Latest news with #Huntingdon
BBC News
11 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Great Stukeley aunt helps raise £20k in memory of teenage niece
A medical secretary has helped raise £20,000 in memory of her niece who died from cancer when she was 18. Sarah Doherty, who works at Hinchgbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon, walked 24-miles (38km) across 21 bridges to raise funds for the charity Young Lives vs niece Abi Quinlisk died at the same hospital in September, within hours of being told she had acute myeloid leukaemia. Ms Doherty, from Great Stukeley, Cambridgeshire, was joined by Ms Quinlisk's friends and family members, including her parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. "Around 137 of us completed the walk and collectively we raised £20,000 from various fundraising pages," Ms Doherty said."It was a great day, with so many people to talk to along the way it didn't feel like 24 miles - we all had the determination to finish for our girl."The London event was part of a long-running fundraising programme for the charity, which helps children and young people aged up to 25, as well as their Quinlisk's uncle, Paul Jenner, has been supporting one of its main fundraising events for years, a cycle ride from England to Ireland. This year the ride will be called Abi's Tour. Ms Doherty said her niece's diagnosis "was totally out of the blue - we didn't know she had this illness until a few hours before she passed away". Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Why a helicopter will be flying over central Pennsylvania
MIFFLIN COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) — A helicopter will be flying low over parts of central Pennsylvania soon as part of an effort to prevent power outages. A FirstEnergy subsidiary is using an aerial saw to trim trees along high voltage lines in the company's PenElec service area. The company says the work began recently and is expected to be done by the end of the year. This work is being done in numerous Pennsylvania counties, including Mifflin, Huntingdon, and Centre counties, as well as Bedford, Blair, Bradford, Cambria,, Clearfield, Elk, McKean, Potter Somerset, Tioga, Warren, Westmoreland, and Wyoming counites. 'Keeping our high-voltage power lines clear of potential interference from trees is an important part of maintaining system reliability,' John Hawkins, FirstEnergy President, Pennsylvania, said. 'The aerial saw is a specialized tool that allows us to cover hundreds of transmission miles every year in a safe, efficient manner.' The helicopter comes equipped with a saw on a boom suspended below. It is able to trim trees along transmission lines the company says are inaccessible to bucket trucks or other vehicles or are in environmentally sensitive areas. They can cover more area in a day than a ground crew might in a week, FirstEnergy says. Download the abc27 News+ app on your Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and Apple TV devices Maintaining clearances between lines and trees helps prevent power outages, the company says. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
'Old A14' 40mph speed limit in Cambridgeshire to end by summer
A temporary speed limit that some motorists have described as "lethal" is expected to be lifted by the end of the summer, according to 40mph restriction was applied to several sections of the A1307, locally known as the old A14, in Cambridgeshire in with barriers and drainage prompted National Highways to impose the County Council said some repair work had been delayed by the discovery of asbestos. Restrictions cutting the maximum speed from 70mph to 40mph were applied to three sections of the old A14 between Swavesey and Huntingdon:Between The Hemingfords and St Ives because there were concerns about flooding following the death of a man in a crash in July 2023Between Godmanchester and Huntingdon because the barriers were thought to be unsafeAt Fenstanton where a pipe had collapsed under the roadLast year, drivers questioned the need for the limits and suggested they could be dangerous. A Cambridge taxi driver said the 40mph restriction was "lethal and an accident waiting to happen".Another driver described them as "slightly annoying, especially if I'm running late for the kids". Cambridgeshire County Council, which took over responsibility for the A1307 from National Highways last year, said the central barriers had now been repaired following the crash and vegetation had been cleared to improve authority said the replacement of safety barriers between Huntingdon and Godmanchester had been delayed by the discovery of asbestos in the old ones, but work was now almost and pipes had been cleaned in Fenstanton and a collapsed pipe had been repaired, and new fencing had been installed to reduce noise pollution. Alex Beckett, who chairs the Highways and Transport Committee at the Liberal Democrat-controlled county council, said: "We've been working hard to remove the speed restrictions on the A1307, so it's fantastic news that it will soon be safe to do so."It's frustrating that these works have taken longer than initially hoped – a huge amount of work was needed when the road was handed over to us last year but safety must always be our first priority."The authority added the restrictions were "expected to be lifted by the end of the summer" and would be removed in each section as soon as it was safe to do so. Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- General
- Daily Mail
I ignored an easily-missed sign of deadly skin cancer - until my hairdresser flagged it...everyone should perform vital check
