New Cambridge centre specialises in children with bowel diseases
A new centre focused on improving the lives of children with inflammatory bowel diseases has opened in Cambridge. The Cambridge Centre for Children's Gut Health will see cutting-edge research from scientists at the University of Cambridge, including the study of "mini-guts".The mini organs are created from the cells donated by children, which allow scientists to study the bowel diseases and identify potential new treatments. Matt Zilbauer, director of the centre, said children and young people were "enthusiastic" about helping to better understand their conditions.
Professor Zilbauer, who is also a consultant at Addenbrooke's Hospital, hoped the new centre would help identify ways of personalising treatments.He also wanted it to give children access to the latest drugs, clinical trials and outstanding clinical care. Their study of mini-guts with a team at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, showed DNA changes may play an important role in Crohn's disease.After publishing their study, the team recruited a further 500 patients and generated nearly 1,000 organoids. "To study these diseases, we need our children and young people to donate a few extra tissue cells when we're investigating their condition," he said. "We couldn't do our research without their help."The children are amazing – they're all really keen to help us and to contribute to finding new treatments, even when they know these treatments may not benefit them directly."The centre will also have a psychiatric team.Claire Glemas, research nurse and patient engagement lead at Cambridge University Hospitals, said: "Inflammatory bowel diseases are lifelong conditions with no cure. "It's really tough for the children and young people we see, so it's important that we look after every aspect of their health. By looking after their mental health alongside their physical health, we hope to make their lives easier."
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The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
I ditched the gym and you can too – here are six ways to get fit without it
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These workouts can also be very simple: unless you want to look like a Marvel character, there's no need for dozens of movements. All you really need to focus on is what many trainers call the fundamental human movements: push, pull, squat, 'hinge', and carry – all of which can be done with a kettlebell, set of dumbells, or a bag of books if you're on a budget. My twice-weekly strength plan is as simple as it gets: two sets each of overhead presses (push), one-armed rows (pull) and goblet squats (hopefully obvious), and one set of kettlebell swings (this is the 'hinge', but so is any movement where the power comes from your hips, from picking a weight off the ground to doing the long jump). I get my carrying by doing the shopping – I usually do a big bagload or two once or twice a week. 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The Sun
42 minutes ago
- The Sun
My ‘Nozempic' diet helped me shed 12st after cruel bullies told me I'd be pretty if I wasn't so fat
WEIGHING in at 21st, food addict Sarah Jane Clark scoffed chocolate buttons for breakfast, and washed them down with a Coca-Cola. Cruel bullies taunted her with jibes about her size, while doctors warned she was eating herself to death and wouldn't live to see her 40th birthday. Shocked, the now 53-year-old took action and today the slender size 10 fitness guru tells Sun Health it wasn't weight loss jabs that saw her shed 12st. Growing up, Sarah Jane, from Swindon, Wiltshire, was always self-conscious about her weight. 'I got all sorts of comments like: 'Oh you'll always be a big girl, it runs in the family',' she tells Sun Health. 'At school I was a curvy size 14, horrendous damage was done. One lad, aged 13, told me: 'You'd be a really pretty girl if you weren't fat'. 'I wouldn't buy skirts because someone said to me once: 'Your legs are like rugby players' legs, like tree trunks'. 'That stuck in my head for years and years and years. It was in my subconscious.' 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'Her love language was baking and cooking, things like biscuits and cakes, and my gran was exactly the same. 'It was always sweet foods filled with jam, and always biscuits.' As she got older, Sarah Jane would start each day with a large bag of Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons and a can of Coca-Cola. At lunchtime, she would tuck into a sandwich, with a packet of crisps, biscuits and cake. And for dinner, she would have a ready meal or takeaway. Sarah Jane would only drink full-sugar coke, coffee with milk and two sugars, and cups of tea accompanied by endless packets of biscuits. This highly processed, high sugar diet took its toll on her body, but also her mental health. 'I remember once in a restaurant, a group of lads pointed over to me, calling me 'the Hulk' and giggling,' she says. 'I worked in a hair salon at the time and my colleagues would arrange nights out and I wouldn't be invited. 'I would find out afterwards and they'd say: 'Oh we didn't think you'd want to come, it wouldn't be your thing'. 'But I knew that it was because they didn't want to be seen with me. I wasn't stupid.' 8 8 8 Sarah Jane then worked with a consultant psychiatrist who said sugar was as addictive as cocaine. She was 'really pleased' to have an explanation as to why she couldn't stop eating, but it didn't help her quit junk food. Eventually in her mid-20s, when she was a size 28 and her periods had stopped due to her weight, she got the wake-up call she needed. 'Doctors told me: 'You are eating yourself to death. You won't make it to 40',' she says. Sarah Jane, then 25, began to make small changes, starting by simply walking for 30 minutes every day and drinking more water. She then banned takeaways and processed or unhealthy foods, and she lost 7st in 16 months. At 27, she gave birth to her daughter Chloe, now 27, and was then 18st - having lost 4st through walking and eating a healthier diet. A year later she had her son Jack, now 26, and was 15st 8lbs after giving birth. 'My body continues to amaze me' 'I hadn't really been on a diet, I just changed one thing a step at a time,' she says. 'But the healthier I became, the healthier I wanted to be. It just felt amazing.' Sarah Jane, previously an administrative assistant at a mental health hospital and now founder of Step By Step With Sarah Jane, went on to take up running and weight training at the gym. Despite being told she wouldn't see 40, she ran Cancer Research UK's 5km Race for Life for her 40th birthday, weighing 12st. She has now completed 50 half marathons and run the London Marathon twice, and stabilised at a trim 9st 10lb for the last five years. 'My body continues to amaze me. I love a healthy lifestyle,' she says. As well as losing weight, Sarah Jane found love. After splitting from her previous partner aged 28, she met and fell for Paul Flounders, 53, in 2021 and they married in 2024. 'I met Paul through our love of running and that's made a massive difference,' Sarah Jane says. 'When I told him about my weight loss journey, he said I was amazing. Because I didn't feel like that about myself I couldn't believe he would think that about me. 'He is an incredible man who has served in the forces, been all around the world and he thinks little old me is amazing, so we are a really good combination for each other.' 8 8 8 She hopes sharing her story will show others that anyone can turn their life around. 'Educate yourself about what you are eating and read the ingredients,' she says. 'If the food has more than five ingredients, don't eat it. 'Take food back to basics and move your body every day - a 20-minute walk daily will make you so much fitter.' And to women turning to weight loss jabs like Ozempic, she adds: 'People don't understand that food is highly emotional - a lot of women are eating their feelings so food addiction is massive. 'You can't just inject yourself and love yourself. 'I understand the desperation and would have ripped someone's arm off for a weight loss jab back in the day, but it is not the answer. 'You need to look at the psychological reasons for food addiction. 'I see people on jabs still eating crap food. I don't think it is the miracle people think it is.'
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Hospital bosses axe patient home transport service
Hospital bosses have decided to end a service that took patients home after they had been scheme, which was run by Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, served patients Preston and Chorley hospitals and meant people who did not have their own transport did not face long waits for ambulances. The Local Democracy Reporting Service has learned the transport ended last month. The Trust, which is looking to save £60m, described it has an "additional private service" and said the contract had not been renewed. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
