 'There is one theory that a streptococcus infection can trigger Tourette's, but who knows?' He first noticed his exaggerated blinking on a family holiday on the Costa Brava in Spain. But it was when his mother accidentally stepped on a lizard and screamed that Davidson crossed a boundary. 'I called my mum a stupid cow,' he recalls. 'I didn't want to say it, and I didn't even mean it, but Tourette's is like someone else controlling my mind.' This is the exquisite torture of the coprolalia component of Tourette syndrome: sufferers aren't mouthing off or delivering a few home truths. More often than not they want to do the right thing but realise with horror that rogue brain circuits will make them do the opposite. It's a spectrum condition. Some people barely notice their tics; Davidson's quickly got him into trouble. He alienated school friends by skipping down the high street and licking the lampposts. When he began spitting food into the faces of his parents and siblings (he has a brother and two sisters) at the dinner table he was forced to eat with the family dog, Honey. 'My dad is a joiner, a very quiet, self-contained man,' Davidson says. 'There was no information about Tourette's, so I was just this alien child. He just couldn't cope.' His father eventually left, and his mother struggled on alone. Meanwhile, by the time Davidson was 12 the local GP believed he was having a complete nervous breakdown and suggested psychiatric care. He was now barking at dogs and certainly in a bad place mentally. 'You'd be better off killing me,' he told his mother. 'And I did genuinely feel that,' Davidson says. 'People with Tourette's are four times as likely to commit suicide as the general population. I felt like someone else had control of me and, as a kid, that's just terrifying.' It was while Davidson was in a psychiatric hospital, medicated with the powerful antipsychotic drug Haloperidol, that a neurologist finally identified the problem: full-blown 'Tourette's plus', the condition in its most severe form. Davidson presents copalalia, echolalia, OCD and ADHD. Luckily his diagnosis seemed to coincide with the dawn of a wider understanding. In 1989 the BBC made a documentary about him called John's Not Mad. Bizarrely the moral campaigner Mary Whitehouse insisted the BBC show it after 11pm because it contained so much swearing. The corporation resisted and it attracted a huge audience at 9pm. One of the documentary's contributors was the acclaimed writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks, who offered invaluable advice. 'Oliver Sacks told me, 'Accept the condition or it will dominate you,' and that has stayed with me,' Davidson says. 'It's there, I have to work with it.' That's harder than it sounds. Keeping his mind busy helps. Planning for stressful situations such as a visit to the cinema works too. But a new memoir about his life, I Swear, contains really heartbreaking stories, such as when Davidson is sent to stay with his strict God-fearing grandparents and asked to avoid the c-word. He calls his grandmother 'Granny c***'. We feel the visceral stress of him meeting Tommy Trotter, who gave him a job helping at a community centre. Trotter happens to have red hair, and Davidson's opening gambit is: 'F*** off, you fat ginger c***!' Incredibly they become lifelong friends. After the BBC documentary people became nicer to him, though a few oddballs came out of the woodwork. One day Davidson was home alone, caring for his pet rabbit Snowy, when there was a knock at the door. An exorcist who'd seen the programme had tracked him down. Standing on the front step in a hooded robe and holding a crucifix, he announced: 'You're possessed by demons and we need to dispel them!' Usually Davidson swears because he can't help it, but for once his response — 'Look, I need to deal with my rabbit so will you just f*** off?' — was just regular anger. Things really began to improve the day his school friend Murray invited him to play football and then to have tea at his house. Davidson initially declined because he'd heard that Murray's mother, Dottie, had liver cancer and only six months to live. Obviously horrible for Dottie, but a huge challenge for Davidson too. And yet he went, and despite his greeting ('Ha ha! You're gannae f***ing die!'), they became firm friends. In fact, Davidson moved in with Murray, Dottie and her husband, Chris. Equally extraordinarily, her liver cancer turned out to be a misdiagnosis (hemangioma, a benign liver tumour) and he now calls her his stepmother. 'That made my real mum feel guilty for a long time because she felt she had let me down,' Davidson says. 'But it's hard to explain just how hard it was for her dealing with me alone. Over the years I hope I've convinced her she did her best and she really needed a break.' Davidson's new family gave him a new lease of life. He got that job at a local community centre, became a youth worker and was eventually recognised as the leading national campaigner for awareness of Tourette syndrome. 'The MBE was the proudest moment of my life,' he says. 'I never thought I'd even have a life, let alone be able to help people and get recognised for it.' As well as the memoir, a film, also called I Swear, will be released in October, with an extraordinary turn by Robert Aramayo as Davidson. But we live in a post-Salt Path world, and questions about the authenticity of Raynor Winn's bestseller have made people sceptical of extreme life stories. Oddly, that means that when I meet Davidson I'm a bit disappointed about how gentle and articulate he is. Is this really the guy who, when he met Kirk Jones, the film's director, made him a cup of tea then told him, 'I used spunk for milk'? I ask around. Yes, that happened. But it still comes as almost a relief when halfway through our interview, apropos of nothing, Davidson barks, 'F*** off!' We live in censorious times. Do some people envy his freedom to say extreme things? 