Devon Surfathon raises money for charity project
Surfers have taken to the waves for a 12-hour event on a North Devon beach to raise money for a charity project.Surf therapy charity The Wave Project hosted its Inclusive Surfathon at Croyde beach on Friday to fundraise for its adaptive surfing programme, which provides opportunities for people with physical disabilities to try the sport.During the day instructors and volunteers offered support to surfers.Ian Bennett, inclusive lead at the charity, said there had been a lot of planning for the event and the end result was "amazing".
Mr Bennett said more than 30 volunteers had helped about 20 surfers who had visited from across the country during the surfathon.The 2024 BBC South West Unsung Hero award winner added he hoped the event would be a showcase for the importance of the adaptive surfing programme."It's so difficult to access the ocean for someone with a physical disability", he said."It's an expensive sport for us to enable more access to more people, but breaking down these barriers and raising that money to help that happen, that's what it's all about."
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The Sun
30 minutes ago
- The Sun
I have to tuck my belly into my pants after fat jabs made me tiny but other crazy side effects will cost me £9K to fix
FINISHING an eight-mile run, Tracy Hughes walks into her bathroom and turns on the shower. Wearing her form-fitting exercise kit, the mum-of-four has a svelte size 10 body that women half her age would be envious of. 8 8 8 But as Tracy, 47, peels off her leggings, she reveals a secret - her jelly belly - five pounds of loose and wobbly skin. 'I have lost seven stone in just eight months using fat jabs, ' she says. 'I used to weigh 20st and now I tip the scales at just 13st.' However, while Tracy is thrilled with her new physique, she admits her weight loss has come with plenty of unwanted side effects. 'Topping the list is my jelly belly and it has to be packed into my knickers and trousers every day,' she says. 'I have learnt no amount of exercise will make your body's skin shrink and ping back to normal. 'Now I have five pounds of loose skin on my stomach. The top of my thighs is also covered in flabby folds despite running eight miles a day, three days a week and working out at the gym.' But it isn't just her loose skin that is causing an issue for Tracy. 'I've also seen my feet and hands shrink dramatically and I now have a turkey neck, ' she adds. 'To fix these side effects, I'm planning on forking out more than £9,000 on plastic surgery, including a tummy tuck, face lift, liposuction, as well as filler and Botox. 'No one tells you about these side effects.' Regional childcare manager Tracy is married to Ian, 50, a postman and lives in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. The pair have four daughters aged 30, 25, 21 and 14 and three grandchildren aged between three and five months old. Growing up, Tracy was slim but after she had her first child in 1995 she saw her weight creep up. 'I went from a svelte size 12 to an uncomfortable size 20,' she admits. 'I ballooned during pregnancy and couldn't shift the weight. 'After each child, I'd diet and exercise, but the weight never seemed to shift. 'If I did lose a few pounds, I'd pile it back on again. 'The food noise in my head was overwhelming, and I couldn't find an eating plan that worked for me,' she says. 8 8 Over the past 25 years, Tracy tried milkshake diets, low-fat eating, calorie counting, soup diets, juicing, even the Atkins eating plan and Keto diets to lose weight. 'I managed to lose five stone on the Cambridge Diet, but I couldn't control the food noise long enough and the weight piled back on again,' she says. 'I have been on a diet, or thinking about what diet to try next, for the past 25 years. It's been overwhelming.' At her biggest, Tracy was a size 20, tipping the scales at 20st and had a BMI of 45.4, making her obese and at risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. 'My family and I would spend £350 a month on greasy takeaways, I loved kebabs, burgers and curries,' she says. 'But I was covered in stretch marks and hated myself and my body.' Tracy admits her weight gain was also worsening her menopause symptoms. 'I couldn't sleep properly or get comfortable. I was constantly turning in bed. 'My husband made me sleep in another room, complaining that I was so hot it was like sleeping next to a radiator. 'Whenever I felt down, I was stuffing my face with McDonald's takeaways, Chinese and kebabs.' However, last September when the couple celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with a vow renewal and a second honeymoon in Cyprus, it was breaking point. 'I looked back at the vow renewal photos and burst into tears. 'I just sobbed. I thought I looked like a whale. 'It was what I needed to make me determined to lose weight.' That was when Tracy decided to take the advice of a friend who'd attended her vow renewal. She recalls: 'When she arrived, I almost didn't recognise her. My pal had lost a huge amount of weight and was glowing. 