Surgeons plot epic Norfolk circuit in bid for new £800k x-ray system
Spinal surgeons from Norfolk's largest hospital have plotted an epic summer challenge in a bid to secure a new £800k x-ray system for the department.
Members of the spinal surgery team at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital are set to complete a circular route of Norfolk on water, foot and bicycle which will see them visit all three of the region's main hospitals.
Setting off on Monday, the team is set to travel by river from Norwich to the James Paget University Hospital in Gorleston - rowing as close as possible to the sister hospital.
A map showing the route the surgeons will take (Image: NNUH)
From there, they will walk from Gorleston to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, taking the coastal path to visit Cromer Hospital along the way.
And the final leg of their epic challenge will see them cycle from the QEH back to the N&N - with the challenge taking place across June.
They are taking part in the challenge to raise funds to purchase a new x-ray system for the department capable of taking images with a 70pc reduction in radiation exposure.
Tom Marjoram (Image: NNUH)
Consultant spinal surgeon Tom Marjoram said: "This is especially important in children who are more vulnerable to radiation exposure, especially to the abdomen and pelvis.
"It also allows images to be taken in one picture rather than having to stitch them together, which reduces the chance of errors and increases measurement accuracy."
The equipment- a low dose x-ray imaging system - costs in the region of £800,000 - with the challenge taking place during Scoliosis Awareness Month.
Mr Marjoram added: "This system will help reduce waiting times for diagnostic imaging and will mean that patients who require regular repeated scanning, especially from children, will receive low doses of radiation across their lifetime, reducing the possibility of long-term harm that comes from radiation exposure."
To support the appeal, visit www.justgiving.com/team/nnuhspine
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘My border terrier Tilly helped me survive the grief of losing my son'
In life's darkest moments, comfort can come from the strangest of places. For Mike Clarke, coming to terms with the sudden and tragic death of his 29-year-old son Nick to Melanoma cancer, that lifeline came in the form of a beautiful border terrier named Tilly. Mike admits he had always been 'more of a cat person' and the decision to get a dog was not one which he initially wanted. But like many parents, Mike and his wife of 40 years Mandy, both 62, eventually gave in to the pleading from their son, who was set to return home from university to live with his parents in Whitley Bay to begin teaching. But Nick's plans changed after he completed a final university placement at a primary school in Newham – where they liked him so much he was offered a job. Nick accepted the position, and dedicated himself to the school, where, over more than seven years, he played a key role alongside his colleagues in helping it to achieve an 'Outstanding' rating from Ofsted. Nick had been successfully treated for melanoma in 2018, after it had developed from a mole on his side. But during the height of lockdown in late 2020, the cancer returned without anyone realising. On a Zoom call in December, Mike noticed his son looked unwell. Trusting his instincts, he took matters into his own hands. 'There was an emphasis on not putting a strain on the NHS, so he couldn't get access to the hospital in London,' Mike says. 'We just thought he might have a side effect of Covid so I drove down to London to take him back home and get him checked out there. I've had cancer myself, so when I picked him up and saw how he looked, in my mind I knew he had cancer again.' Mike drove Nick straight to their local hospital, in Cramlington, where they kept him overnight. Nick ended up in critical care, where due to Covid restrictions, Mike and Mandy couldn't visit him. When it became clear that his condition was deteriorating, Nick made the decision to return home that Saturday, where he tragically passed away the following evening among family and friends. It was a devastating time. Mike says of his son: 'He is never far from my mind, he was a deeply kind, well-natured boy. Everybody loved him, he had so many friends.' The intense pain of losing a loved one can make grief an incredibly lonely experience, especially when you feel nobody can understand the emotions you are going through. Mike says that in the days and weeks after losing Nick, he found the non-negotiable routine of walking Tilly was crucial in stopping him and Mandy from isolating from the world. 'Having to walk the dog was fundamental in making me face reality. It would've been very easy to just shut the outside world out, but you couldn't do that because Tilly needed walking. 'In the weeks following Nick's passing we were out with her a lot, she was our coping mechanism in that respect.' He adds: 'Even if you wanted to lie in bed, you couldn't because you've got a dependent member of the family who needs looking after. It's similar to having to care for a child, but I found it incredibly helpful as it gave me a focus and forced us to get fresh air.' Those daily dog walks also helped Mike keep in touch with familiar faces – and he also credits Tilly with helping him return to his former job at Natwest. 