'Oh yeah, I meet people who say: 'John, you get to speak your mind, I'd love some of that.' Believe me, though, you do not want Tourette's. I've been attacked in the street for saying things I didn't even want to say.' Davidson may one day soon become an interesting medical footnote. Technology promises to make Tourette syndrome a thing of the past. The University of Nottingham has developed a wristband device called a Neupulse that acts on the median nerve at the wrist. Electrical pulses suppress the urge to tic, and trials show a 25 per cent reduction in symptoms. Davidson has tried it and the results were very encouraging. 'My tics were massively reduced,' he says, 'and my anxiety about ticcing was way down too.' However, when the device becomes commercially available Davidson says he will use it sparingly. 'As a kid I would have given literally anything to get rid of Tourette's. Now I just want to be me. Tourette's has given me massive insight into and empathy for humanity. I honestly think it's integral to who I am.' • Tourette's and the teenage girl — why are so many developing tics? One well-known figure with Tourette syndrome is the Brit award-winning Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi, who two years ago abandoned his world tour to deal with his symptoms. Davidson would like to meet him and offer some advice; he speculates that Capaldi might have tried the drug Haloperidol. 'I was on it for 30 years, and it basically makes you tired and hungry all the time. It doesn't cure Tourette's, it's just a way of doctors shutting you up, and to me that's not the right approach. We've come such a long way since the 1980s. I would like anyone reading the book or seeing the film to laugh with, not at. And everyone struggling with it to know there is hope.'I Swear by John Davidson (Transworld £18.99). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
Daily Mirror
9 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Gala Bingo ‘glitch' causes chaos as players LOSE out on 'winnings' of up to £10k
Gala Bingo players were left fruious when their 'winnings' of up to £10,000 were suddenly found to have been caused by a technical error. The company has apologised to punters Thousands of Gala Bingo players saw joy turn to anguish after their winnings of up to £10,000 were blamed on a 'technical error'. Gala Bingo blamed an error with their system after thousands of players won their share of a £1.6 million prize pot on Monday night. The company has apologised for the error and said it has made a goodwill gesture to punters, but some of those who thought they had won big are still upset Jacqui Norrish, 41, thought she had won a hefty £9,599.47, but later received an email from Gala Bingo that said an error had 'incorrectly credited [her account] with Bingo winnings '. It comes after reports state pensioners could lose DWP payments after 'unfair' £10,000 rule. The furious business owner told The Sun: 'It's absolutely outrageous how big companies can play with people's lives like this, it's disgraceful. I'm a fairly regular player with Gala Bingo, but I don't pay big stakes or anything.' She said she began playing at around 4:30pm on Monday and first won over £1,200 less than three hours later. 'I couldn't believe my luck,' she said. Jacqui, from Torbay in Devon, added: 'Then I got another win 20 minutes later for £2,280 and was already spending the money in my head. 'Then I won £1,600, £2,400 and then another prize of £1,800. I won a few more prizes before it stopped, I had almost £10k in my account.' Jacqui then said she saw other winners asking the Gala chat host if the winnings were real. It said 'enjoy your winnings', but the money never made it to Jacqui's account when she withdrew her prize. She said she was going to pay for private care to get her daughter tested for autism due to a wait on the NHS lsit. She also planned to pay off the rest of her husband's car and said she is 'absolutely gutted' by what happened. 'When you've been told you've won something and then it's snatched away, it makes you feel terrible.' she said. A pensioner in Kent, meanwhile, hoped to pay for an operation for her beloved Collie-cross Cooper. Jill Douthwaite, 72 and from Edenbridge, thought she had won £2,700. She said: "I was so relieved because I thought I could spend £500 to save my dog's eyesight. We're a family who can't afford to go on holidays and we've been struck with a lot of bad luck in the past too. 'My daughter even phoned her dad to say she could repay his loan for the car, but then she had to go back on her word because Gala Bingo did.' Gala Bingo, which has contacted the Gambling Commission due to the incident, has said customers would not receive their winnings. Instead, they would be refunded what they spent on Bingo Tickets. A Gala Bingo spokesperson said: "We apologise to customers for a technical error which occurred during our Summer Nights Bingo promotion for a short period of time, resulting in all players receiving incorrect payouts. Our customer Terms and Conditions clearly state that in the event of a malfunction, winnings can be voided. Affected players have been contacted directly with a gesture of goodwill."
