Latest news with #Abigail
Telegraph
7 hours ago
- Health
- Telegraph
‘They're buzzing everywhere': Inside the town hit by a fly infestation
A dark cloud hangs over Royal Leamington Spa, in Warwickshire. If you look closely, it's not raindrops gathering, but millions of small black flies that residents say are making their lives a misery. Abigail and her partner Paul bought their home in the suburb of Heathcote last year. They had no idea they would soon be sharing it with a swarm of uninvited visitors. At 10.30am on Wednesday, Abigail hung a strip of fly paper in her kitchen – as she does every morning. By midday it was speckled with dozens of dead or dying flies that had found their way into the house. Abigail says it is costing her at least £12 a week in fly-prevention measures, from sprays and electric fly-zappers to the screen on the back door. She worries about the effect all those chemicals are having on her six-year-old daughter. Her next-door neighbour hasn't opened her curtains for weeks since the infestation began – they all dread the coming of summer. Abigail and her family are currently in the process of renovating their home and the doors are open much of the day. 'We moved in the winter and no one warned us,' she says. 'We found out for ourselves at the end of February – that was when things changed. The flies have been everywhere constantly since then. They are there when you get something to eat. We daren't open the windows upstairs.' There is also something else in the air in Heathcote: the constant smell of rubbish emanating from a recycling plant at the centre of a sprawling industrial estate. This is the epicentre of the infestation according to local residents, who have been plagued by flies since it opened three years ago. The Amcor plant, which processes 50,000 tonnes of kerbside-collected plastic waste each week, says it has passed all environmental and health checks, but complaints led by Matt Western, the MP for Warwick and Leamington Spa, to warn in the House of Commons of a 'public health risk'. There's something else in the air in Heathcote: the persistent smell of rubbish wafting from a recycling plant at the centre of a sprawling industrial estate. According to local residents, this is the epicentre of an infestation that has plagued the area with flies every spring since the facility opened three years ago. The Amcor plant, which processes 50,000 tonnes of kerbside-collected plastic waste each week, says it has passed all environmental and health checks. But complaints have continued, prompting Matt Western, MP for Warwick and Leamington Spa, to raise concerns in the House of Commons about a potential 'public health risk.' Amcor, formerly known as Berry Circular Polymers, says there is no proven link between the activities at the site and the swarms of flies, which have appeared every spring for the past three years. The streets around Amcor's towering, seemingly spotless stainless-steel plant are named after characters created by William Shakespeare, who lived just a few miles away in Stratford-upon-Avon. Fittingly, it is in Othello that the Bard mentions the 'summer flies in the shambles' – the grim market stalls where butchers once disembowelled animals and processed offal. It's surely coincidence that Othello Avenue lies just a street away, not far from Orsino Close, Shylock Grove and Calpurnia Avenue. In the Royal Horse pub, a group of five elderly women are enjoying their first visit in three years. They had stayed away after their last meal together was ruined by flies. Pat Weake, 85, only booked the table this time after checking whether the problem had been resolved. 'I was told there was, but it hasn't been as bad [recently] so we decided to take a chance,' she says. Thus far their meal hadn't been disturbed by anything more annoying than a Telegraph journalist, but it was still early in the day and they were ready to make a run for it if necessary. Tony Woodcock, 28, and his partner Abbie Sweet are among the area's newer residents, drawn like many young couples to Heathcote's affordable homes. But no one, Tony says, warned them they might be sharing their new life with a swarm of flying insects. Both he and Abbie suffer from respiratory issues, and shortly after moving in, she ended up in A&E with breathing difficulties. They don't know whether the Amcor plant is to blame, but they've begun to wonder if they should have stayed in Lillington, a nearby village where, Tony says, the air was 'pure and sweet'. 'We have a three-year-old daughter and it was a very small flat,' he adds. Tony works wrapping kitchens in vinyl to give them a fresh look at modest cost. Now, he's turning his attention to something more urgent: designing a fly screen using the same skills. Catherine McIntyre, 41, who lives nearby, is dreading the arrival of peak summer. 'It was really bad last year,' the mother of three explains. 'They were getting into the bedroom and everywhere.' At Stagecoach's Leamington Spa bus depot, where vehicles are cleaned before setting off across the country, one driver reported having to deal with more than a dozen flies before he could start his route. Meanwhile, Matt Western painted a grim picture when he raised the issue in Parliament. 