Mar 24 2008
VANDALISM on the railways helped cause more than 9,000 hours of delays in the North-East and over £200m in lost time for passengers in just one year, it emerged yesterday....
Mar 24 2008
THE Bishop of Durham used his Easter Sunday sermon to condemn the government for legislation which would allow the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for medical research....
Mar 24 2008
A GIRL was trapped between a fence and a car in an accident in Northumberland yesterday....
Mar 24 2008
HE lost more than £2m hooked on the “buzz” of betting. ...
Mar 24 2008
DESPITE losing her brother aged just 22 to a condition nobody knew he had, young Sunderland woman Lucy Gash has coped with her grief by campaigning to raise awareness of the disorder which killed him. Celebrating her 21st birthday this Easter, Lucy said she has found new purpose in the campaign in aid of The Marfan Trust, and felt her brother would be by her side as she came of age.
Lucy was at home in Ullswater Grove, Fulwell, Sunderland, with her parents Alan, 51, and Jane, 49, when the family received a call that would change their lives forever.
Lucy’s brother Liam was nine months into the trip of a lifetime in Australia, and the call, on August 9, 2006, was from a doctor at the Royal Perth Hospital. Liam had been taken ill after tearing the biggest artery in the body, the aorta, near the heart.
He underwent emergency surgery to repair the tear, which had been caused, doctors thought, by a condition known as Marfan Syndrome.
But four days later, Liam suffered a seizure from which he never recovered.
Lucy explained: “Marfan has a number of distinctive characteristics, including exceptional height, large hands and feet, being double jointed and a pigeon chest.
“It’s really frustrating for us because Liam ticked all the boxes and yet nobody in the medical profession here ever picked up on him having Marfan.”
Liam was 6ft 10in, slim and had always had big hands and feet. He was fit and active, playing football for a Sunday league side and rarely missing a Sunderland AFC game. But because Marfan, which is a genetic disorder of the body’s connective tissue, had been gradually enlarging Liam’s heart, football was, unknown to anyone, a potentially deadly activity.
If diagnosed early, sufferers can protect themselves by avoiding exertion, but Liam’s diagnosis came too late.
One in 5,000 people suffers from the treatable condition, which in 25% of cases, including Liam’s, occurs spontaneously and is not passed on by a parent. It can be picked up on an echocardiogram.
Lucy said: “We have all been tested and fortunately none of us has Marfan. But for me, trying to raise awareness of it has been a coping strategy, as well as a way of keeping Liam’s memory alive.
“And obviously Liam is very much in all our thoughts today (on her birthday).”
Lucy’s dad Alan said: “Of course, Liam should be 24 now and he should be here. But Lucy has been incredibly strong and we will all be celebrating Liam’s life. He would have been very proud of her.”
Last September Lucy threw her first ball and all in all about £41,000 has been raised for the Marfan Trust.
Lucy said: “My main activity at the moment is the next ball, which is on September 27 this year at My Legends on Sunderland High Street. And because Liam was such an avid supporter of the Black Cats we are encouraging a red and white theme.
“We aren’t even two years on and I am finding solace in organising these fundraisers, because if it helps even one more person identify the characteristics Liam had and get an echocardiogram, then that will help us as a family.”
Tickets for the event are £30, and can be obtained by contacting Journal reporter Jule Wilson, either on (0191) 201-6290 or by email at jule.wilson@ncjmedia.co.uk.
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Mar 24 2008
POLICE have introduced a new text messaging service for deaf people and those with hearing and speech impairments to help record non-emergency incidents....
Mar 24 2008
STRONG winds and blizzards lashed the North East over Easter weekend, cutting power to homes, blocking roads and disrupting transport. And the cold snap is expected to continue for a couple of days....
Mar 24 2008
AN investigation has been launched into a blaze which destroyed part of a Tyneside school....
Mar 24 2008
PANIC rooms are being installed for victims of domestic violence so they do not have to leave their homes to escape from former partners....
Mar 24 2008
THE corridors of parliamentary power will be lubricated by a North East ale after an MP campaigned for it to be introduced to the most exclusive of social clubs....
Mar 24 2008
LOVE was in the air in Northumberland over the weekend as around 150 people braved the snow to take part in two huge hugs....
Mar 24 2008
ONE of the North’s oldest markets set up stall yesterday to celebrate its 272 year history....