'You see the same people day in and day out, because everyone's out walking at the same time. That really helped as it got me used to being around people again, which prepared me for facing colleagues at work.' Making new friends as an adult can be difficult, but Tilly's dog walks had already led to Mike meeting new people who became a crucial support. 'I've made a close circle of friends through Tilly who've been instrumental in helping my grieving process,' he says. 'We call ourselves the Dog Dad Curry Club and we go out for drinks together and curry nights which has provided me with a social outlet I didn't have before Tilly. Going through grief makes you learn who your friends really are, and these friends have supported and looked after me through everything. 'At Nick's funeral we could only have 12 close family and friends in, so the Dog Dad Curry Club lined up outside the funeral amongst hundreds of others to honour Nick's memory and support us. Over the years they have never shied away from talking with me about my grief.' Mike insists that he couldn't have made such a supportive social group without Tilly: 'I never would've met them without morning walks on the beach. We support each other because we have this common interest in the love we have for our dogs.' Tilly's now aged 13, and Mike says he won't be rushing to get another dog when the time comes. After everything she's helped him through, the idea of replacing her doesn't sit right. 'Mandy and I are terrified of losing her because she's still a link with Nick. She's been our crutch,' he says. 'We wouldn't replace her without Nick as we wouldn't have someone to take care of her if we were away, and we want to travel more as Nick loved to. So certainly, when the inevitable comes, I don't envisage getting another dog straight away.' For Mike, it's not just about losing a dog, it's about losing a companion which carried him and his wife through their darkest days. 'When life felt so unstable, it was nice to have somebody who was just constantly there. You know dogs, they just love you, they don't cause any problems. 'Tilly has helped us to process grief and brought us to peace with the outside world.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Weight-loss jabs may need to be taken for life, experts warn
Weight-loss jabs may have to be used for many years if the long-term benefits to patients and the NHS are to be realised, experts have said. The drugs are sold under brand names like Mounjaro and Wegovy and work by reducing food cravings. Obese patients can currently be prescribed the jabs on the NHS after being referred to specialist weight loss clinics, which are usually located in hospitals. Hundreds of thousands of people also access the medication privately at pharmacies. There have been warnings about buying potentially unsafe jabs online from unregulated retailers and potentially missing out on wraparound support. Experts said the jabs should not be seen as the first option in weight loss and should be used in conjunction with lifestyle changes, such as eating more healthily and increasing exercise. Professor Graham Easton, a GP who has been using weight loss jabs himself, said: 'I think it's a major issue about the proper funding and resourcing of not only the GPs in the surgeries but also the wraparound care we talked about. 'I think the other issue is that so far, to my knowledge, the NHS and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence have talked about this being something you take for two years, and that's probably related to data from research studies. 'But as we discussed, this is likely to be a lifelong commitment if it is going to be worthwhile to the NHS. 'There's no point in most people taking it for a couple of years and then have the weight bouncing back. 'You can argue possibly you're about to prepare for surgery or something, but in most cases it doesn't make any sense. 'Then I think there's a big issue around access. Most obesity occurs in poorer populations as wealthier populations tend to not be so affected. 'There's a massive sort of socio-economic inequality and there is a worry about this driving that inequality even further. 'Unless the NHS makes sure that these are available across the board equally, I think that's a major risk.' Prof Easton said recent studies had shown people who stopped taking the drugs had put the weight they lost back on within around a year. 'That's often true of any diet, people would say, and that's certainly my experience of having wrestled with my weight in diets over the years,' he said. 'All I would say that I found interesting from that review was that they were suggesting perhaps that weight returns even quicker after having been on GLP-1 drugs. 'Then speculating, because there was no way of knowing from that review, that perhaps it's because people are not changing the behaviours we've been talking about like exercise and other lifestyle changes, just relying on the drugs. 'When you stop them, of course, you're going to put weight back on. The switch is turned back off, or whatever it was. 