Pulmonary fibrosis: Lung disease siblings battling to breathe
A brother and sister with a rare lung disease which leaves them struggling for breath are raising awareness of the condition.Joanne Lovejoy-Waud and Mark Waud were diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis (PF) at the ages of 52 and 59, respectively. Their father Bernard Waud died from the condition when he was 50 years old. Mrs Lovejoy-Waud, from Goole, said more than 30 years after her father's death there was still no cure for the disease. The Pulmonary Fibrosis Trust said the "rare" disease has an average life expectancy of between three-to five years after diagnosis and in the majority of cases, the cause was unknown.
'Can't breathe'
Mark Waud was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in April 2024 and said he had 12 months to live.His constant companion is a black bag containing a canister filled with life-saving oxygen.During the interview, the 60-year-old from Wakefield paused often to cough and sip water to lubricate his throat.Physical movement, like climbing the stairs, can trigger a "coughing fit to a stage where I'd literally induce a panic attack because you literally can't breath. It feels like somebody's sat on your chest," he said.On receiving his diagnosis, he said: "It wasn't too much of a shock, because my sister had been diagnosed two years earlier."
Coughing up blood
His sister Joanne Lovejoy-Waud sought medical advice after coughing up blood. On receiving the diagnosis she said "as we (Nicola Lovejoy-Ward) were driving home, we felt numb". Like her brother, Joanne Loveday-Waud is dependant on oxygen. "I can't remember breathing normally without it. It's a way of life," she said.A tube attached to her nostrils fills her lungs with liquid oxygen. "I can feel the cold oxygen passing through my nose. It (the tubes) makes my nose and behind my ears sore. It's uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it."The 55-year-old was active, but the progressive disease dictates how she will live the remainder of her life. "I can't walk more than 10m (32ft) without oxygen.""The worst thing about this disease is the anxiety when people are looking at you and staring while you've got your oxygen on," she added.
Nicola Lovejoy-Waud and her wife are organising an annual event called Picnic in the Park in West Park, Goole on 1 June to help raise awareness of IPF."We know that not many people have heard of pulmonary fibrosis, not a lot of people know what the Pulmonary Fibrosis Trust do. So, we raise awareness to promote and gain funding."Peter Bryce chair of Pulmonary Fibrosis Trust said more than 6,000 people die from PF each year in the UK. The symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue and a persistent dry cough."I do not know why there is so little awareness of this dreadful condition. "The number of people living with PF is considerably less than some lung conditions, but as the prognosis is so poor, it should have wider concern," he added.
'Black cloud'
There are thought to be 200 different causes of PF, including genetic.The siblings have a form of PF known as idiopathy - which means cause unknown.Joanne Lovejoy-Waud is being assessed for a lung transplant and was aware of the long transplant waiting list.Meanwhile, Mr Waud, who has liquid morphine for pain control, said because of the risks involved with a transplant he was "undecided".For Joanne's wife Nicola, the emotional trauma of having two relatives with a life limiting condition is hard to bear.She said: "It's like a black cloud hanging over us because you don't know when that time is going to come."Ultimately, I'll have two funerals to attend. One being my wife and one being my brother-in-law," she added.
Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
31 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The deadlift difference: is this the exercise you need for an active and pain-free future?