'Imagine being in your own home and unable to eat with your family, unable to leave food for even a minute without your kitchen being swarmed with flies, and unable to sleep in your own bed without flies landing on your face,' he said. 'Imagine flies everywhere, in every room of your house, in business premises, in pubs, in restaurants and in takeaways, and vile odours permeating your life, whether at home, walking the streets or driving your car. 'That is the reality for hundreds of families in one part of my constituency. I estimate that as many as 10,000 – if not more – of my constituents are impacted by this. 'This is not just a minor inconvenience; this is ruining people's lives. 'People are getting ill, and some residents are actually selling up. Then there is the all-pervasive foul-smelling odour. Constituents describe the smell as being like 'raw sewage'. They say it is 'sulphuric' and 'toxic'. Many have told me that the smell is utterly unbearable.' An Environment Agency spokesperson confirmed that the Amcor site had been inspected four times since April 1, and apart from a minor breach of 'management techniques', no issues had been found. No one was available for comment yesterday, but a spokesperson for Berry Circular Polymers (now Amcor) had previously stated: 'We take these concerns extremely seriously and although both ourselves and our regulators cannot find a substantial causal link, we are committed to ensuring we do not negatively impact Warwickshire residents.' Few agree. The only ones who don't seem to mind are the flies.
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Matilda the Musical star Alisha Weir: Saoirse Ronan is my inspiration – how she grew up in the industry is something I admire so much
Alisha Weir is a 15-year-old actor and singer known for her role in 2022's Matilda the Musical. She was included in the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and received the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer for her role in 2024 horror movie Abigail. She lives in Co Dublin with her parents and two sisters.
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Grieving mom shares heartbreaking footage of late daughter to mark her 10th birthday
A heartbroken mother has shared a devastating tribute to her daughter on what would have been the little girl's 10th birthday - nearly a year after her sudden and tragic passing. Melissa Carlton, 33, from Vancouver, Canada, took to Instagram to post a poignant video reel of Abigail, offering a window into her family's ongoing grief and love. The short clip shows Abigail through the years - smiling at the dinner table, blowing out candles, and spending time with her family. 'Yesterday, I should have had a 10-year-old running down the stairs in the morning, eager to open her presents,' reads the overlay text on the reel, accompanied by soft piano music and snapshots of Abigail's life. Melissa and her husband, Thomas, 35, are still grappling with the shock of Abigail's sudden death from an aggressive and rare form of sepsis that took her life in just a few hours. The day before she passed, Abigail had been playing happily with her siblings. By morning, she had stomach pain and vomited - something the couple initially thought was a routine bug common in a house full of children. But hours later, Abigail was gone. Melissa mentioned that even if her family had rushed Abigail to emergency, it's unlikely they would have caught it in time In her post, Melissa mentioned that even if her family had rushed Abigail to emergency, it's unlikely they would have caught it in time. Marking Abigail's 10th birthday felt hollow, the mother-of-four said. 'There was this aching sense that someone was missing - because she was,' she said. 'It was a day full of silence and sorrow, trying to celebrate her while also surviving the grief. 'It's strange to grieve both who she was and who she could have become.' In honor of her memory, the family created a 'Power-Up Hike' based on Abigail's love for Super Mario. The trail was dotted with custom signs encouraging kids to be kind, tell jokes, and perform small acts of service. At the summit, they had built a handmade Princess Peach castle, where children could write notes 'to send to heaven.' Melissa said that as the hike ended, a rainbow appeared over the family's home and the nearby skate park where Abigail once played. 'It was so vibrant and sudden, it felt like a gift from her,' she said. 'Like she was there, smiling at us.' Abigail was known for her deep generosity - even insisting on spending her birthday money on toys for her siblings just days before her death. 'She found her joy in others' joy,' Melissa said. Since losing her daughter, Melissa has dedicated her Instagram account to openly documenting her grief journey. She has become a vocal advocate for honest conversations around child loss and mourning, and recently hosted a grief meetup for other bereaved parents. She is also training to become a certified grief educator. 'I believe grief is meant to be witnessed, not hidden,' she said.