'When I asked her what her secret was, she told me it was Mounjaro. 'So instead of relaxing on break in Cyprus, I ordered the weight loss jabs with a private prescription. 'The injections cost £170 a month and the month's supply arrived before we got home from our second honeymoon.' Tracy started taking Mounjaro in September last year and says within 24 hours she felt the food noise in her head stop for the first time in almost three decades. 'I woke up and wasn't wanting to eat or obsessing about food,' she says. 'I went for a walk that day and signed up to a gym.' 'I was thriving' Tracy lost a stone in the first month on Mounjaro and then each month after that the weight continued to drop off. 'Within a month, I was back running, slowly building up the distance day by day,' she says. 'I started going to the gym and training for a half marathon, my energy levels were through the roof. 'I was thriving, exercising. I was eating smaller portions. I no longer wanted a glass of wine, and I was only craving healthy foods like lean protein and vegetables.' However, in the last two months, Tracy admits she started noticing the unusual side effects while using the jab. 'As I lost the weight and was rapidly dropping dress sizes, I noticed my stomach was still flabby and floppy,' she says. 'It's when I hit the five-stone weight loss mark, I realised the skin wasn't going to ping back into shape even though I was running 24 miles a week and working out. 'Since then, the more I shrink, the more flab folds develop on my so-called 'Ozempic jelly belly'. 'It has to be packed into my tummy control knickers.' Tracy admits that her loose skin has put a stop to her wearing certain items of clothing. 'I can't wear a bikini until I have my 'Mounjaro plastic surgery makeover',' she says. 'I will have to wear a full swimsuit with tummy control pants to keep my belly folded into place.' Tracy is now planning on spending more than £9,000 on plastic surgery to iron out the side effects of her fat jabs. 'I know I need a tummy tuck liposuction, a breast uplift, and a thigh lift to deal with the loose skin left from the jabs,' she says. 'I tell people losing weight is only half the journey you have to start saving now for plastic surgery.' Everything you need to know about fat jabs Weight loss jabs are all the rage as studies and patient stories reveal they help people shed flab at almost unbelievable rates, as well as appearing to reduce the risk of serious diseases. Wegovy – a modified version of type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic – and Mounjaro are the leading weight loss injections used in the UK. Wegovy, real name semaglutide, has been used on the NHS for years while Mounjaro (tirzepatide) is a newer and more powerful addition to the market. Mounjaro accounts for most private prescriptions for weight loss and is set to join Wegovy as an NHS staple this year. How do they work? The jabs work by suppressing your appetite, making you eat less so your body burns fat for energy instead and you lose weight. They do this my mimicking a hormone called GLP-1, which signals to the brain when the stomach is full, so the drugs are officially called GLP-1 receptor agonists. They slow down digestion and increase insulin production, lowering blood sugar, which is why they were first developed to treat type 2 diabetes in which patients' sugar levels are too high. Can I get them? NHS prescriptions of weight loss drugs, mainly Wegovy and an older version called Saxenda (chemical name liraglutide), are controlled through specialist weight loss clinics. Typically a patient will have to have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, classifying them as medically obese, and also have a weight-related health condition such as high blood pressure. GPs generally do not prescribe the drugs for weight loss. Private prescribers offer the jabs, most commonly Mounjaro, to anyone who is obese (BMI of 30+) or overweight (BMI 25-30) with a weight-related health risk. Private pharmacies have been rapped for handing them out too easily and video calls or face-to-face appointments are now mandatory to check a patient is being truthful about their size and health. Are there any risks? Yes – side effects are common but most are relatively mild. Around half of people taking the drug experience gut issues, including sickness, bloating, acid reflux, constipation and diarrhoea. Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical consultant at said: 'One of the more uncommon side effects is severe acute pancreatitis, which is extremely painful and happens to one in 500 people.' Other uncommon side effects include altered taste, kidney problems, allergic reactions, gallbladder problems and hypoglycemia. Evidence has so far been inconclusive about whether the injections are damaging to patients' mental health. Figures obtained by The Sun show that, up to January 2025, 85 patient deaths in the UK were suspected to be linked to the medicines. One side effect which shocked Tracy was just how much her feet changed on the fat jabs. 'I went to put on my work sandals a month ago and they are too big,' she explains. 