One of the lovely things about getting older is realising there's always something more you should be doing to look after your body. Did I say lovely? Obviously I meant tedious. But how you feel about it doesn't change the facts. If you take the slightest interest in your health, and want to stay strong, mobile and pain-free in your 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond, you'll have to pay attention to the exercises that many of us avoid in our 20s, 30s and 40s. Or, in my case, until you're 61¾. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Like deadlifts, which help with one of life's most basic tasks – bending over and picking stuff up. Training these also involves bending over and picking stuff up – usually a barbell, but sometimes a kettlebell or pair of dumbbells. 'Here's a few things deadlifts help with,' says Laura Kummerle, a Georgia-based physiotherapist and personal trainer (PT). 'Lifting your grocery bags off the ground on to the counter, lifting your laundry basket off the ground, lifting your kid/grandkid (especially out of their crib when you can't squat), lifting a piece of furniture or a heavy rock for landscaping … They work the hip hinge, which is a fundamental movement pattern for strength training, but more importantly for daily life.' 'If I could only do one exercise in the gym ever again, deadlifts are the one I would do,' says Cali Joseph, a PT based in Walthamstow, east London. 'They're the pinnacle of weight training.' That's because even though you're lifting the weight no higher than your thighs, the way you hinge rather than squat means they work everything from your hamstrings, quads, glutes and back to your core, shoulders and arms. They also make a lot of people very happy, and not just because of some kind of lifter's high. Mira Taylor, a personal trainer based in north Wales, began focusing on deadlifts five years ago and is now a British and European deadlift-only champion. 'I think it's pathological for me at this point,' she says. 'Obviously the sense of progression and hitting or chasing personal bests is intoxicating, but it's also the fact that you have to clear your mind completely when you're lifting a heavy barbell. That's very therapeutic.' Some people will tell you deadlifts are risky, especially if you're getting on a bit, but then some people will tell you running is risky, or cycling, or picking up anything more substantial than a golf club. 'Anything can be dangerous,' says Kummerle. 'Drinking too much water can be dangerous; stepping off a kerb can be dangerous. Everything we do has risk, but the benefits outweigh the risks of deadlifts, for sure. I'm not saying everyone should be maxing out their deadlift, but loading the movement with what feels like a light to moderate weight can reduce the risk of injury in daily life. That way when you go and pick up your kid or help a friend move house, your body is used to that stimulus.' It's also useful for rehab. 'Deadlifts are good for any injury to build back general strength once you're able to do the hip hinge pattern safely,' says Kummerle. 'They can be particularly helpful for knees, hips and backs, but I can also see them being useful for ankles, shoulders and even necks.' My own physio's definitely a fan. I'm recovering from a knee injury, and she had me deadlifting less than two months after surgery for my torn meniscus. Even as a beginner, and one who's careful to take things slowly, I've been deadlifting 50kg – more than half my own weight. More experienced lifters might aim to shift double or even treble their bodyweight. Taylor, who competes in the under-60kg category (based on what competitors weigh, not their barbells), lifted 170kg at last November's World Powerlifting Congress World Championships. But the heavier you lift, the more form matters. 'The problem with a deadlift is that you can brute-force it,' says Joseph, who has agreed to help me with mine. 'If you're strong, you can just get the bar off the ground and stand up – but that's how you ended up getting injured.' She's speaking from personal experience. So off to the bar we go – all 7ft and 20kg of it. Bars come in various lengths and weights, some more suitable for home workouts, but it's this 'Olympic' size that you'll find in most gyms. When people talk about how much they lift, that includes the bar, so if you're lifting 30kg, that means you've stuck a 5kg 'plate' on either end of yours. It's important that you set up correctly, Joseph says – the first step being to make sure you're in the dead centre of the bar, hands evenly spaced and about shoulder width apart. There should be markings to help with this. This may sound basic, but it's surprisingly easy to pick up a bar off-centre, especially if you're taking it from a rack rather than the ground, as we are today. If you're new to the game, or need to warm up for a session, you'll probably want to try a few lifts with just the bar. It's still 20kg, remember. I've already warmed up, though, and this is not quite my first rodeo, so we start with two 10kg plates, making a total weight of 40kg. The bottom of the plates is just resting on the ground, but this lifts the bar enough that I don't have to bend too much to get my hands around it in an overhand grip. If I had longer legs, or shorter arms, I might have had to raise it off the ground a little. I'll be holding it barehanded as the weight is light and I have a strong grip, but if needed I could dust my hands with chalk, or use lifting straps. There's no shame in giving your grip some help if it's all that's standing between you and a personal best. First, though, my feet need to be in the right position. For conventional deadlifts – which is what we're focusing on today – that's pointing forward (it's OK for them to be turned out a little) and roughly shoulder width apart. But only roughly. 'I always say you should be in your 'power stance',' Joseph tells me. 