Indian Express
25-05-2025
- Health
- Indian Express
‘Perfect bodies, perfect lives': How selfie-editing tools are distorting how young people see themselves
Like many of her peers, Abigail (21) takes a lot of selfies, tweaks them with purpose-made apps, and posts them on social media. But, she says, the selfie-editing apps do more than they were designed for: 'You look at that idealised version of yourself and you just want it – you just want it to be real […] the more you do it, the better you get at it and the more subtle your editing is the easier it is to actually see yourself as that version.' Abigail was one of nearly 80 young people my colleagues and I interviewed as part of research into selfie-editing technologies. The findings, recently published in New Media and Society, are cause for alarm. They show selfie-editing technologies have significant impacts for young people's body image and wellbeing. Many young people carefully curate how they appear online. One reason for this is to negotiate the intense pressures of visibility in a digitally-networked world. Selfie-editing technologies enable this careful curation. The most popular selfie-editing apps include Facetune, Faceapp, and Meitu. They offer in-phone editing tools from lighting, colour and photo adjustments to 'touch ups' such as removing blemishes. These apps also offer 'structural' edits. These mimic cosmetic surgery procedures such as rhinoplasty (more commonly known as nose jobs) and facelifts. They also offer filters including an 'ageing' filter, 'gender swap' tool, and 'make up' and hairstyle try-ons. The range of editing options and incredible attention to details and correction of so-called 'flaws' these apps offer encourage the user to forensically analyse their face and body, making a series of micro changes with the tap of a finger. The research team I led included Amy Dobson (Curtin University), Akane Kanai (Monash University), Rosalind Gill (University of London) and Niamh White (Monash University). We wanted to understand how image-altering technologies were experienced by young people, and whether these tools impacted how they viewed themselves. We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 33 young people aged between 18-24. We also ran 13 'selfie-editing' group workshops with 56 young people aged 18–24 who take selfies, and who use editing apps in Melbourne and Newcastle, Australia. Most participants identified as either 'female' or 'cis woman' (56). There were 12 who identified as either 'non-binary', 'genderfluid' or 'questioning', and 11 who identified as 'male' or 'cis man'. They identified as from a range of ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds. Facetune was the most widely-used facial-editing app. Participants also used Snapseed, Meitu, VSCO, Lightroom and the built-in beauty filters which are now standard in newer Apple or Samsung smartphones. Editing practices varied from those who irregularly made only minor edits such as lighting and cropping, to those who regularly used beauty apps and altered their faces and bodies in forensic detail, mimicking cosmetic surgical interventions. Approximately one third of participants described currently or previously making dramatic or 'structural' edits through changing the dimensions of facial features. These edits included reshaping noses, cheeks, head size, shoulders or waist 'cinching'. Young people told us that selfie taking and editing was an important way of showing 'who they are' to the world. As one participant told us, it's a way of saying 'I'm here, I exist'. But they also said the price of being online, and posting photos of themselves, meant they were aware of being seen alongside a set of images showing 'perfect bodies and perfect lives'. Participants told us they assume 'everyone's photos have been edited'. To keep up with this high standard, they needed to also be adept at editing photos to display their 'best self' – aligning with gendered and racialised beauty ideals. Photo-editing apps and filters were seen as a normal and expected way to achieve this. However, using these apps was described as a 'slippery slope', or a 'Pandora's box', where 'once you start editing it's hard to stop'. Young women in particular described feeling that the 'baseline standard to just feel normal' feels higher than ever, and that appearance pressures are intensifying. Many felt image-altering technologies such as beauty filters and editing apps are encouraging them to want to change their appearance 'in real life' through cosmetic non-surgical procedures such as fillers and Botox. As one participant, Amber (19), told us: 'I feel like a lot of plastic surgeries are now one step further than a filter.' Another participant, Freya (20), described a direct link between editing photos and cosmetic enhancement procedures. Ever since I started [editing my body in photos], I wanted to change it in real life […] That's why I decided to start getting lip and cheek filler. Altering the relationship between technology and the human experience These findings suggest image-editing technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) filters and selfie-editing apps, have significant impacts for young people's body image and wellbeing. The rapid expansion of generative AI in 'beauty cam' technologies in the cosmetic and beauty retail industries makes it imperative to study these impacts, as well as how young people experience these new technologies. These cameras are able to visualise 'before and after' on a user's face with minute forensic detail. These technologies, through their potential to alter relationship between technology and the human experience at the deepest level, may have devastating impacts on key youth mental health concerns such as body image.
