Channel 4 star shares 'unbearable' miscarriage heartbreak before Manchester Marathon
Matthew Burton went viral after helping one of his pupils overcome a stammer on Educating Yorkshire - but his newest challenge will see him take on 26.2 miles this weekend
Matthew Burton, better known as the beloved English teacher on Channel 4's Educating Yorkshire documentary, has opened up about the 'unbearable' pain of losing a child ahead of taking on the Manchester Marathon this weekend.
Burton first appeared on our screens in 2013, and it wasn't long before a clip of him helping pupil Musharaf overcome a stammer went viral worldwide. Now, he is swapping out his textbooks for trainers as he takes on the 26.2-mile race for charity.
On Christmas Eve in 2012, Burton and his wife, Laura, lost their first baby to miscarriage. Burton said: "Words can't ever really describe the feeling of being told you have lost your baby. To go from expecting to welcome a tiny human being to knowing that wasn't going to happen in a matter of seconds was just unbearable.
'Miscarriage is so common, but it still isn't spoken about as much as it should be – there's still a taboo that surrounds it.'
Burton has since become an ambassador for the Miscarriage Association and works to raise awareness and funds so it can support people going through pregnancy loss.
His previous challenges for the charity have included the Yorkshire Marathon and the Leeds 10k race - and he has appeared on-screen on The Celebrity Chase, which he won.
Discussing his newest challenge, which he will be tackling on Sunday, April 27th, Burton said: 'I've been putting in the training on some dark and damp evenings, so since the clocks went forward it's been nice to get out in the sun and light! I'm now strangely looking forward to it – but maybe ask me again after 26 miles.'
The Manchester Marathon is the UK's second-biggest marathon event - after the London race which is held on the same day. This year, 90,000 people are expected to take part in the two events, making it the biggest day of marathon running in UK history.
Burton said that although the moment of loss he and his wife experience will 'never go away', it taught him a few things. 'Firstly, to talk about it. It helped. Those who knew about it thought they couldn't say the right things, I'm sure, but every supportive word helps,' he explained.
He now has three children and works tirelessly to raise awareness of the importance of recognising the impact of experiencing loss - especially for men who sometimes can be overlooked. Burton added: 'The Miscarriage Association works hard to support those who need it at this heart-breaking time, advocate for change, and raise awareness of something that damned well needs it.' On his fundraising page, Burton said: 'I am running to make a change and make sure that every loss matters.'
Since appearing on Educating Yorkshire, Burton has taken on a new role as headteacher at Thornhill Community Academy in Dewsbury. He has also travelled the country hosting workshops on leadership and has written a book called Go Big, which aims to help children aged ten and older with the transition from primary to secondary school.
Last year, Channel 4 announced that a second season of Educating Yorkshire. The series will be filmed over 2024 and 2025, it said, and is set to be on our screens by the end of the year.
Burton said he was excited to welcome the camera crews back into the school: 'The national challenges the profession faces are well publicised, and at Thornhill, I'm really proud of how our staff and students work together to thrive through those. Our values - 'work hard and be nice' - are at the centre of all we do; I have no doubt that viewers will see those come to life in our brilliant community."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wales Online
an hour ago
- Wales Online
Wales rugby greats sing iconic song together to help famous Welsh club after historic season
Wales rugby greats sing iconic song together to help famous Welsh club after historic season The club are raising funds after a massive promotion A a dozen former Wales and British and Irish Lions players belted out a Beach Boys classic as part of a fundraising effort for London Welsh – and the heartwarming choral rendition has been caught on camera. Mike Phillips, Gareth Edwards, Robert Jones and Gerald Davies were just some of the names in attendance in the English capital as they belted out Sloop John B by the iconic American rock band. 1971 Lions choirmaster John Taylor conducted the rendition of the famous track, with the likes of Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel and Wales legend Ken Owens also in attendance and singing along. The event was put on to raise funds for Welsh to invest in their facilities following a landmark season. All former rugby stars, including Sir Ian McGeechan and former England hooker Brian Moore, looked immaculate in their smart clothes, with everyone getting stuck into the song, with arms raised and smiles across the board. It was held at The Brewery on Chiswell Street, with famous Welsh comedian Rob Brydon a guest speaker on the night. It celebrated the 120th year since the first of more than 50 of the club's players represented the Lions. It's been a joyous season for the iconic club, who recently secured promotion back to the National Leagues after being booted out of the Championship back in 2017. