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BBC News
30-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Band of Builders finish Norfolk family home after father's death
A bereaved mother-of-six has hailed the "amazing" kindness of more than 150 volunteers who finished her home following the death of her Fletcher took his own life on Christmas Eve aged 44, having hidden his mental health electrician had been working on a renovation of their home near Swaffham, Norfolk, including vital facilities for his disabled son – but Cambridgeshire charity Band of Builders stepped in to Fletcher's wife Sarah said: "Thank you isn't enough - but a massive thank you." The tragic circumstances meant a ground-floor room for the couple's 16-year-old son stood as an empty requires round-the-clock palliative care due to quadriplegic cerebral palsy and dystonia, which meant Mrs Fletcher was having to carry him upstairs to bed each the job was completed in full in 12 days, with other renovations also completed around the house, fulfilling the initial plans for the home."This is amazing," said Mrs Fletcher. "It's better than I ever could have imagined, it's just a proper room for Toby, his own room and he deserves it."I don't have to carry him up the stairs, which is a massive positive."Shaun and Sarah married in 2007, with Mrs Fletcher describing her husband as "quite a joker" and a "hard-working person".She added: "If he wasn't working, he was trying to complete this extension for Toby."He thought a lot of Toby. He loved them all, he treated all of them the same."Toby would always have a smile for his dad." With the project providing some distraction during a difficult time, Mrs Fletcher has praised Band of Builders for bringing volunteers together from around the UK."They were just so lovely. They were here because they wanted to be here."Mrs Fletcher is sure her husband would have been "really pleased" with the finished project, particularly with the smart home system he had concluded: "It is amazing that the house is done but it is also sad that Shaun isn't here to see it." 'Good in this world' Among the volunteers was Paul Page, who said he had never been involved in something so special in about 30 years in the construction back tears, Mr Page said: "They needed the help, and I think everyone felt the same."It looks absolutely beautiful. They will have a much better life with the way the property is now."I know they haven't got a full family but they'll be much happier." Retired plasterer Brian Hicks got involved after his wife saw an advertisement on Facebook."I just thought, this is a great cause, and I can honestly say, the people that were here, I've never been in a working environment like it."Just the sheer kindness and commitment people had, money couldn't buy that type of thing. It just made you feel there is good in this world."If you have been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via BBC Action Line. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
25-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Nantwich builder to push wheelbarrow across Britain for charity
"I didn't realise the dark places had a cellar as well, until I got there."Crushed under the weight of financial woes, work stress and a relationship breakdown, builder Liam Challenor's mental health was taking a turn for the worse over the past two the run-up to Christmas 2024, the 34-year-old almost took his own life, only changing his mind because he was looking at a picture of his two has since managed to turn things around and on 30 June he will begin an epic challenge to push a wheelbarrow across Britain to raise awareness of mental health issues. Mr Challenor, from Nantwich, Cheshire, said he struggled with balancing family and work life, and also spent thousands to launch an app for pressure led to him being admitted to hospital because he had not been eating or drinking for three days."It was really weighing me down, everything that hit me before Christmas just took me under," he told BBC Radio Stoke. 'Things will get easier' Mr Challenor also struggled to sleep and would find himself walking around town in the early hours of the morning."The next day, you're not in the mental space to go to work so you're not earning any money," he tradesman said it was a customer who noticed how low he was and they helped him turn a corner by focusing on the positive aspects of his said walking, getting out into nature and learning to enjoy his own company helped him with his ongoing issues."Start to enjoy your own company," he said. "I promise things will get easier and things will get a lot better." 'Need picking up' Mr Challenor's challenge will see him push a wheelbarrow from Land's End in Cornwall to John o' Groats in Scotland in 61 wheelbarrow will contain the weight equivalent of his two children and he will walk the route solo in hi-vis clothingThe distance between the two locations is 603 miles, though he could end up walking up to 1,200 miles, he said, due to avoiding some of the main well as raising awareness of mental health, Mr Challenor will be fundraising for Band of Builders, a wellbeing charity for people in the said: "I want to spread a bit of happiness to people who are down in the dumps and need picking up." If you've been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line. Read more Cheshire stories from the BBC and follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Euthanasia activist arrested over 'suicide pod' dies
