An Arsenal midfielder is in a stable condition after collapsing during the Women’s League Cup final.
Frida Maanum went down off the ball during second-half stoppage time of the clash against Chelsea on Sunday.
The 24-year-old received treatment on the pitch before being carried off on a stretcher.
Arsenal’s players and their manager Jonas Eidevall quickly signalled for medical staff when they saw the Norwegian international hit the ground, with Stina Blackstenius and Katie McCabe rushing to her.
Both sets of players remained on the pitch while Maanum received oxygen through a mask before being carried down the tunnel at Molineux, the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers, which was used as a neutral venue for the Conti Cup finale.
Alessia Russo came on to replace the stricken midfielder and play resumed in the 14th additional minute with the scores level at 0-0.
Arsenal went on to win the final 1-0 with Blackstenius scoring the winner in the 26th minute of extra time.
Jonas Eidevall, the Arsenal boss, said after the game: “We trust our medical team and we got really good information from them as well.”
Arsenal Women later posted an update on Maanum’s condition on X, saying: “Frida is conscious, talking and in a stable condition. She will continue to be monitored closely by our medical team. We’re all with you, Frida.”
Blackstenius, speaking to BBC Sport after scoring the winner, said of her teammate: “It’s always really hard. She’s a team-mate and a friend to all of us.
“We care so much about her. You worry a bit when stuff like this happens.
“We said we wanted to do this for her, to get this win for her because she couldn’t be with us at that point.”
The Conservative Party chair has called Reform UK leader Richard Tice a “threatening bully” after the latter warned he could embarrass another senior Tory.
The row between the two parties comes in the wake of a devastating poll for the government, which showed the Conservatives risk falling below 100 seats in parliament after the next election.
But the same analysis of 15,000 voters found that, if Reform were to stand aside, the Conservatives would get closer to 150 seats.
Reform UK, in its previous iteration as the Brexit Party, did not compete in seats the Tories already held at the 2019 election – as then prime minister Boris Johnson sought a mandate to “get Brexit done”.
But today’s row makes the chances of a similar pact at the next election look vanishingly small.
The row erupted after Conservative deputy chair Jonathan Gullis criticised Mr Tice and the selection of Reform candidates in the Mail On Sunday.
Mr Tice then posted on social media: “With a special Easter message to Tory MP Jonathan Gullis: Given the multiple bits of embarrassing personal information we have on you, I suggest you pipe down on your attacks against me.”
In response, Richard Holden, who is chair of the Conservative Party, posted: “What a threatening bully Richard Tice is exposing himself to be.
“Silly man.”
Mark Jenkinson, a government whip, said Mr Tice was “not just a political weathervane, but also a thin-skinned bully – who knew?”.
Read more: Who are Reform and what do they stand for? Conservatives facing ‘extinction event’ – Farage A vote for Reform UK is a vote for Labour – Holden
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Reform UK leader threatens more defections
Mr Gullis’s criticism came in an article which claimed Reform – of which Nigel Farage is director – had chosen candidates for the Commons who include a convicted animal abuser and a fortune-teller who sold spells for £200 on the OnlyFans website.
The MP told the Mail On Sunday: “Reform says its candidates have been vetted and given that all of this information was in the public domain, we can only assume this cast of characters passed Mr Tice’s muster.
“We are clearly not just talking about a ‘few rotten eggs’ here. If you are promoting candidates banned from looking after dogs, how can you honestly say they are capable of looking after the interests of their constituents?”
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The stand-off between the two parties reached new levels when one of Mr Gullis’s predecessors as deputy chair, Lee Anderson, defected from the Conservatives to Reform.
There have been reports that Reform is courting more Tories – including Mr Gullis – although he has denied it.
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Bob Seely, the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, told The Sun On Sunday that Reform “tried to tempt” him weeks before Mr Anderson’s defection.
But he said he knew “a duff deal when I see it” – branding Reform a “rag tag group with no hope of governing or leading”.
“Hate and death threats and abuse, and personal, deep things. All the hate out there… I don’t think anyone can prepare you for that.”
Georgia Steel doesn’t find it easy talking about the trolling directed at her during her time on Love Island, but says it is an issue she needs to address.
The reality star rose to fame in 2018, when, aged 20, she appeared in the fourth series and earned her place among the show’s most memorable contestants.
In January this year, with more than 1.6m followers on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms, she returned to appear in a new “all stars” version of the show in South Africa.
Image: Georgia Steel with Toby Aromolaran in Love Island: All Stars. Pic: ITV
She found herself at the centre of the drama after – shock! – flirting with someone who wasn’t her “partner” at the time, and eventually getting together with a different contestant, Toby Aromolaran, after he unceremoniously ditched the partner he was with without warning during a public recoupling, and declared his interest in Steel. (They left the show together, but she revealed last week he had called things off).
