Latest news with #JohnArthur
ITV News
7 days ago
- Health
- ITV News
The 'Viking' DNA screening saving lives in Scotland's most remote islands
Words by Louise Scott & Stephanie Docherty When John Arthur volunteered to take part in a local study over a decade ago, he never thought it could end up saving his life. The 63-year-old fisherman just wanted to know if he had Viking ancestry, so he donated blood to a University of Edinburgh study, after hearing a talk in his local village. Ten years later, a letter came through the door which potentially saved his life. John carried a variant of the BRCA2 gene which puts him at a much higher risk of developing cancer. After receiving the letter, he went to the doctor and was diagnosed with stage one prostate cancer. 'If I had not done the study and put these things together, I would never have gone to the doctor in the first place," John told ITV News. 'I thought I better go and get tested and get the [prostate] test done to find out more about it. 'I wouldn't have even thought about going to the doctor about it, to tell the truth." After his early diagnosis, in February this year he underwent a successful operation to remove his prostate and is already back to work with the all clear. He now believes everyone should have access to these types of tests to prevent serious health conditions from developing in the first place. John Arthur is one of more than 60 volunteers who were sent letters last year after contributing to the study which found that those from Shetland, or with ancestors from the islands, are at a much greater risk of carrying genetic variants which can cause a number of life-threatening conditions. These include the BRCA2 gene which causes breast, ovarian and prostate cancer and the KCNH2 gene which causes fatal heart rhythms. Plans have now been unveiled for a groundbreaking genetic screening programme to provide another 5,000 Shetlanders the opportunity to find out if they are carriers of these variants. Professor Jim Flett Wilson from the University's Usher Institute visited Lerwick to announce the £1 million fundraising campaign. 'I've been studying the genetics and the health of the people of Orkney and Shetland for over 20 years now," Professor Wilson said. "When I started this, there wasn't all that much that we could do and now we can read all of the DNA of everyone for a reasonable price so we can learn enormous amounts. 'The first one we noticed was the breast cancer variant. Of course, you find these things in London and Edinburgh, but they're rare. Whereas here we were seeing it in remarkable numbers of people. And when we looked further, we found this wasn't the only case. There were other examples, different genes, different diseases. All of them had become a whole lot more common than we would have expected. 'It's because a lot of people from remote communities have been marrying locally for many years, so many of them come down from one ancestor. But if that ancestor had a mutation, had a change in his or her genes, then it would have come down the generations all the way down to today. 'This happens everywhere on Earth, but people spread all over the world. They're mixed up there in Yorkshire and America. And here obviously some people have left, but there's still a concentration, a core of local people. And we see this this increase in frequency and having these genes, it doesn't necessarily mean that they have cancer or that they have a rare condition." The screening will focus on 50 genetic variants that have 'actionable findings', meaning that they can be treated through NHS to manage the condition. Volunteers in the programme will be notified of their genetic findings and be advised on the appropriate NHS pathway of care. 'The NHS is great as it stands, but it really works in a reactive mode. It only tries to fix people when they're broken, and I think we want to turn this around," Professor Wilson said. "This is a great example of preventative medicine, and we want to start in Shetland because it has the greatest need. And it's also an opportunity. "It's not that big a number of genes that we need to look at. So there's a sort of cost effectiveness argument here as well. It helps to save lives." The Jewish community in England have recently been given access to a similar screening programme, because of the greater levels of the BRCA genes found within their community. The Viking Genes study believes it is only fair to roll this out to other remote communities, like the Scottish islands. The screening will be designed for people over the age of 16, from anywhere in Shetland, by a DNA saliva collection kit. The new screening project will in time identify those individuals who may not be affected themselves, but who carry an elevated risk of passing on certain genetic conditions to their children. The campaign says it could take around one year to lay the 'ground work' for the project before screening commences.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The sneaky way one Utah teacher showed support for LGBTQ+ students despite bigoted laws
In the wake of a law targeting LGBTQ+ flags in schools, a Utah teacher is sharing how he's previously found ways to show support for queer students in his classes even when politicians have done their best to stop it. "Way back in my first year of teaching, I was reading The Wizard of Oz in class and the words 'gay' and 'queer' came up in the book," John Arthur recounted in a video shared to Threads. "Some students started laughing and I was about to say something when my principal, who was observing in the room at the time, shook her head 'no.'" When he spoke to the principal after class, he was informed that Utah had a law in place at the time against the "advocacy of homosexuality" in school. The law, which first began in 2001, was worded vaguely enough that it effectively prevented teachers from making any mention of anything LGBTQ-related. Arthur was frustrated, as he noted there was a student in his class who was "clearly gay" and "reacted" to his classmates' laughter. But the principal said there was nothing the teacher could do to show support without risking running afoul of the law. "Late in the night, I realized: I'm a teacher. I use pens and highlighters and markers every day. No one could give me a hard time for wearing a bunch of pens in my pocket," he said. "So I came to school the next day with a rainbowish assortment ready to go. And most people made nothing of it. But my boy knew. He looked at me and he knew I was flying the flag just for him." Although that particular law was repealed in 2017, as Arthur notes in his video, Utah has now taken action to officially ban LGBTQ+ flags from all government buildings — including schools — starting May 7. This targeted action is being done under the guise of banning "unsanctioned" flags (basically any flags other than the U.S. flag, the Utah flag, and several others), but it's been very clear from the start that the intention is specifically to get rainbow flags out of schools. Utah state representative Trevor Lee has even stated his intention to ban more items showing support for LGBTQ+ students in the future should teachers find ways to keep showing support beyond flags. But Arthur says this strategy of intolerance simply won't work. "Bigotry will never outpace our creativity," he said. "The only way to get rid of rainbow flags and all the rest is to make them unnecessary. When all our kids — LGBTQ youth included — get to walk into our classrooms and find themselves celebrated in the books they read, the histories they study, and the stories we tell, then teachers won't need to fly rainbow flags for them anymore."