Time of India
23-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
‘Perfect bodies, perfect lives'
body image cosmetic surgery mental health Like many of her peers, Abigail (21) takes a lot of selfies, tweaks them with purpose-made apps, and posts them on social media. But, she says, the selfie-editing apps do more than they were designed for:'You look at that idealised version of yourself and you just want it – you just want it to be real […] the more you do it, the better you get at it and the more subtle your editing is the easier it is to actually see yourself as that version.'Abigail was one of nearly 80 young people my colleagues and I interviewed as part of research into selfie-editing findings, recently published in New Media and Society, are cause for show selfie-editing technologies have significant impacts for young people'sand young people carefully curate how they appear online. One reason for this is to negotiate the intense pressures of visibility in a digitally-networked technologies enable this careful most popular selfie-editing apps include Facetune, Faceapp, and Meitu. They offer in-phone editing tools from lighting, colour and photo adjustments to 'touch ups' such as removing apps also offer 'structural' edits. These mimicprocedures such as rhinoplasty (more commonly known as nose jobs) and facelifts. They also offer filters including an 'ageing' filter, 'gender swap' tool, and 'make up' and hairstyle range of editing options and incredible attention to details and correction of so-called 'flaws' these apps offer encourage the user to forensically analyse their face and body, making a series of micro changes with the tap of a research team I led included Amy Dobson (Curtin University), Akane Kanai (Monash University), Rosalind Gill (University of London) and Niamh White (Monash University).We wanted to understand how image-altering technologies were experienced by young people, and whether these tools impacted how they viewed conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 33 young people aged between 18-24. We also ran 13 'selfie-editing' group workshops with 56 young people aged 18–24 who take selfies, and who use editing apps in Melbourne and Newcastle, participants identified as either 'female' or 'cis woman' (56). There were 12 who identified as either 'non-binary', 'genderfluid' or 'questioning', and 11 who identified as 'male' or 'cis man'. They identified as from a range of ethnic, racial and cultural was the most widely-used facial-editing app. Participants also used Snapseed, Meitu, VSCO, Lightroom and the built-in beauty filters which are now standard in newer Apple or Samsung practices varied from those who irregularly made only minor edits such as lighting and cropping, to those who regularly used beauty apps and altered their faces and bodies in forensic detail, mimicking cosmetic surgical one third of participants described currently or previously making dramatic or 'structural' edits through changing the dimensions of facial features. These edits included reshaping noses, cheeks, head size, shoulders or waist 'cinching'.Young people told us that selfie taking and editing was an important way of showing 'who they are' to the one participant told us, it's a way of saying 'I'm here, I exist'. But they also said the price of being online, and posting photos of themselves, meant they were aware of being seen alongside a set of images showing 'perfect bodies and perfect lives'.Participants told us they assume 'everyone's photos have been edited'. To keep up with this high standard, they needed to also be adept at editing photos to display their 'best self' – aligning with gendered and racialised beauty apps and filters were seen as a normal and expected way to achieve this. However, using these apps was described as a 'slippery slope', or a 'Pandora's box', where 'once you start editing it's hard to stop'.Young women in particular described feeling that the 'baseline standard to just feel normal' feels higher than ever, and that appearance pressures are felt image-altering technologies such as beauty filters and editing apps are encouraging them to want to change their appearance 'in real life' through cosmetic non-surgical procedures such as fillers and one participant, Amber (19), told us: 'I feel like a lot of plastic surgeries are now one step further than a filter.'Another participant, Freya (20), described a direct link between editing photos and cosmetic enhancement since I started [editing my body in photos], I wanted to change it in real life […] That's why I decided to start getting lip and cheek the relationship between technology and the human experienceThese findings suggest image-editing technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) filters and selfie-editing apps, have significant impacts for young people's body image and rapid expansion of generative AI in 'beauty cam' technologies in the cosmetic and beauty retail industries makes it imperative to study these impacts, as well as how young people experience these new cameras are able to visualise 'before and after' on a user's face with minute forensic technologies, through their potential to alter the relationship between technology and the human experience at the deepest level, may have devastating impacts on key youthconcerns such as body image.
