Team take on three peaks in memory of Blackburn firefighter who died of cancer
A group of firefighters took on the Three Peaks on Tuesday (May 20) in memory of a Blackburn firefighter who died of cancer.
Members of Blackburn Fire Station's red watch took part in the Three Peaks Challenge, where they attempted to climb the three highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales, in 24 hours.
This was in memory of Beccy Barr, a former firefighter and BBC presenter, who died last year aged 46.
Beccy announced she had incurable abdominal cancer in December 2023.
The team shared pictures of themselves at the top of Snowdon, Wales' highest peak, when they finished the challenge.
They also shared a picture of themselves before they started climbing Ben Nevis in Scotland, the UK's highest point and the start of the challenge.
Blackburn firefighters before climbing Ben Nevis in Scotland (Image: LFRS)
After scaling and descending the 1,345-metre tall Ben Nevis, the team drove to the Lake District to take on England's tallest mountain, the 978m high Scafell Pike, before soldiering on to Eryri National Park to summit the 1,085m Snowdon.
At the time of writing, more than £1,200 has been raised for St John's Hospice North Lancashire and South Lakes, which provides care to patients with life-limiting conditions throughout North Lancashire, the South Lakes and parts of North Yorkshire.
Red Watch at Blackburn Fire Station climbed Mount Snowdon (Image: LFRS)
A spokesperson for Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service said: 'Yesterday, members of our Red Watch at Blackburn Fire Station took part in the national three peaks 24-hour challenge in memory of Beccy Barr — a sadly missed member of the watch who was always positive and full of life.'
Beccy Barr (Image: LFRS)
Beccy joined the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service in September 2019, after 20 years as a journalist, including seven with BBC's North West Tonight.
She revealed at the time she was following in the footsteps of her father, Roy Barr, and after finishing her training was posted to Blackburn Fire Station.
Beccy started her career at the Blackpool Citizen in her early 20s and had previously worked for Bloomberg News and CNB.
To make a donation visit www.justgiving.com and search 'Red Watch Blackburn fundraising for St John's Hospice North Lancashire and South Lakes'.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
We always joked dad looked nothing like his parents - then we found out why
Matthew's dad had brown eyes and black hair. His grandparents had piercing blue eyes. There was a running joke in his family that "dad looked nothing like his parents", the teacher from southern England says. It turned out there was a very good reason for this. Matthew's father had been swapped at birth in hospital nearly 80 years ago. He died late last year before learning the truth of his family history. Matthew - not his real name - contacted the BBC after we reported on the case of Susan, who received compensation from an NHS trust after a home DNA test revealed she had been accidentally switched for another baby in the 1950s. BBC News is now aware of five cases of babies swapped by mistake in maternity wards from the late 1940s to the 1960s. Lawyers say they expect more people to come forward driven by the increase in cheap genetic testing. During the pandemic, Matthew started looking for answers to niggling questions about his family history. He sent off a saliva sample in the post to be analysed. The genealogy company entered his record into its vast online database, allowing him to view other users whose DNA closely matched his own. "Half of the names I'd just never heard of," he says. "I thought, 'That's weird', and called my wife to tell her the old family joke might be true after all." Matthew then asked his dad to submit his own DNA sample, which confirmed he was even more closely related to the same group of mysterious family members. Matthew started exchanging messages with two women who the site suggested were his father's cousins. All were confused about how they could possibly be related. Working together, they eventually tracked down birth records from 1946, months after the end of World War Two. The documents showed that one day after his father was apparently born, another baby boy had been registered at the same hospital in east London. That boy had the same relatively unusual surname that appeared on the mystery branch of the family tree, a link later confirmed by birth certificates obtained by Matthew. It was a lightbulb moment. "I realised straight away what must have happened," he says. "The only explanation that made sense was that both babies got muddled up in hospital." Matthew and the two women managed to construct a brand new family tree based on all of his DNA matches. "I love a puzzle and I love understanding the past," he says. "I'm quite obsessive anyway, so I got into trying to reverse engineer what had happened." Before World War Two, most babies in the UK were born at home, or in nursing homes, attended by midwives and the family doctor. That started to change as the country prepared for the launch of the NHS in 1948, and very gradually, more babies were delivered in hospital, where newborns were typically removed for periods to be cared for in nurseries. "The baby would be taken away between feeds so that the mother could rest, and the baby could be watched by either a nursery nurse or midwife," says Terri Coates, a retired lecturer in midwifery, and former clinical adviser on BBC series Call The Midwife. "It may sound paternalistic, but midwives believed they were looking after mums and babies incredibly well." It was common for new mothers to be kept in hospital for between five and seven days, far longer than today. To identify newborns in the nursery, a card would be tied to the end of the cot with the baby's name, mother's name, the date and time of birth, and the baby's weight. "Where cots rather than babies were labelled, accidents could easily happen", says Ms Coates, who trained as a nurse herself in the 1970s and a midwife in 1981. "If there were two or more members of staff in the nursery feeding babies, for example, a baby could easily be put down in the wrong cot." By 1956, hospital births were becoming more common, and midwifery textbooks were recommending that a "wrist