'I thought I was seeing things, so I pulled out a similar pair and my feet were too small for them as well. 'The weight loss jabs caused my feet to shrink and go down a shoe size. 'In the past my old shoes were tight due to my feet swelling but to realise my feet have actually shrunk from size nine to a size seven-and-a-half is jaw dropping.' Tracy says she has had to spend hundreds replacing all of her old shoes. 'I knew I'd be buying new clothes because I was losing weight but buying new shoes because you have gone down a shoe size is unheard of,' she says. 'I sold my old plus-size clothes on Vinted and have made £800. I was going to use that for a weekend away. Now I have had to use it for new shoes.' Tracy has had to have all her rings resized due to her shrinking fingers too. 'My engagement ring pinged off in the shower and I thought I'd lost it,' she says. 'Now after a seven-stone weight loss my husband has bought me a new wedding ring and engagement ring, and they are an entire size smaller. 'I didn't think the jab would mean I'd have to get new wedding rings, but it happened.' Tracy is now experiencing turkey neck – another side effect of the jabs. 'I noticed a month ago my neck skin stretches out and my under-chin skin is floppier,' she says. 'I have added that to my list of cosmetic surgery makeovers.' But even with the various side effects, Tracy says it was all worth it. "I feel amazing as thin Tracy,' she says. "I am more in control. I am addicted to Mounjaro. I don't want to stop the jabs as I know they are helping me so much," she says. "I know many people would complain about these weird effects. "For me it was a shock initially. "But I'd rather experience the odd shrinking foot and jelly belly to be half the woman I was.' 8 8 8
BBC News
32 minutes ago
- BBC News
Volunteers create mental health wellbeing garden in Maidstone
Volunteers have created a garden for NHS mental health patients and staff in Kent to Nature Recovery Garden in Maidstone has been officially inaugurated with a tree-planting took nine weeks for the team of volunteer gardeners to transform a neglected area into "a beautiful sensory garden" that "supports patients in their recovery journeys", the team Stenson, Kent & Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust chief executive, said the garden was "a remarkable sensory experience". She added: "This official opening not only celebrates our sensory garden, but also showcases the extraordinary spirit of our community and the commitment of our volunteers."The trust collaborated with Kent Wildlife Trust to conduct thorough wildlife surveys, revealing the area's ecological garden is a "mosaic of textures, vibrant colours, soothing sounds, and serene wellness spaces, all designed to promote healing and recovery", according to the from Mid Kent College also joined the volunteering team with the McInnes, charity and volunteers manager, said: "The feedback we've received has been overwhelmingly positive."Many patients and their loved ones find this space calming and enjoyable."
BBC News
37 minutes ago
- BBC News
Duggan returns as Devils 2025-26 roster takes shape
Sam Duggan is the seventh member of Cardiff Devil's 2025 Continental Cup winning roster to commit to another season with the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) British forward is returning for a seventh 26, joined the Devils in November 2018 and has played over 400 all-competition games for the Welsh in Reading, he began his career at Bracknell but played four years in Sweden from the age of of the Great Britain team who earned promotion to the top tier of the World Championship by winning Division I Group A in May, Duggan has lifted the EIHL play-off trophy twice with Cardiff in 2019 and 2022."Sam is one of my favourite players we have ever had in Cardiff," said Devils managing director Todd Kelman."He brings so much to this team, some of what the fans see on the ice and so much that they never see in the locker room and away from the rink." Duggan scored four goals and four assists in 52 league games last season as well as two play-off goals as Devils reached the final where they lost to Nottingham Panthers in double was a part of Cardiff's league-best penalty killing unit which recorded an 83.23% success rate."He is a glue guy for this club and part of that is because of the work ethic he puts in every shift and the positive energy he brings with him wherever he goes," added Kelman."I wish all players loved coming to the rink as much as he does."He scored some big goals for us in play-offs, and I think there is more of that to come next season."The 2025-26 season will start in September, though Cardiff begin their pre-season campaign against French side Gap Raptors on 16 side - now coached by Paul Thompson after the departure of Pete Russell - have already re-signed defencemen Evan Mosey and Gleason Fournier, and forwards Ryan Barrow, Kohen Olischefski, Josh MacDonald and player of the year Joey Martin who will return for a 10th have also added a new signing in American defenceman Brandon Estes from Danish League side Odense Bulldogs.