A pro-euthanasia activist who was arrested following the death of a woman using the world's first so-called suicide pod has died. Dr Florian Willet, 47, was reportedly the only other person present when a 64-year-old American woman took her own life using the device in a forest in Switzerland last September. The pod's inventor Philip Nitschke told BBC News that Dr Willet died by assisted suicide in Germany. In a separate statement, Mr Nitschke said Dr Willet had suffered psychological trauma following his arrest and detention in connection with the Switzerland death. If you are experiencing any of the issues mentioned in this story you can visit BBC Action Line for a list of websites and helplines that can offer direct help at any time. "In the final months of his life, Dr Florian Willet shouldered more than any man should," he said. The Last Resort - an assisted dying organisation founded by Dr Willet to facilitate the use of the pod - said the arrest had left him "broken". The activist was held in pre-trial detention for 70 days while police investigated whether he had intentionally killed the woman - an allegation he was not charged with. Prior to his death on 5 May, Dr Willet fell from a third-floor window, the group said, leaving him requiring surgery and needing to be "cared for by a full psychiatric team". While assisted dying is legally protected in some circumstances in Switzerland, it is strictly regulated, and the pod has encountered opposition. Advocates say the device - manufactured by Sarco - provides an assisted dying option which is not reliant on drugs or doctors and expands potential access. Critics fear the device's modern design glamorises suicide, and that the fact that it can be operated without medical oversight is concerning. Assisted dying is illegal in the UK and in most other European countries, but thousands have travelled to Switzerland over the years to end their own lives. BBC News has contacted the Swiss prosecutor's office for comment.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Abuse was normalised in our home
"I had a pristine frontage of a middle-class home - no one thought it could happen behind those doors, but it did." David Challen successfully campaigned to free his mother, Sally Challen, from prison in 2019, almost nine years after she had killed his father, Richard, with a hammer. She had suffered decades of coercive control at the hands of her husband, which David said had become "normalised" within the family home in the wealthy suburban village of Claygate in Surrey. David, now a domestic abuse campaigner, has now written a book, called The Unthinkable, about the family's experiences, and said more needs to be done to protect victims. Speaking to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One, he said: "She'd done the worst act anyone possibly could do. [She] took away my father. "I couldn't understand it, but I knew something had been rolling... something was happening and I just didn't have the words." A law passed in 2015, which recognises psychological manipulation as a form of domestic abuse, helped secure Mrs Challen's release from prison after she had been jailed for life for murder in 2011. Coercive control describes a pattern of behaviour by an abuser to harm, punish or frighten their victim and became a criminal offence in England and Wales in December 2015. David said this description had set him and his mother "free". "It gave us a language to describe what was going on in that home, to describe the insidious nature that is mostly non-physical violence," he said. Not having a name for the abuse had "robbed us of our right to have an ability to protect ourselves," he added. He now uses his experience of "intergenerational trauma" to help others, with a book telling the family's story being released on Thursday. "I buried my childhood with my father, so I had to dig up the past to find the child I had left behind," he said. "It was the child that I always hid because I didn't know how he experienced that world. "But I knew I was born into this world with a gut feeling that [there was] something inherently bad about my father, and I never knew why. "I normalised the coercion and control in my home, this life of servitude that my mother lived under... sexual violence was routine." If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line. He said he wrote the book to "give voice to what it's like to grow up in a home where domestic abuse wasn't the word - it was coercive control and it didn't appear on my TV screens". But, a decade on, "we're not tackling it enough", he added. "I continue to speak out because I don't want these events to happen again." Wife's murder conviction quashed 'My mum killed my dad but I want her freed' HM Courts & Tribunals Service
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Kara Tointon has double mastectomy after gene test
Former EastEnders actress Kara Tointon has revealed she has undergone a double mastectomy following a gene test. The 41-year-old, also known for her work in dramas including The Teacher and Mr Selfridge, revealed that tests showed she carried the BRCA gene - which can put her at very high risk of cancer. Tointon, from Basildon in Essex, posted an Instagram video on Wednesday to raise awareness of the preventative measure she had taken. She said: "You may have heard of the BRCA genes 1 and 2 and as a carrier it means I am at a greater risk of both breast and ovarian cancer." In 2018, the soap star said she was asked to take a genetics test when her mother Carol was undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. She is working with gynaecological cancer charity the Eve Appeal, of which she is an ambassador. "There is a history of both cancers in my family on my mother's side, but for various reasons, including generational trauma of which I'll talk more about another time, we hadn't looked into it until that point," she said. "But it was put to us, we took the test, and it was confirmed that my mum and I both carried the gene." Ms Tointon's mother died in 2019. If you need any advice or support on issues relating to this story, information and contacts are available on the BBC Action Line "Last year, having had my second son in 2021 and deciding that our family was complete, I underwent two preventative surgeries," she said. "The first a double mastectomy and the second a two-part protector study, a trial. "They believe that ovarian cancer begins in the fallopian tubes so by removing them first, checking them out, you then remove the ovaries later, and closer to menopause," she added. Hollywood star Angelina Jolie underwent a double mastectomy after she discovered she carried the BRCA1 gene, leading to greater awareness of the gene defect. Around one in 1,000 women across the UK have a BRCA1 variant, but most breast and ovarian cancers happen due to chance damage to genes. After several tests, including biopsies and MRIs, Tointon said: "I decided that this was the right decision for me and my family. "It wasn't an easy decision, but one I'm very glad and lucky I made, and I can now, with hindsight, talk about it properly." Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. New hope for patients with breast cancer gene A family tree gene revelation may have saved my life Eve Appeal