This is essentially the extent of her crimes. The reaction was so vicious that her family and management team, looking after her social media accounts while she was cut off from the real world, decided to step in, sharing this post.
To the uninitiated, the romances and fall-outs of 20-somethings who have spent a maximum of five weeks together might seem trivial, but viewers become invested. “It’s a reality show, it’s not real life,” Steel points out. “You’re not in a normal situation.”
Steel comes across as a confident, funny, glamorous young woman on TV. In person, she is still all of those things, but more fragile.
Most of the hundreds of messages were deleted before she was reunited with her phone to save her from the extent of the cruelty, and she becomes tearful hearing the words her loved ones felt were necessary to make public.
“For the people I love to have witnessed those things, it is terrible, awful, and it does make me feel slightly responsible.”
Image: Steel with her brother Alfie, dad Andrew and mum Sharon. Pic: Courtesy of Georgia Steel
‘A tidal wave of abuse’
Online trolling has been a rising problem for years and one that doesn’t appear to be going away.
Anyone sending serious violent threats faces up to five years in prison – but despite the calls to “be kind”, the stories of abuse continue – as seen in recent weeks towards previous Love Island winner Ekin-Su Culculoglu following her time in the revived Celebrity Big Brother.
Then there was the trolling of Amber Heard during the Johnny Depp court cases, now the subject of a new investigative podcast.
Most recently, the world has been given a grim reminder of the potential effects of online gossip and trolling following the Princess of Wales’s public announcement of her cancer diagnosis.
Anti-bullying and online abuse charities and organisations say the majority of trolling is directed at women, and Ofcom research in 2022 found that 60% of women were concerned by the issue, compared with 25% of men.
Read more: Amy Hart: ‘Cyber flashers’ bombard me with penis photos How did online abuse of Amber Heard become acceptable? Georgia Harrison on her fight against revenge porn
Image: Amber Heard, pictured in court in Virginia in 2022, was trolled online after being sued by her ex-husband Johnny Depp. Pic: Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz
Research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate into the direct (private) Instagram messages of five prominent women, including Heard and Countdown’s Rachel Riley, found that around one in seven were abusive, either through misogynist comments or sending unsolicited sexual advances.
Founder and chief executive Imran Ahmed says it can be “traumatising to receive a tidal wave of abuse”, and that he has known “strong, empowered people who found themselves in a heap on their sofa, crying, because that’s just what it’s like to have thousands of people screaming swear words at you”.
Linda James, founder and chief executive of the BulliesOut charity, says trolling can be “relentless and dangerous”, and that “even the nicest, most reasonable, and mild-mannered people in real life” can exhibit trolling behaviour once they are online.
Image: Steel says she was most upset knowing her friends and family had been sent abuse. Pic: ITV
‘You don’t know if the whole world hates you’
Most of the direct abuse sent to Steel, who celebrated her 26th birthday earlier this week, came through Instagram, but there were other “horrible” posts on TikTok and shared on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), her team said.
Steel is aware that being in the public eye means strangers will have opinions of her – but says there is a difference between opinion and threats and bullying.
“You don’t really know how to process it… you’re quite scared,” she says. “You don’t know if the whole world hates you – I felt like everyone hated me.”
The worst thing was knowing her family and friends had also been sent abuse, that they had seen the comments written about her. “It made me question everything I did,” she says.
“It made me feel like I didn’t know myself to a certain degree… My family, my friends, they had death threats. My mum got messages like, ‘How could you raise a girl like this?’ I just want to make the people that support and love me proud. I know that they still are. But it makes me worry that they’re not.”
For an influencer whose career revolves around social media, it has been a tricky balancing act trying to keep away from it all. But after finishing the show and getting her phone back, she turned it off and left it for a week.
Image: Charities say trolling affects more women than men
“I needed to rebuild my confidence,” she says. “I spent it with my mum and my dad and my brother, and I just wanted reassurance constantly. ‘Have I done anything wrong? What could I have done better?'”
It’s sad to hear Steel say she accepts that to many viewers, she was the “villain” of this latest season of Love Island.
She is, after all, a young woman who flirted and had her head turned, to use the Love Island lexicon – on a reality show that survives on flirting and contestants having their heads turned. She says Aromolaran did not receive the same level of abuse.
“I am still a person. I’m a [young] girl, I’m still learning my way. I’m not perfect. If anything, me making mistakes on a show, it shows that I’m genuine and that I’m real. But instead, it was kind of used against me… is it because I’m a woman? Is it double standards? I don’t know.”
Image: Former Love Island winner Ekin-Su Culculoglu was trolled after appearing on Celebrity Big Brother. Pic: ITV
The anonymity is one of the hardest things to come to terms with. She said: “It’s like going into a shop and wearing a balaclava and abusing someone… these people are hiding behind anonymous names and fake accounts.