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby. After years of hard work by all those behind the scenes, like former Ospreys star Cai Griffiths, the club have climbed their way back to the upper echelons of English rugby and won the league title in the process. Article continues below Despite their ascent, director of rugby Griffiths assured WalesOnline back in March that the club have no intention of targeting a return to the Premiership, they simply want to retain their players and take it season by season. "We want to target top six next season. And then we will basically build on that. The biggest thing is sustainability," he said. "When you start thinking about Championship, Premiership, you start chasing it, that means stupid decisions: payments and costs spiral out of control. "For us, we've done well getting into this league, we want to get into that top six and build again the following year, then hopefully we can get more success. "Retaining 90% of the squad (is our goal), it's a key thing. If we do that, then they'll potentially be five players going to 100 caps next season. "These guys are still young. Seeing the areas we do need to bolster up, it's a big league, as in the players are bigger, there's more games. "You need that strength in depth. The quality is there, even in the second team now. There are a lot of players who have come from the seconds to the firsts. We want to keep on with that pipeline of players." Next season, Welsh will be competing in the National League Two division, which is the fourth tier of English rugby. Join our WalesOnline rugby WhatsApp community here. The project to get promoted was three years in the making, with Griffiths an Co initially focusing on developing young players, and now it's clear that approach has paid off. Article continues below "The group of players that we've got now, we've had them for four, five years. There's a couple of 70-cappers in there which is fantastic and also some players who haven't won anything, so it's fantastic for them to experience that," said Griffiths.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Netflix fans go wild for 'one of the best British sitcoms in years' that flew under the radar on Channel 4 despite whopping 94% Rotten Tomatoes score
Fans have gone wild for 'one of the best British sitcoms in years' that flew under the radar on Channel 4. The six-part series, titled Year Of The Rabbit, first hit screens on the broadcaster back in 2019. It has since moved to Netflix and has collected a string of raving reviews over the years. The comedy is set in Victorian London and follows the tale of Detective Inspector Eli Rabbit who 'solves crimes across the city with his associates,' according to the synopsis. The DI also manages to gain several enemies during the tale too. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Created by Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley, Year Of The Rabbit stars Matt Berry as the lead Detective Rabbit, as well as Alun Armstrong and Freddie Fox, amongst others. The series has a whopping 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes and plenty of fans have left their raving reviews over the years. One penned: 'Hands down one of the best British sitcoms in years. Disgracefully obscene language and fantastic characters, John Merrick for one! 'Channel 4 needs to give it's head a wobble if they don't renew this.' Another added: 'This is one of the best period comedies I've ever seen. Please bring it back! We need more non vampire Matt Berry. The show was near perfect BRING IT BACK.' 'Needs a second season or spinoff,' someone else commented. While on Google reviews, one fan said: 'Matt Berry has done it again. Genius! Very dark comedy with some really good twists thrown in. 'It's a bit like Stephen Toast meets Sherlock Holmes. Good choice of co-stars who held their own.' The series has a whopping 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes and plenty of fans have left their raving reviews over the years Another added: 'Hilarious! The cast made me fall in love with each character portrayed. 'I binged the entire series having a much needed laugh! Great writing and directing. Can not wait for the next season.' Despite the raving reviews, there has only been one season of the comedy so far, though according to Metro there were plans for another but due to Covid and budget cuts, it was cancelled. Year Of The Rabbit is available to stream on Netflix now.
