How Lion king Maro Itoje has come of age to be perfect leader of boss Andy Farrell's pride in Australia
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Daily Mirror
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Sir Chris Hoy's heartbreaking realisation that ensures he feels 'lucky' after cancer diagnosis
Legendary Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy has opened up on the positives of his terminal diagnosis and how he continues to make it through a devastating period of his life Chris Hoy has revealed he is 'lucky' to have the opportunity to appreciate life following his cancer diagnosis. The Olympic cycling legend revealed last year that he has incurable Stage 4 prostate cancer and had been told he has just two to four years to live. Hoy, 49, has since dealt with his illness in remarkable fashion and raised awareness to the extent that almost 5,000 extra men were referred for urological cancer in the six months after speaking of his own diagnosis. But there have been difficult moments too. Just weeks following Hoy's devastating news, wife Sara discovered she had multiple sclerosis. Both however, are training for the six-time gold medalist's mass-participation charity ride Tour de 4 in September. Hoy believes positives can come out of a really dark situation as he continues life with Sara and their four children. And the opportunity to say goodbye has become a powerful thing for the British icon to reflect upon. Former Scottish cyclist and journalist Richard Moore is a figure Hoy thinks about a lot. Moore died in his sleep in 2022, aged 48, leaving behind his wife Virginie and five-year-old son Maxime. READ MORE: Sir Chris Hoy shows true colours with phone call to Dermot Murnaghan after cancer diagnosis Hoy delivered a eulogy for Moore, perhaps never imagining his own tragic news would arrive. But the cyclist has other contemporaries in mind now too in Scottish cycling coach Ivor Reid, track sprinter John Paul, who passed away suddenly aged 28, and former Scottish mountain bike champion Rab Wardell. "They didn't get the chance [to say goodbye to their loved ones]," said Hoy in an interview with the Telegraph. "And in some respects you think: 'That's the ideal way to do it, just keep living until the lights are switched off.' But for the people who are left 'To be able to tell your loved ones what you feel about them, to appreciate what you've got, and yeah, for Richard, or for anybody who dies suddenly, to have 24 hours left on the planet, to be able to live that last day… you know, what would they have given for that? And therefore, for me, I think: 'Well, aren't I lucky?' Look at the privilege I've got, the time to really appreciate life.' Asked for the advice he would offer other's as they go through difficult moments, Hoy suggested remaining in the moment is crucial. Fear of the future is one of the more difficult struggles to endure. He said: "I think when it gets tough, when it gets really tough, it's bringing yourself back to the exact moment you're in and recognising 'Can I keep going another 10 seconds? Can I deal with what I'm going through right now? I'm here, I'm breathing, my kids are next door sleeping, they're OK.' 'It's the fear of the future that causes anxiety and stress for most people. So it's not allowing yourself to fast forward and try and predict what's going to happen because you never know.' And Hoy is still exploring the possibility that stage four cancer will one day be treatable. The Scot's cancer is currently stable and he has visited Professor Dr Chris Evans, a specialist whose remit is focusing on creating cancer prevention and diagnostics solutions. Hoy admitted he is 'always looking at the new options coming out'. 'When it [his treatment] stops being effective I will look to other treatments that are available, hopefully there are a few waiting in the wings,' he said.
Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
How Bonnie Blue porn on Channel 4 helps fuel dangerous attitudes towards women among young men
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... What are we teaching our children? Last Sunday night, I suspect even die-hard Tartan Army fans cheered on the England women's football team as they battled against Spain to win the 2025 European championships. Chloe Kelly, the hero of the team's 2022 Euro victory, is once again the nation's darling, her blonde ponytail bouncing with joy as she scored the vital goals that kept England in contention. And she has been joined in our affections by a newcomer, 19-year-old Michelle Agyemang from Essex, whose two equalisers were equally as important. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Every player in the England squad is a positive role model for our girls and boys. The very best of British and the champions of a feminist revolution that saw women's football transformed from a laughing stock to the most popular sport for girls in less than a generation. Channel 4 documentary 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story showed graphic sex scenes | Bonnie Blue on Instagram 'I'm a girl boss' Fast-forward to Wednesday night and Channel 4. The public broadcaster aired a documentary which made my skin crawl. The film, 1,000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story, followed 26-year-old Tia Billinger (Bonnie Blue) as she attempted to break a world record by having sex with more than 1,000 men in 12 hours. Or to be more accurate, she lay on her back while queues of 'ordinary' men, many wearing balaclavas to hide their shame, queued up to ejaculate over her face. The female director, Victoria Silver, took a very uncritical stance to her subject. Even her question to Billinger about feminism was a polite, almost hesitant attempt to interrogate the impact of pornography on young women and contemporary culture. 'In terms of feminism, are you not maybe sending us backwards?' she asked tentatively. Billinger was robust in her answer, declaring that her lifestyle as a self-employed porn star was what feminists had been working for. 'I'm a girl boss, an entrepreneur,' she said. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Sorry Tia, but no feminists I know, or any I hold in high regard, have ever argued that sex with 1,000 strangers for cash, or even just one, is empowering, or has anything remotely to do with the social and economic liberation of women. Quite the opposite. There is a school of thought among some 'liberal' feminists that selling sex is work, in the same way that being a nurse or civil servant is employment, but their wrong-headed, naïve analysis doesn't bear close examination. Prostitution and pornography are exploitative and abusive, whether they involve a vulnerable teenage girl offering oral sex for sale on the back streets of Edinburgh or an emotionally stunted woman urging men to 'treat me like your s***', as Billinger did on her OnlyFans site. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad READ MORE: Pimping websites that advertise trafficked women for rape must be prosecuted Boys' attitudes to women The Channel 4 documentary highlights something even more worrying than the long-standing argument among feminists about prostitution. It exposes a culture which has dehumanised young women, where their only value is as a sexual vessel for men. In the week the country celebrated the achievement of some of country's most talented sportswomen, a porn star was elevated to something akin to a national treasure, at least by some sections of the media. Little wonder that young people, male and female, are confused about sex and their respective roles in society – with girls believing that choking during sex is 'normal', and many boys viewing women as little more than sexual objects. And right on cue, a Glasgow University study published this week shows that a third of boys believe that skimpy outfits meant that girls were 'asking for trouble' – attitudes reminiscent of the 1970s when rape survivors were told they were 'asking for it' because they wore a mini-skirt or walked home alone at midnight. And the same proportion of boys said they would 'judge' a girl more than a boy for having sex with lots of people. Kirstin Mitchell, professor of social sciences and public health at Glasgow University, who worked on the study, said its findings gave an indication of the 'general culture' behind serious incidents of violence against women and girls. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Channel 4 tried to justify commissioning the Bonnie Blue film by saying its role is to tell stories 'at the edge of modern morality'. This would be almost acceptable if the documentary results in a public debate about the parlous state of our collective morality, and the mixed messages that we are giving our children. The sewer we are swimming in But I fear all the film has done is provide late-night titillation for teenage boys, and many older men who should know better. Worse, it elevates Tia Billinger and her ilk as role models – implying to susceptible teenage girls that sexual degradation is something to aspire to, not dread. One of most unsettling moments in the film – and there were many – was when Billinger's mother said: 'If you earn £1 million a month, your morals would change and you'd get your tits out.' At the risk of sounding like Mary Whitehouse, the art teacher turned conservative campaigner who argued in the 1960s and 70s that the media was partly responsible for a fall in the nation's moral standards, I fear for our society. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Have we really reached a point where personal degradation is a price worth paying for fame and fortune? And how can any mainstream broadcaster, let alone one funded by taxpayers, justify promoting a lifestyle based on exploitative pornography to young people? Billinger's descent into a cesspit of group sex may make an interesting topic at a metropolitan dinner party. However, I hazard a guess that very few parents, no matter how progressive, would want to see their own daughter selling herself to a crowd of strangers.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Can Lions clinch 3-0 series whitewash v Australia?
Update: Date: 10:09 BST Title: Fans outside the stadium Content: Australia v Lions (11:00 BST) Update: Date: 10:08 BST Title: Downpour after downpour Content: Australia v Lions (11:00 BST) Lauren JenkinsBBC Sport at Stadium Australia Conditions could not be worse for this final Test as fans sitting low in the stands run for cover to avoid the pounding rain. The Lions may only need to score three more tries for their most in a Test series (11) but even that is looking like a stretch in this filthy weather. The stadium continue to play 'Raindrops keep falling on my head...' over the tannoy. Update: Date: 10:06 BST Title: Greatest Sporting Whitewashes Content: Australia v Lions (11:00 BST) Nigel RinglandBBC Sport at Olympic Stadium, Sydney I'm not wanting to get ahead of myself but as the Lions go in search of a 3-0 whitewash.... Why not take a look at some of most famous in sporting history. Better start by giving Australia their dues. 1. Ashes series 5-0 over England in 2013…and 2006. 2. Tennis - 1988 French Open final when Steffi Graf beat Natasha Zvereva 6-0, 6-0 in 32 minutes. Hasn't happened since…oh wait…this year you say…Iga Swiatek…I didn't know, I was following the Lions around Australia! 3. NFL Miami Dolphins 17-0 - the only perfect season ever 4. The All Blacks in 2013 when they became the only team ever to win all their games over a period of a year - 14 in all including wins over Australia, South Africa, England, France and Ireland. 5. 1984 Winter Olympics - Torvill and Dean win figure skating gold and make history by getting perfect 6.0s from all the judges. We'll call that a whitewash. 6. 2004 World Series Boston Red Sox 4-0 St Louis Cardinals - not the first World Series when a team has swept another but this ended the 86-year Curse of the Bambino for Red Sox fans when Babe Ruth was sold to their arch rivals the New York Yankees. 7. It's hard to get a whitewash in golf but in 2000 Tiger Woods won the US Open, the Open and the USPGA Championship and added the Masters in 2001 to hold all four Majors at the same time so that's close enough to count. 8. Frankel - 14-0 and never lost a race This is all I could come up with at short notice. Will we be adding the Lions to the list today? Update: Date: 10:03 BST Title: What happened in Melbourne? Content: Australia v Lions (11:00 BST) The second Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground was built as now or never for the Wallabies. An underwhelming performance in the first Test in Brisbane promoted questions over their quality and if the series was ever going to catch fire. Well it certainly did. It ended up being a record official attendance of 90,307 for a Lions Test and that mega crowd helped Joe Schmidt's side to a 23-5 lead. The Lions scored two quick tries back-to-back through Tom Curry and Huw Jones before half-time, which proved vital. Then with the last play of the game, Hugo Keenan dived over the line to complete a record comeback win for the Lions in a Test. It was a classic for the ages. Update: Date: 10:00 BST Title: History up for grabs Content: Australia v Lions (11:00 BST) One more time. It will be hard to live up to last Saturday when the Lions clinched the series against Australia in the last minute in front of over 90,000 at Melbourne Cricket Ground. But history is still up for grabs in Sydney as Andy Farrell's team aim to become the first Lions team since 1927 in Argentina to record a series whitewash. That was nearly 100 years ago and is surely a major motivation. The job is done but not complete.
