Latest news with #Cram
BBC News
08-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Coe and Cram rival McKean returns to athletics after 30 years
He once split Seb Coe and Steve Cram in a British clean sweep of the 800m medals at the European while Coe went on to become an athletics administration powerhouse off the track and Cram to high-profile television commentary, Tom McKean disappeared from the public view - until 61, and after a 30-year absence during which he pursued a career in the police, the Scottish Olympian has returned to former World Indoor and European outdoor champion's first steps into coaching have been captured in a new Scottish Athletics documentary - "Giving Back to Track – Tom McKean (Motherwell AC)"., external "I retired 18 months ago and I was running with my wife at Motherwell AC and they said, 'Well, why don't you start coaching again? We'd love to have you at Motherwell AC'," he reveals."The partnership quickly evolved and very quickly they got me hooked and they wouldn't let me go."Given McKean's achievements, it is little burst on to the scene in 1986, taking Commonwealth Games silver behind Cram but ahead of another Englishman, Peter later, he was a fine runner-up again at the European Championships, gaining revenge on Cram but being edged out by Coe for would finally taste gold - at the 1989 World Cup, the 1990 European indoor and outdoor championships, as well as the 1993 World Scotland would then come calling, but now he is enjoying giving something back to the sport."Being a coach, I'm trying to create dreams, ambitions and goals for young people - to set them on their way in life," he says.'Life is tough for kids and they need to deal with joy, disappointment, underachieving, over-achieving - and I think we give them that in a safe environment."McKean draws on his own career to explain why giving your best is what should matter in athletics."My advice is: if you give 100% then you can walk off a track, or walk off a cross country race, or walk off a training session and say 'I've done the best I can',' he says.'Then, to me, you can't ask for any more. Once I ran in the final of the European Championships and I finished second, but I couldn't have done anything better."I couldn't have run any quicker, I couldn't have been in better positions. I finished second because Seb Coe beat me on the line. But I had given 100% and should have been happy with the result – and I was happy with the result."
The Guardian
28-03-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
‘What the hell is this stuff?': French people on the culture shock of flossing
There are many established, regularly parodied cultural differences between France and the US: style, portion sizes, attitudes towards picking up after your dog. But there's another – possibly bloodier – contrast: flossing. Sarah Diligenti, the director of the Alliance Française in Washington DC, had never heard of flossing before she moved to the US in 1995. Growing up in the south-western French city of Toulouse, she was not ignorant of dental care – her cousin was a dental surgeon, she had briefly endured a pair of wire retainers as a teen and she never had any cavities. But flossing? Mais non. 'Being French, we didn't know what flossing was,' recalls Diligenti. 'Absolutely nobody mentioned it – certainly not my cousin.' Some were mysteriously familiar with the practice; once, in the 80s, she saw a French friend rubbing a string between his teeth. But she thought, 'What the heck is he doing?' In 1996, she and her then husband – a Mancunian with 'really bad teeth' – went to their first American dental checkup. 'The dentist looked at us like we were freak shows,' she said. Every time the couple went back for a cleaning, the dentist would tell them they had to floss. 'Finally, we said, 'What do you mean?'' 'Preventative care has not traditionally been a priority in France,' says Dr Adriana Agachi, a pediatric dentist in Paris. She suspects this is because dental care in France is largely covered by social security, so there is less concern about the financial cost of dental emergencies. Agachi says that when she worked in Switzerland, where dental care tends to be more expensive than in France, patients were diligent about scheduling checkups and cleanings every six months. When Agachi asked them why, they told her that because of the high costs, 'they prefer to avoid major issues through regular prevention'. Dentistry in the US is 'very focused' on preventative care, says Dr Sally J Cram, a periodontist and spokesperson and consumer adviser for the American Dental Association (ADA). '[US] dentists and researchers are putting dentists out of business in some respects,' says Cram. 'When you help people take care of their teeth at home, they have fewer cavities and less gum disease.' Flossing cleans the areas between the teeth that can't be reached with a toothbrush, Cram says. Both brushing and flossing remove plaque – a sticky buildup of bacteria and food debris that starts forming on the teeth as soon as 10 minutes after we eat. A healthy person who removes all the plaque from the surface of their teeth and under the gumline every 24 hours is unlikely to have many dental problems, says Cram. When plaque sits on the teeth for more than 24 hours, however, the bacteria in plaque begin to inflame the gums. 