'I mean very similar to, for example, statins or anti-hypertensive blood pressure medications, if you want lifelong effects, you have to keep on them lifelong.' Prof Easton was speaking at an event at the Cheltenham Science Festival discussing the growing use of weight loss drugs with neurophysiologist Dr Simon Cork and consultant endocrinologist and obesity expert Dr Tony Goldstone. Dr Cork said the jabs have an important role to play in losing weight but are part of wider changes to diet and lifestyle. 'I think we have to understand that diet is always limited. People will tend to lose on average around 5% of their body weight on a diet,' he said. 'But you're hungry, you're miserable, you're tired, your wife hates you because you're so grumpy, you're not going to continue with that. 'But we should absolutely all be looking at our diet and all changing our diet, and doing something.' Dr Goldstone said weight loss drugs had been used in the treatment of diabetes for over a decade and had benefits of reducing the risk of developing other conditions. 'We're now in the third and fourth generation of these drugs, but the first generation of these drugs we've been using for 15 years for diabetes,' he said. 'There is nothing of concern that has emerged. In fact, all we're seeing are benefits. I'm not too worried about longer term side effects coming out. 'There is no real biological reason why there should be dangerous side-effects in the way that we know these drugs work. 'The benefits of the weight loss improvement in the diabetes are actually by themselves helping health and preventing other diseases, like cancer, heart attacks, renal failure, and potentially even reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease. 'All those benefits, even if there was something that we hadn't really thought of that emerged down the line, I suspect that the harm of that is outweighed by the potential benefits of weight loss improvement in diabetes control.' Dr Cork said no drug is without side-effects and previous weight loss medications had failed because of them. 'There are side-effects, there are some concerning side-effects that tend to be very rare, but then you can monitor for those side-effects,' he said. 'As long as you're getting the correct care, as long as your GP is aware that you're taking them, then those should be identified. 'If you do find those side-effects, you can stop taking the drug.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
'Troubling decline' in secondary school PE lessons
A "troubling decline" in the number of hours England's secondary school pupils spend doing physical education (PE) "should be a wake-up call to society", according to children's exercise charity the Youth Sport Trust (YST). The organisation says figures show "nearly 4,000 PE hours lost in the last year alone" in state-funded schools, and calls for "urgent action to protect and prioritise" the subject. The YST also claims that since the London 2012 Olympics "almost 45,000 PE hours have disappeared from secondary school timetables", and that the number of PE teachers in England has also dropped by 7%. In response, the government said it is "determined to break down barriers to accessing PE and school sports for young people". In its annual report, the YST says that 2.2 million children in England are now doing less than 30 minutes of activity a day, and less than half (48%) are meeting the UK's Chief Medical Officers' recommendation of at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day. It says the steepest decline has hit 11-14-year-olds, with more than 2,800 hours cut and 347 teachers lost for this age group in the past year, at a time of rising childhood obesity rates. YST also adds that girls, children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and those from disadvantaged backgrounds "continue to face the greatest barriers to being active". However, the study also found that 93% of young people believe PE is important, 71% want to be more active at school, and 96% of teachers agree that sport and play benefit mental wellbeing. While PE is a mandatory subject in schools, the recommended amount of two hours a week is not enforced. YST chief executive Ali Oliver said: "Our children are moving less, feeling unhappier, and losing access to the transformative power of PE, contributing to stagnant physical activity levels. "The fall in PE hours is sadly an exacerbation of a longer-term trend and should be a wake-up call to society, from policymakers to schools and parents. "Unless we take action to reverse these damaging trends and increase activity levels to improve wellbeing, we risk failing a generation." In a statement, the government said: "These figures highlight the government's dire inheritance, but we're determined to break down barriers to accessing PE and school sports for young people through our Plan for Change, helping to improve their mental and physical wellbeing. "We are working across the government and with our partners including Youth Sport Trust and Sport England to boost participation and have already invested £100m to upgrade sports facilities and launched a programme to improve access to sports for pupils with special education needs and disabilities. "Our ongoing curriculum and assessment review seeks to deliver a broader curriculum, so that children do not miss out on subjects including PE and sport."