name-tape" or "string of lettered china beads" should be attached directly to the newborn. A decade later, by the mid-1960s, it was rare for babies to be removed from the delivery room without being individually labelled. Stories of babies being accidentally switched in hospital were very rare at the time, though more are now coming to light thanks to the boom in genetic testing and ancestry websites. The day after Jan Daly was born at a hospital in north London in 1951, her mother immediately complained that the baby she had been given was not hers. "She was really stressed and crying, but the nurses assured her she was wrong and the doctor was called in to try to calm her," Jan says. The staff only backed down when her mum told them she'd had a fast, unassisted delivery, and pointed out the clear forceps marks on the baby's head "I feel for the other mother who had been happily feeding me for two days and then had to give up one baby for another," she says. "There was never any apology, it was just 'one of those silly errors', but the trauma affected my mother for a long time." Matthew's father, an insurance agent from the Home Counties, was a keen amateur cyclist who spent his life following the local racing scene. He lived alone in retirement and over the last decade his health had been deteriorating. Matthew thought long and hard about telling him the truth about his family history but, in the end, decided against it. "I just felt my dad doesn't need this," he says. "He had lived 78 years in a type of ignorance, so it didn't feel right to share it with him." Matthew's father died last year without ever knowing he'd been celebrating his birthday a day early for the past eight decades. Since then, Matthew has driven to the West Country to meet his dad's genetic first cousin and her daughter for coffee. They all got on well, he says, sharing old photos and "filling in missing bits of family history". But Matthew has decided not to contact the man his father must have been swapped with as a baby, or his children – in part because they have not taken DNA tests themselves. "If you do a test by sending your saliva off, then there's an implicit understanding that you might find something that's a bit of a surprise," Matthew says. "Whereas with people who haven't, I'm still not sure if it's the right thing to reach out to them - I just don't think it's right to drop that bombshell." Woman contacted by stranger on DNA site - and the truth about her birth unravelled Swapped at birth: How two women discovered they weren't who they thought they were Canadians switched at birth get an apology 70 years on
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Farm day visitors warned over Cryptosporidium parasite threat
Tens of thousands of visitors due to attend a UK-wide open farm day this weekend have been warned about a parasitic infection that causes serious gastrointestinal illness. There were 17 outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis linked to farms in England and Wales in 2024 and an outbreak in south Wales earlier this year has seen dozens of people fall ill. According to inspection reports from the past five years - released to the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act - some farms repeatedly ignored health inspectors' advice and allowed children to handle sick animals in filthy pens. The organisers of Open Farm Sunday, which sees 190,000 visitors, said its farms have high health and safety standards. Cryptosporidium can cause severe stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea and is spread through direct contact with animals or touching surfaces that have animal faeces on them. The young, pregnant women and those with health conditions which affect their immune system can be particularly vulnerable. Public Health Wales said individual cases of cryptosporidiosis linked to visits to Cowbridge Farm Shop at Marlborough Grange Farm in Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, this spring had now risen to 89 people. In England, one of those affected after a farm visit was Emily Fryer's six-year-old son Isaac. He was admitted to hospital after falling ill following a visit to Gannow Farm in Worcestershire last year. Mrs Fryer told the BBC: "He didn't eat or drink for about five days. He just slept all the time. His sugars were dangerously low and they admitted him. "Obviously, I was really worried then. Because he is autistic and non-verbal, we didn't really know how we could help him." Mrs Fryer said the family had taken hygiene seriously when they visited the farm and had washed their hands thoroughly using facilities provided on site. A year earlier the farm had been issued with a prohibition notice by the Health and Safety Executive because it was failing to prevent or control the risk of exposure to cryptosporidium. Those issues were dealt with and the farm was licensed to show animals to the public in 2024. Mrs Fryer said she was disappointed that the farm had been allowed to reopen to visitors. "I just think it's awful," she said. The owners of the farm, which has now stopped its open days, declined to comment when approached by the BBC but have previously said they had "made every precaution possible" to prevent an outbreak. Many farms across the UK have had to diversify their businesses over recent years to boost their profitability, with public open days, petting farms and play barns becoming an important source of income. But inspection reports released to the BBC under the Freedom Information Act by the UK's national cryptosporidium reference unit show that a small number of farms are not meeting health and safety standards - and, in extreme cases, are ignoring warnings from inspectors. On one farm in Wales, which was linked to a number of outbreaks, inspectors found sick animals kept on display and a lack of handwashing facilities, risk assessments and staff training. According to reports, the inspectors told the farm those failings were "consistent with those identified previously. This indicates you are failing to maintain the required improvements from one season to the next". Another farm visited in 2023 had also failed to implement recommendations from a previous inspection, which led to another outbreak of cryptosporidiosis, while another farm, due to host a school visit a few days after inspection, was found to be failing. "Comparing current visit to last year found the conditions worse," the report noted. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the 16 outbreaks in England last year was a provisional figure and data analysis due to be published later in the month may see that rise. Both Public Health Wales and the UKHSA have warned the estimated 190,000 visitors who will be visiting the 250 farms taking part in Open Farm Sunday this weekend to make sure they take basic hygiene measures. Jo Hatton, an education specialist for organisers of the open farm event LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming), said all its participating farmers were given advice and training on how best to keep visitors safe. "We are supporting farmers to open their farms and with their risk assessments. We are on the phone with farmers checking in with them throughout the planning process and helping them to understand how to ensure that that visit goes smoothly and everyone goes home happy and healthy," she explained. One farm manager who says he is ensuring the highest health and safety standards for visitors on Sunday is Andy Bason, who will be welcoming around 2,000 visitors onto Newhouse Farm, Alresford, Hampshire. He said LEAF's health and safety training had "really opened my eyes to what's needed to host this kind of event". "With the kind of numbers we see, it is a huge task. We want everyone to come here, have a great day and go home safe without any illness," he explained. The National Farmers' Union (NFU) said that the health and safety of all visitors to farms was "taken extremely seriously". Number of people ill from petting farm hits 89 Infection causes girl to lose half her body weight Family attraction confirms outbreak of sickness bug
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Protest at housing association after baby death
The death of a 15-week-old baby who lived in a Camden flat, managed by housing association Notting Hill Genesis, led to a protest outside its headquarters on Friday. Akram Mohammed died in February and his parents believe damp and mould contributed to their son's death. They said "no one helped" from the housing association, after repeated requests for repairs. Patrick Franco from the organisation said: "We know this is a complex situation and will continue working with the relevant authorities as they conduct their investigations." An inquest, opened by St Pancras Coroner's Court, into the baby's death has been adjourned and is due to conclude later this year. Akram's mother, Aiat Mohammed, described her son as a "happy, playful baby". His father, Abdushafi, says he hoped for him to become a doctor. In late February, their baby son started struggling to breathe. His father took him in his arms and ran to hospital. Mrs Mohammed said: "I was trying to tell myself everything is going to be OK. I was trying to calm myself. "There were more than eight doctors and more than five nurses around him." Akram's parents believe "longstanding mould and damp" in their flat contributed to their son's death. Akram's father said: "The house was mouldy and damp and I tried to explain to them many times but nobody helped." The coroner has yet to conclude the cause of death. Paperwork seen by the BBC shows repeated requests from the family, and the charity the Pillion Trust, to address damp and mould in the flat. After the family launched a complaint in 2024 to the housing association, Notting Hill Genesis admitted their "standards have fallen for not being more responsive" and offered £175 in compensation for a late response, lack of communication and for being chased on damp and mould repairs. Photos taken by the family's legal team a week after Akram's death show mould and damp present in the one-bedroom home. Mrs Mohammed said Akram struggled with the conditions. "If they just fixed those issues maybe he had a chance to live," she said. "When he was just months old I started to notice he had difficulty breathing. He could (would) breathe very, very loudly. But eventually the problems got bigger and bigger." She added: "Nobody would stay there. Even for a minute. You couldn't breathe there. You would feel it in the air. The air was mouldy." The family lawyer Mark McGhee said they have been told by the coroner's officer the pathology report stated the medical cause of death was acute pneumonia due to a late-onset Group B Strep infection and dilated cardiomyopathy, a type of heart muscle disease. The BBC has not independently seen the document. Akram's mother said: "We all know a person with pneumonia can't live in a mouldy house." The family's solicitors launched a disrepair claim against Notting Hill Genesis, and an independent survey of the flat, carried out by TLB Services found the housing association failed in its duty to ensure the property was "fit for human habitation". It found mould in every room and "defective" extractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom were "causing excessive airborne moisture". The survey advised £3,055 of repairs to be carried out, including washing the mould and fixing the extractor fans. Notting Hill Genesis said they conducted a thorough mould wash following reports of damp and mould in April 2024, which removed mould from the home. It added, in October 2024, the month prior to Akram's birth, Mr and Mrs Mohammed reported further issues of damp and mould, which the housing association was working to resolve. Mrs Mohammed said: "I would say my baby's death was avoidable. "All we wanted was a healthy environment to live [in]." Akram's parents said they have been supported by the school, of their two other children, and charities since their son's death. Mr Franco, the chief executive of Notting Hill Genesis, added: "We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Akram Mohammed. "We will continue to support the family in any way we can during this difficult time. "No determination has been made by HM Coroner as to the cause of Akram's death, and it would therefore be inappropriate to comment further or to speculate at this time." A Camden Council spokesperson said: "Akram's death is a tragedy and our thoughts are with his family at what is a very sad time. "We have been in regular contact with Notting Hill Genesis who assure us they are working to identify a suitable home for the family." Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to
