Latest news with #Turvey
Daily Mail
25-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
NRL legend's son opens up about his dad's harrowing battle with dementia
The son of rugby league legend Steve Mortimer has opened up about his dad's ongoing battle with dementia, revealing the footy great now struggles to complete a full sentence. Mortimer, 68, was diagnosed with the brain disease at the age of 60 having taken countless knocks during his illustrious playing career. He now lives in a nursing home to receive the full-time care he needs. Affectionately nicknamed 'Turvey, Mortimer's condition has progressively impacted his memory and everyday life to the point where he struggles to remember his brilliant football career. His family visit him several times a week, with the beloved husband, father and grandfather now living in a childlike state. 'It's hard to know exactly what dad is thinking,' son Andrew told News Corp while on an outing with his dad. 'But we go through it, don't we, dad? I don't know whether dad is thinking of something but can't articulate it or he's not thinking it but there's not much verbally, unfortunately. 'I would say he's on a slow decline. I'm sure people who see him a few months apart, or a year, would see significant change. He is seemingly calm, somewhat at peace with the situation and probably somewhat oblivious. 'My reading of (dad's cognitive condition) is that he's taking in part in what's happening around him but processing that, and then articulating or engaging in a conversation, is close to impossible. 'I would suggest that he's probably at the stage where he's observing life around him, rather than fully participating. We know that you don't get cured from dementia. You don't improve so, for us, it's quality of life. We try to take the approach: 'what he can do', not 'what he can't do'. 'His body language is more or less the same as at any point in his life, as in the warm approach dad always had with everyone. He has never been a man of status. He has always been reasonable, fair and available to anyone and everyone.' When asked if Steve can complete a full sentence, Andrew replied: 'Unlikely'. Mortimer, who won three premierships with the Bulldogs in the 1980s and led the NSW Blues to their first ever State of Origin series win against Queensland in 1985, is sadly probably not aware of the success Canterbury are having this year. 'I don't think so,' Andrew revealed. 'Which is a shame because they are absolutely killing it. 'But we watch the games, either at his home or if we're out-and-about, we will grab a beer or coffee and watch the game, usually at one of the local bowling clubs in and around Revesby, or a cafe. But, as time goes on, not so much. It is what it is.' In 2023, Mortimer's wife, Karen, and their kids Andrew, Matt and Erin, shared when they begun to question whether something was wrong with him. 'He was often misplacing things like his keys, wallet, and phone,' Erin said. 'It was his struggle to find easy words like car, remote, and TV. He'd often get frustrated when he couldn't find the word, and be hard on himself. 'His paranoia and constant asking where mum was and then forgetting only a short while later to then ask again, was telling.' Andrew was running a small business with his father, but noticed he was writing longwinded emails and the incoherence of those messages raised alarm bells. Matt noticed changes in his dad that seemed uncharacteristic for him. 'I'm like: you're ageing really quickly, something's off,' he said. For Karen, a trip to London in 2019 was when she noticed her husband was in trouble. The couple had visited the city many times before but when going to fetch a coffee, he took an hour and a half to return. Mortimer told his wife: 'I got lost'. During Covid lockdown, Erin said: 'It was a horrible time for everyone but around this time we watched him spiral even more. 'They were complete mood swings which would come out of nowhere, and his attitude towards mum, and Andrew would worsen. 'It was very hard to watch on occasions. We learnt how to work with them, and not against them, sometimes with the assistance of dad being given medication.'
NZ Herald
16-05-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
Whanganui's Heritage Food Crops Research Trust and the importance of seed collection
Seed saving is a laborious and, at the same time, satisfying job, with tomatoes being one of the most time-consuming. These seeds have to be removed from the fruit, put in a jar with water to ferment for three days, then thoroughly dried on baking paper, placed into a jar, labelled and then put into a seed fridge ready for storage and later overbred. The trust said it recognised the importance of having lycopene in our diet as it is a powerful antioxidant, and research has shown it can help prevent heart disease as well as certain cancers. While the trust originally started growing heritage tomatoes of all colours, shapes and sizes, research has shown that certain orange tomatoes have the easily absorbed form of lycopene, even when eaten raw. Because the tomato is the most overbred food, every year, the trust selects plants it considers have evolved towards their original form. Trying to undo 450 years of breeding for appearance and commercial criteria is not a fast process. Beans After first finding all the varieties it could grow in New Zealand, the trust imported 31 varieties of beans from the United States, with many grown and saved for generations, some over 1000 years. The trust's research has shown that the very best varieties for health are invariably the oldest, those that have retained the integrity of their original genetic blueprint. Bean seeds that can reproduce themselves for a thousand years and hold the right combination of compounds to sustain human health. For this reason, the trust takes great care to ensure that it maintains the pure varieties of beans. Any suspected crosses are rooted out and go into the pot for a good bean stew enjoyed by the volunteers. The bean seeds are available free to the community, which encourages people to grow this healthy food for themselves. Wheat The trust imported 10 heritage wheat varieties from an Australian gene bank in 2015. It wanted to test whether gluten intolerance was brought about by a breeding error, in the race to create greater yields from wheat. The trust thought that if it could go back far enough, it might be able to find a variety that contained gluten and yet could be eaten without any difficulty by people with modern wheat intolerances. The trust is at present trialling a wheat called 'Turvey' and has had a small quantity milled. A local artisan baker baked this into sourdough bread, which was tested on a group of people who were wheat intolerant. None of the participants reacted after consuming a slice of this bread. The trust said it hoped to produce a much larger quantity of wheat, to be available in 2026 for commercial growing and breadmaking. Carrots The latest research project is carrots, and the trust has gone back to find the original form of carrot for trialling; not orange but black, or dark purple, with a yellow core. The trust said modern purple carrots had been bred in a way that has interfered with the original integrity of the underlying compounds. Now the cores may be orange or purple, losing the vital synergy the heirloom varieties held. The trust said it would continue trialling and hoped to have seeds available of the best carrots for health that it could find in the future. Each year, the trust gives away more than 13,000 bags of seeds, plus once a year at the Whanganui Market its members give away tomato seedlings. here.
The Star
08-05-2025
- The Star
Australian jury convicts two men for murder of Indigenous teen
The jury heard the attack on Cassius Turvey was 'the end point of a complex series of events'. - Photo: AAP file SYDNEY: An Australian jury on Thursday (May 8) found two men guilty of murdering Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Indigenous boy whose killing sparked nationwide anti-racism protests. Turvey was attacked and beaten with a metal pole in October 2022 in the western city of Perth, the court heard. He died 10 days later in hospital. Jurors convicted the two men -- Jack Brearley and Brodie Palmer -- of his murder, papers from the Supreme Court of Western Australia showed. A third man, Mitchell Forth, was found guilty of manslaughter but cleared of murder. All three men got out of a pick-up truck and chased a group of teenagers that included Turvey, Australian public broadcaster ABC said. Brearley assaulted Turvey with a pole from a shopping trolley, the court heard. Prosecutors said Brearley was angry because someone had smashed his car windows -- though there was no suggestion Turvey was responsible, the ABC said. Some witnesses said the attackers had used racial slurs before the attack, but racism was not an alleged motive in the court proceedings. In the days after the killing, thousands of protesters held rallies and vigils around Australia. At the time, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the attack was racially motivated, describing it as a "terrible tragedy". Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face stark inequalities compared to other Australians, with shorter life expectancies, poorer health and education, and higher incarceration rates. A fourth person charged over Turvey's killing, Aleesha Gilmore, was cleared of both murder and manslaughter charges, court documents showed. - AFP