'That's what makes your gums bleed and feel sore,' Cram explains. Left longer than one to two days, plaque hardens and becomes impossible to remove with at-home brushing and flossing – only a professional dental cleaning can get it off. Left for months or years, the bacteria from plaque can make its way down to the jawbone and begin to erode it, leading to periodontal disease. In fairness to the French, there is actually very little data to support the benefits of flossing. In 2015, the US Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services caused a media hubbub when they removed any mention of flossing from official dietary guidelines. The government later told the Associated Press that 'the effectiveness of flossing had never been researched'. Indeed, one 2015 review found that 'the majority of studies fail to demonstrate that flossing is generally effective in plaque removal'. Cram acknowledges that there have been limited long-term studies on flossing. But she attributes this to the complexity and expense of carrying out effective long-term studies of anything. 'The bottom line is, flossing is a low-risk, low-cost way to clean parts of your teeth where your toothbrush can't reach,' says Cram. 'So what is the harm in doing it?' Sign up to Well Actually Practical advice, expert insights and answers to your questions about how to live a good life after newsletter promotion The French dental landscape does seem to be slowly changing in regards to flossing. 'It depends where you are and what the age group of the dentist is,' says Julien Suaudeau, a lecturer in French and Francophone studies and program director of film studies at Bryn Mawr College. 'In big cities, it is something that has become more common practice.' Suaudeau says that he was first introduced to interdental cleaning in his early 20s, when he still lived in France. His dentist at the time had traveled to the US, and did not recommend using floss, but small interdental brushes. When he came to the US, the dental hygienist Suaudeau saw told him to ditch the interdental brushes and use floss instead. He wonders now if his use of the brush was 'not satisfactory'. Suaudeau became a regular flosser for the reason so many people do: because 'it's unpleasant to have someone scolding you when you are an adult'. Still, he says that when he travels home to Paris, some of his friends are confused by his dental accoutrements. 'I get questions every now and then, like, 'What the hell is this stuff?'' Suaudeau says. There isn't even a word for flossing in French, he adds. Or if there is, he doesn't know it. 'I should because I'm a teacher.' I asked my French colleague, Jessica Reed, who also couldn't think of a word for flossing. (She also said she regularly lies to her US dentist about flossing, seeing it as 'another American imposition on her relaxed French lifestyle'.) Google Translate suggested 'passer la soie dentaire', which roughly translates to 'passing dental silk between your teeth'. Diligenti says she does floss – sorry, pass the dental silk between her teeth – now. Well, most of the time. 'Sometimes I go to bed without flossing because I come back late from work,' she admits. 'But otherwise I do it.' Très bien.
BBC News
10-02-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Danny Cram Foundation set up in memory of Jersey skater
Almost £13,000 has been donated to set up a foundation to help young adults with their mental health in memory of a Jersey Cram was 25 when he took his own life in December after struggles with his mental and family have set up the Danny Cram Foundation to provide more support in the island for young adults and their of his friends said "everyone loves him" and "his personality was unmatched" with his mum Louise Cram adding he was "a kind and courageous soul". Eddie da Rocha was a close friend of Danny's and helped set up the said Danny "was the most unique character, very outgoing" and "Danny liked helping others more than himself".Mr da Rocha added: "Danny will be the type of boy who will just sit there and listen to you and he would just let you talk and I'm sure he would be really proud of what we're doing."He also said "you just realise that Jersey doesn't have the tools required to help young adults with mental health problems" and "I think it's a bigger issue that we think". Need help? If you have been affected by this story the BBC Action Line web page features a list of organisations which are ready to provide support and advice. Jersey's government said it expected to publish the island's Suicide Prevention Strategy by the end of the first quarter of the latest figures from the Mental Health Profile found between 2018-2020 there were the age-standardised mortality rates (ASMR) for suicide in Jersey of 9.3 deaths per 100,000 rate in England over the same period of time was 10.4 per 100, of all suicides in Jersey involved men (72%).The next Mental Health Profile is due to be published at the end of April and there is a list of support services available for those in need. The governing body of skateboarding in Jersey, Skateboard Jersey (SJ), paid tribute to Danny and said they were working to better support Minty, from the SJ, said "at first there was an overwhelming sense of grief" as Danny's death had "a serious impact" on the skating added: "I hope the need for change is now recognised and it's dealt with appropriately."SJ is working with the Ben Raemers Foundation, which is a UK charity that was set up following the suicide of professional skater Ben Raemers in 2019. 'Tragic loss' Susie Crome is one of the co-founders of the Ben Raemers Foundation and is planning to come to Jersey to help the local skating said they would teach first aid suicide training and "give an to introduction to understanding suicide and how to have conversations around suicide"."It's about recognising what support systems people have already got and how we can build on those but also it's devastating that it had to come from a tragic loss," Ms Crome foundation aims to help the skateboarding community develop the skills needed to support each other to understand and address mental health.