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Protect Utah Workers coalition far exceeds signature gathering goal
After weeks of an extensive signature gathering effort across the state, the Protect Utah Workers coalition exceeded its stated goal and submitted thousands of signatures supporting a referendum against HB267 on Wednesday. But a Deseret News/Hinckley Institute poll shows Utahns are fairly evenly divided on their feelings about the new law, which bans public sector collective bargaining. During a press conference after the signatures were submitted to the Salt Lake County clerk, John Arthur, a sixth grade teacher in Salt Lake City and a member of the Utah Education Association, shared that the coalition had collected over 320,000 signatures in support of the referendum. 'We are on track to becoming not only the most successful citizen led referendum in Utah history, but one of the most successful in our nation's history. I'm used to teaching history, but today we're out here making it because we turn frustration into action and action into results,' Arthur said. If the group has gathered enough signatures, it can get a referendum on the ballot in 2026 allowing Utahns to vote on whether to repeal HB267, a law which bans public sector collective bargaining. The law was passed by the Legislature earlier this year and was one of the first bills signed by the governor during the session. 'Politicians came after public workers and the public got to work,' Arthur said. The group needs 140,748 signatures to get the referendum on the ballot and had set a goal of 200,000. Though organizers far exceeded their goal, the battle isn't over yet, as signatures can still be removed and all the signatures have to be verified. There are a number of reasons why signatures may not get verified: Signers may not be registered to vote, they may have written their address wrong, filled out the form incorrectly or their handwriting may be illegible. Protect Utah Workers submitted the referendum application soon after the end of the legislative session and launched a signature gathering effort on March 15. The coalition includes 19 public labor unions such as the Utah Education Association, Teamsters Local 222, Utah State Fraternal Order of Police, Professional Firefighters of Utah and Utah Public Employees Association. The signatures were gathered in 30 days through a statewide signature gathering effort that included both volunteers and paid signatures gatherers. 'Today, I stand here joyful, proud and determined. This is a celebration of what is possible when workers and communities get together, but this is also a promise,' said Jessica Stauffer, a nurse and president of Utah Health Workers United, CWA Local 7765. Throughout Wednesday's press conference, the union members who spoke repeatedly emphasized how popular they believe their movement is and how the public is against HB267. A recent Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll asked Utah voters whether or not they support HB267. Out of the 880 registered Utah voters who participated in the poll, 34% said they support the law while 38% oppose it. Another 28% said they don't know. The poll, conducted for the Deseret News and Hinckley Institute by the HarrisX on April 9-12, had a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points. Though the margin between those who support the law and don't was close, Britt Miller, president of Local Teamsters 222, said the numbers did not surprise him because of the number of Utahns who don't understand what is going on and lack of education around unions in Utah. 'My thought is that some people just don't follow politics totally. So that would be a third of those people, a third of the people are informed, and a third are against and I call it the rule of thirds. I think that's very common numbers. And I hope that we can get to a more majority number and more support for local unions and for workers in general within the state,' said Stauffer. As the coalition has encouraged residents to sign, there have been groups in favor of the law, such as Utah Parents United, who have been campaigning against the referendum. Not all public employees are against the law. One of these people is Cole Kelley, who has been a teacher in Utah for 28 years and is a member of the Utah State Board of Education. 'As Utahns learn more about this law, they'll see it protects all of us by ensuring fair governance. Despite unions spending over $3 million to push their narrative, only 38% oppose the law — a strong sign that Utah supports this commonsense reform," Kelley wrote in a text message to the Deseret News. The answers also varied vastly across political party affiliation, as 48% of self-identified Republicans were in support of the law with 27% against. When it came those who identify as Democrats, only 15% were in favor of HB267 and 69% were against it. Out of male respondents, 43% were for HB267 with 37% against, compared to female respondents who were in favor of the law 25% of the time and against it 39% of the time. Now that the signatures have been submitted, the verification process will begin. The signatures will be verified within 21 calendar days of when they were submitted. After signatures are verified, the county clerk will post the name and voter identification number of each signer on the lieutenant governor's website. The names will remain on the website for at least 45 days. The referendum doesn't just need 140,748 signatures to get on the ballot. The number of signatures collected has to represent 8% of registered voters in 15 of Utah's 29 Senate districts. Not only do all signatures have to be certified, but people can also have their signatures removed. Those against the referendum will also have the opportunity to encourage people to remove their signatures. 'We also want voters to know: If you were misled by a signature gatherer about what HB267 really does, you can remove your name from the petition. Just contact your county clerk to start the process,' wrote Corinne Johnson, founder and president of Utah Parents United, in a text message to the Deseret News. Stauffer said that those against the referendum have 40 days to convince people to remove their signatures. Signers can remove their signature by submitting a statement to the county clerk. 'There are people out there already trying to scare supporters, trying to confuse them, trying to convince them to remove their names. Don't fall for it. If you signed the petition, keep your name. If you believe in nurses, teachers, first responders and public workers, stand with us,' Stauffer said. The most controversial part of HB267 is the ban on public sector collective bargaining, but it does more than just that. Along with the ban on collective bargaining, the law will provide an option of professional liability insurance for teachers to opt into, without having to go through a union or other organization. The liability insurance program would be offered through the Department of Risk Management, with five levels of policies teachers can choose from, ranging from $75 to $170 a year. The law also requires more transparency from public sector unions, requiring them to report their finances and membership numbers annually to the labor commission. The law only applies to public labor unions and does not include private sector labor unions.