'If I said to you, 'Phil, for a million quid I want you to jump as high as you can', that's how your feet should be. You shouldn't be too wide and you shouldn't be too narrow, but the precise position will be different for different people.' You also want to be close to the bar. 'Feet in your power stance, laces underneath the bar. You want your shins to be almost touching it. We want the bar, the weight, to travel the shortest path – straight up and straight down. It's us that gets in the way or out of the way. The closer it is to us, the more easily we can control it, the more we can harness that power. 'Now,' Joseph says, getting into position to demonstrate, 'you start with a little hinge and push your bum back. Then you bend your knees as much as you need to reach the bar. For me, that's quite a lot – I've got short arms and short legs. At this point, your shins might touch the bar, but that's OK. As long as you're comfortable with that, that's fine. 'Then, when we're here, we need to build tremendous tension in our body.' And how do we do that? 'First of all I'm going to bring my shoulders towards the ceiling and lock out my arms as much as I can. Then it's chest up, shoulders back. And now my last little cue: elbows in. I internally rotate my elbows to take out the last bit of slack that I may have in my body.' This rotation has the effect of engaging your lats, or latissimus dorsi muscles, which sit below your shoulder blades and cover most of your back. That back, by the way, should be flat during your lift, or at least flattish. 'Don't get too hung up on the perfect-looking deadlift,' says Taylor. 'I used to spend hours poring over my videos trying to have a perfectly flat back. Now I'm a round-back puller. Deadlifts look different for everyone, depending on proportions.' That doesn't mean all the rules can go out the window, though. 'Take your time over your set-up,' Taylor says, 'and wherever you feel your hips should be, raise them a couple of inches. A lot of people seem to want to start too low.' And now you're finally ready for the lift. 'The only difference between when we're set up and when we're actually lifting the weight,' says Joseph, 'is the little push that we give to the ground to shift it.' The little push? Aren't we actually pulling the weight up? It might seem that way, but the conventional deadlift is a push and pull movement. It's a push from your quads that straightens your knees and gets the bar moving past them; then comes the pull, as you thrust your hips forward and your hamstrings, glutes, back and arms come into play. That hip thrust is a vital part of the deadlift, and the one that most clearly distinguishes it from the squat. But you can only thrust your hips forward on the way up if you have first thrust them back on the way down. One cue that PTs sometimes give, Kummerle says, is: 'Pretend your booty hole is a flashlight and shine it backward.' You'll also hear: 'Pretend you're pushing a car door shut with your bum.' There's no getting away from bums with the deadlift. From set-up to finish, Joseph sums it up like this: 'Bum back, bend knees, arms long, chest up, shoulders back. Then push into the ground. Push, push, push, push, drive hips forward – and that's the pull.' 'Every time you deadlift,' she adds, 'you give it your all. I don't care if it's your warm-up sets, or it's your heaviest: we lift with intent.' That's even the case when you're deadlifting a person, as she demonstrates when she picks me up for the sake of these photographs. As her human barbell, I can only say I'm glad she takes it seriously. 'Sometimes I have to have a mental battle to be in the right frame of mind to attack the bar,' says Taylor, though let's not forget that sometimes she's lifting almost three times her bodyweight. 'If you're not 100% committed to making it move, it won't. In case of emergency, banging music can help.' Once the barbell is up, you can either reverse the movement to lower it, or just drop it. If you're in a gym, you will almost certainly be using weights that are designed to be dropped. When the time comes for me to show how much I've taken in, the answer is: not as much as I should have. 'Get a bit closer to the bar,' Joseph tells me. And: 'Hip hinge … bum back, bum back!' And: 'Bend your knees, bend your knees, bend some more, bend, bend, bend!' And even: 'Tuck your chin!' At least, I think it's 'tuck' she says. It's like whack-a-mole – no sooner have I ironed out one fault than another pops up. The one that survives longest is shrugging my shoulders at the top of the lift – but even that succumbs when Joseph gets me to engage my lats properly. Apparently I need to imagine someone's trying to tickle me. Eventually I'm looking solid enough to play around with sumo deadlifts, where your legs go much wider and your arms go between your knees, rather than either side of them. It's enjoyable enough, but I feel I'm getting distracted from the conventionals just as I'm beginning to get the hang of them. So back we go to my 'power stance' and Joseph increases the weight to 80kg. This feels significant, as it's what I weigh, give or take a kilo. And as I struggle to lift the barbell, I get a glimpse of why this exercise means so much to so many people. As Taylor puts it: 'Heavy lifts feel like they take two minutes – and then you watch them back on video and it's about half a second.' However long the lift really lasts, this weird slowing-down gives you time to feel the strain, think about giving up as you push, push, push and pull, pull, pull, and decide to persevere. You have to commit and stay committed, so that when the lift works out it means something. I recently asked a few people why deadlifts matter so much to them. 'They make me feel like I own the world,' one woman told me. 'They're the first time I've ever felt strong,' said another. I think I know what they mean.