A mother-of-two has saluted her hairdresser for saving her life—after the stylist spotted a hidden sign of deadly melanoma skin cancer that would otherwise have been missed. Michaela Peacock, 35, noticed a 10p-sized growth on her scalp while absent-mindedly rubbing her head while watching TV one evening late last year. She asked her husband to take a look underneath her hair, and he confirmed it looked like a raised mole, which the pair assumed she developed in childhood. But after a friend flagged the importance of keeping tabs on any changes, the aesthetics clinic owner texted her hairdresser a picture of the lesion, to ask if she'd noticed it. 'She said that it looked bigger and darker than when she last saw it, that's what made me go and get it checked,' said Ms Peacock. 'The fact my hairdresser could say that looks bigger meant it was changing, so she helped save my life.' In early January, Ms Peacock visited her GP to get the mole checked, and the doctor immediately referred her to North West Anglia hospital in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, for specialist investigation. 'The mole was brown around the edges but really dark in the middle,' she said. 'It was the pigment in it that made the doctors worry.' Michaela Peacock has credited her hairdresser for highlighting the change in a mole which triggered her diagnosis of deadly skin cancer At the hospital, the mole was removed, biopsied and six weeks later identified as melanoma—the deadliest form of skin cancer. If spotted at the earliest stages, almost 100 per cent of patients will survive for five years or more. However if diagnosed at later stages, when the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, only around half of patients live for six years, according to Cancer Research UK. 'I was shocked when they said it was melanoma,' said Ms Peacock. 'My first thought was, "is this going to end up as a death sentence?"'. 'Melanoma caught early is very treatable and curable, but when you hear the word cancer you think of death.' Ms Peacock has reflected on her teenage sunbathing habits in the aftermath of her diagnosis. 'When I was a teenager and young adult I never used to wear sun cream because I didn't like the feel of it,' she admitted. 'I'm very fair skinned and would never tan, so to get any hint of a tan I'd have to burn first and unfortunately in the past I've had some awful sunburn. 'The consultant said it only takes one time to have a blistering sunburn and melanoma can present itself 20 years later, so I think it's from years of not looking after my skin.' Ms Peacock has since had subsequent biopsies taken of other moles on her stomach and inside her lip, which doctors suspect could be signs of further cancer. While doctors removed the initial growth during the biopsy, she may need further procedures and treatment if the other lesions are determined to be cancerous. 'I don't think people think of skin cancer as anything that serious,' she said. 'I've even had people say 'it's only skin cancer'. 'What a stupid thing to say. Melanoma is deadly, it kills people.' Ms Peacock said she's now 'terrified' to go outside in the sunshine. 'When you get a diagnosis of melanoma, you kind of feel you want to become a vampire,' she said. 'I wear SPF all the time now anyway and on sunny days I wear factor 50, a hat and sunglasses. 'I went to pick the kids up from school and even just walking across the playground to get to the shady bit I could feel the sun on my arms, it makes you so paranoid. 'I bang on to people all the time about wearing their SPF and not laying out in the sun. 'But how do you hit home with that message? I don't know how to do that unless you scare people, which is what my tactic is.' Last year, data revealed that rates of the cancer in the UK have increased by almost a third in the space of a decade. While the majority of the rise has been seen in older people, there has been a seven per cent increase in cases in people aged 25 to 49, according to the Cancer Research UK figures.
BBC News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Cambridgeshire young farmers compete for best straw sculpture
Straw bale sculptures of tractors, animals and a combine harvester have been created by young farmers as part of an annual competition. Five Cambridgeshire groups are competing against each other, inspired by this year's theme - Back British is part of a publicity drive for the Cambridgeshire County Show, which is a traditional country event organised by the county's young farmers. County chairman Sam Forsyth, 25, said they hoped to "educate the public and show them how hard farmers work". "A lot of our members do feel quite passionately about what's going on and are impacted by the changes in farming recently," the quantity surveyor said. The Cambridgeshire County Show is the farmers' biggest fundraiser and is returning to the Abbots Ripton Estate, near Huntingdon, for the second time, on 31 May. It has existed for more than 20 years and used to be held at the National Trust's Wimpole Hall Forsyth said: "It's bigger, we've got more trade stands, we've pre-sold more tickets and we've got livestock and live farming equipment displays this year." Cambridgeshire Young Farmers has five branches that take part in the straw bale sculpture rural youth charity, which is aimed at anyone who enjoys the countryside regardless of their farming background, has seen its membership grow by about 15% in Cambridgeshire recently. "We've got our highest level of membership - 175 members - since I joined five years ago," Mr Forsyth said. Members, who are aged up to 28, compete against each other with challenges, including public speaking and also compete against other county young farmer groups, and currently Cambridgeshire's women's netball and men's football groups are the eastern regional champions. There are 581 Young Farmers' Clubs in England and Wales. Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