Spectator
4 hours ago
- Spectator
AI is rotting our children's minds
'He's more machine than man now', complains Obi-Wan Kenobi of his notoriously fallen apprentice Darth Vader in Star Wars. The same thought crossed my mind last week in the wake of the worst betrayal I have suffered as an English tutor. Something is wrong when your favourite pupil uses AI to generate the two-line reference they had offered to write for you, making you sound even blander than feared. 'Ottillie,' – not her real name – I blurted, 'how could you?' The reply was endearing but terribly ominous: 'I wanted it to be perfect.' ChatGPT is already shockingly good, much better than most people admit. Get it to rewrite itself to sound less like a robot, remove anything preposterous, and you might be done. I know journalists writing AI articles and barristers writing AI submissions; it conquered business months ago, where, to be honest, everyone already sounded like that. And having spent the spring preparing children for their exams, I can confirm that only the seriously dull ones are still writing any of their homework themselves. Rational friends tell me to give up writing because AI will write all the good books we want Some of them ought to start reading the machine stuff over before they hand it in. I wasn't persuaded by a summary of Casino Royale in which Bond gets up after having his balls flogged, drives Le Chiffre back to the casino for another hand and seduces Oddjob. But such obvious nonsense has been rarer this year as the algorithm has improved, and it's terrifyingly easy to make the opposite error. I recently accused several entirely innocent teenagers of cheating, only to find that they really had thought of something so ridiculous it didn't sound like human work. An especially charming example appeared in a coursework essay on Macbeth, in which Shakespeare warns us that treacherous characters like to 'win us with honest trifles', i.e. reel us in with small truths before deceiving us in larger concerns. My tutee really did write a paragraph praising the 'trifle' as a confectionary metaphor, expressing the complex and layered psychology of the play. The young man responsible for this analysis was, of course, unusually bright, but the hushed-up fact in education at the moment is a stunning collapse in teenage sentience. I have loved all my students, but many have come across as stranded, alien souls, unable to express residual human thoughts. 'Yeah, aargh, it's good! Isn't it?' began one recent lesson. After minutes of consternation: 'Sorry, aargh: it's good to see you! That's what you say, isn't it?' Yes, it was a common greeting, once upon a time. To think is to connect ideas, hard to practise if you can ask a robot for your next one. Some people think this is the evolution of the mind, and that we should raise children as human-android hybrids from the start. Elon Musk has a school which turns lessons into video games, since these are 'like crack' for children. Perhaps a cyborg generation will save us in time, reared on individualised mini-tasks and expert in commanding virtual research slaves. In the meantime, too much crack sounds bad and my bet is that the first cohort of such kids will be suicidal. The broader problem with removing youngsters from the internet is that the adult world is so full of nonsense. The message of the GCSE English courses – which need some work, to say the least – is that to be literate means primarily to be inhumanly pedantic and inane. I teach students to defeat the English language exam by making the highest absolute number of points in each answer, and by ruining their writing with words like 'cerulean' and a colon in every sentence. If they struggle with plot ideas, I have them memorise my short story about a donkey, which can be used to answer an astonishing variety of creative writing questions. Meanwhile, it takes a seriously expensive school to avoid choosing the shortest books on the English literature course each time. The impact of AI on young minds is worrying for the same reason that outstanding machine writing has been elusive. Genius entails uniqueness as well as intelligence, and good writers are at their best when most unmistakable, connecting infinity to a particular time and place. Having already sorted young people into a set of inane subcultures, the internet will now ensure they converge to acquire the character of an average, semi-robotic child. Meanwhile in the adult world, we will enter a Valley of Dissociation: a long period in which AI writing is useful enough to be everywhere, but not good enough to be healthy to read. Yet the company of the young always provides hope. I find them surreally self-aware about their cyborg selves and appropriately embarrassed by their unauthoritative prose. They remain curious and visibly delighted to have ideas. They have excellent natural taste: even my least able charges prefer good writing they can't understand to accessible nonsense. My rugby boys have been fond of Keats's 'La Belle Dame sans Merci', with its progression from ethereal shagging in the meads to heartbreak on the hill. Rational friends tell me to give up writing because AI will write all the good books we want. Once AI can do that, we won't be talking to each other. The timeline over which that happens depends on an astonishing question which our generation will live to see answered: the nature of the soul. Judging by the sheer malaise of the young in their AI-drafted world, I think some form of soul-like residue may prove to be a strangely robust illusion, and that the masses may demonstrate a little more craving for the spark of reality than feared. We are on the brink of a tide of nonsense, but also resistance.