Daily Mail
37 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Woman who lost six stone on Mounjaro reveals the horrible side effects no one talks about
A woman in her twenties has lost six stone in just nine months thanks to weight loss jabs - but it wasn't without some very unpleasant side effects. Bethany Diana, from the UK, went from a size 18 to a size eight after starting on Mounjaro (tirzepatide) in July 2024. But the 27-year-old, who says she is 'such a better version' of herself for having shed the weight, hasn't shied away from revealing the downsides of using the fat jab. Mounjaro is typically prescribed to patients with type two diabetes. The NHS has warned that it should be used only by those who have been prescribed it. Bethany, who has racked up more than 75,000 likes on TikTok, took to the platform to share the 10 side effects she's experienced since beginning her weight loss journey. In a clip that has been viewed 109,000 times, the content creator revealed that she has suffered with diarrhoea as a result of Mounjaro. Just as troublingly, Bethany, who goes by @bethanydianax on TikTok, has experienced bad breath. In addition, the young brunette struggled with hair loss during her weight loss journey, though she did not give an insight into how severe this symptom was. Another, particularly unpleasant, side effect was what Bethany called 'Sulphur burps'. Sulfur burps, the name given to burps which have a rotten egg smell, occur when there is hydrogen sulfide gas in the gut. She has also suffered with constipation, nausea, heartburn, wind and reflux, she said in the clip entitled 'Some of my side effects since being on Mounjaro'. Finally, Bethany told how the jabs suppressed her appetite - the medication aids weight loss by making the patient feel fuller for much longer than usual. In a subsequent TikTok clip, Bethany told viewers: 'Mounjaro stole my booty'. A number of people on medications like Mounjaro have complained that their behinds have become saggy as a result of the relatively rapid weight loss. However, she appears to have no regrets about using the jabs. In the caption to the clip, she wrote: 'But on the plus side I did lose six stone in nine months and I am such a better version of myself'. Viewers were quick to share their own experiences of side effects in the comments section beneath Bethany's clip, with a number echoing her symptoms. One person wrote: 'It's the sulphur burps and the feeling of nausea which I cannot stand especially when I'm hardly eating anything to cause it. Still on the plus side, weight is coming off well'. Another person said: 'Yes, I have bad breath. I did not know it was from the injection'. While a third wrote: 'I'm on week two and the only side effect I've had is a bit of constipation. Feel like I have been lucky'. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bethany's clip listing the side effects of Mounjaro prompted one person to wonder if it was all worth it. The TikTok user asked: 'Why would you do it then?!' In her response, Bethany pointed out that the side effects were 'temporary' while the weight loss was 'for life'. While Bethany has reported a positive experience on Mounjaro, more than 80 Brits have died after using weight-loss and diabetes jabs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency reported at least 22 fatalities linked to the medication up to the end of January. A further 60 deaths were recorded for products aimed to help with Type 2 diabetes. Nearly 400 people also required hospital treatment since the rollout of the products over the past few years. The NHS has warned patients to 'never take an anti-obesity medicine if it has not been prescribed to you'. Susan McGowan, a 58 year-old nurse from Lanarkshire, died from multiple organ failure, septic shock and pancreatitis after taking two low-dose injections of tirzepatide. She took the jabs for a two-week period before her death on September 4 last year. It is thought to be the first time the medicine has been listed as a contributing factor on a death certificate.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
People told to stay inside after fire in Burnley building
People were told to stay inside after a fire broke out at a derelict commercial building in fire crews were called to the incident, where they used a drone unit to tackle the fire, on Holmes Street at around 14:30 BST on Saturday, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service (LFRS) are no reports of any injuries, but resident Rachel Maclean told the BBC that Aldi, next to the building, was evacuated. Expressing concern about the incident, Ms Maclean said: "There are kids in and out (of the derelict building) all the time and local homeless people do stay in there." Ms Maclean said that her family were advised to stay cause of the fire is under a video shared on social media, Liam Wilson, group manager for Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "We've worked tremendously hard over the afternoon, firstly, doing the firefighting operation but also working with partners to minimise the impact to the local community and the surrounding buildings and premises."He said they were "extremely grateful for the support of the community".A LFRS spokesperson said that, by 21:00 BST on Saturday, six fire crews and the aerial appliances remained. They said four crews remained on scene on Sunday, with Oxford Road and Holmes Street remaining closed to vehicles throughout the day. 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.