“There’s definitely times when I’d be out and thinking, they’re looking at me… ‘Oh my God, is that one of the trolls?’ It makes it really scary because you just don’t know who they are.”
Steel says she does not blame ITV or Love Island for the trolling as they cannot control what people say online, and that support from the show’s producers “is always there if you need it”.
When the trolling against the star was announced, producers put out a statement urging viewers “to be kind when engaging in social media conversations about our Islanders, and to remember that they are real people with feelings”.
Trolling ‘bleeds over’ into real world
Image: Love Island star Amy Hart gave evidence at an inquiry into influencing in 2021. Pic: Parliament Live TV
In recent years, the broadcaster has announced greater duty of care protocols for its reality show participants and last year implemented a ban on Love Island contestants’ social media accounts being active during their time on the show – although All Stars participants, as they already had public profiles, were given the option.
Steel thinks social media platforms should be doing more, and that the solution is simple.
“It would just be literally having an ID when you sign up to an account or having some proof of who you are, instead of constantly going behind a screen and being anonymous. That’s what I really don’t understand. I don’t understand how that’s allowed, if I’m honest.”
In its information on anti-bullying features and tools, Instagram says it is committed to protecting users and urges people to report anything that violates its guidelines so that action can be taken if necessary, while TikTok says it does not “allow language or behavior that harasses, humiliates, threatens, or doxxes anyone”.
X says it prohibits “behaviour and content that harasses, shames, or degrades others”, while Facebook also says it does not “tolerate this kind of behaviour because it prevents people from feeling safe and respected”.
Read more: What is the Online Safety Act? Alex George: Grief can destroy you – but can be a force for good
Image: Steel with her cat, Oscar. Pic: Courtesy of Georgia Steel
Last year, the Online Safety Act was passed by MPs, requiring providers of online services to minimise the extent of illegal and harmful content.
Once implemented, the act will require social media firms to enforce “stringent measures against criminal online abuse”, a government spokesperson said, including “proactively tackling exposure to illegal content that can disproportionately affect women and girls, including controlling and abusive behaviour”.
Before this can be enforced, new codes of practice and guidance have to be produced.
A spokesperson for Ofcom told Sky News these are expected to be finalised around the end of the year, while further proposed measures “to protect children from sexist hate and abuse specifically” will be announced in May.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate says things need to change, and that online trolling and division can have real-world consequences.
“We have to stop this epidemic of abuse,” Mr Ahmed says. “It starts to bleed over and resocialise our real world as well, which is why we can see that relations in our society, our politics, our discourse are becoming more fragmented, more vicious, less productive and less conducive to the kind of democracy we want.”
‘That one comment could tip someone over the edge’
Image: Love Island presenter Caroline Flack died in 2020. Pic: AP
Steel says she wants to speak out as she feels she is in a position where she is able to, with an “amazing” support system in her friends and family at home in York.
“I’m very lucky,” she says. “I want to admit: I got trolled really, really, really bad. And yeah, it really, really, really affected me. But I am okay. And some people, if they were in my position, might not be okay.
“I think some people are built stronger than others or some people have better foundations than others, and the ones that maybe don’t, they’re the ones that we really have to think about.”
Two former Love Island contestants, Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis, have ended their own lives. Gradon died in 2018, two years after appearing on the show; Thalassitis the following year, also two years after taking part.
Gradon had reportedly spoken about the “horrific” trolling she experienced in a radio interview in the months before her death, while Montana Brown, a contestant in Thalassitis’s season, urged people to “be a little bit nicer, little bit kinder“, following the inquest into his death.
It was the suicide of Love Island presenter Caroline Flack in 2020 that sparked the “be kind” encouragement on social media. But Steel isn’t convinced people are taking notice.
“Caroline presented my show in 2018 and I never expected that to happen,” she says. “As much as we talk about it and say it’s not okay, I think there actually needs to be something set in place, before it’s too late and something else happens, and then it’s just a vicious circle. It’s, ‘we’ll be kind for a bit, and then we’ll forget about it, and then someone else… then we’ll be kind for a bit again’. That circle needs to stop.”
She wants people to know how much abuse can hurt.
“I feel like maybe some [trolls] really want to see me down, which… I am. So you’ve won. But I will also prove a point that trolling can’t be allowed.”
Finally, she says she wants social media users to really, really think hard about anything they have written before pressing send.
“Would you say this to them if they were sat across the table? Would you say things to their family and their friends? Would you be happy if the consequences were really bad?
“It could just take that one comment that tips someone over the edge. Would you want to be accountable for that?”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
Almost nine in 10 teachers believe their job has adversely affected their mental health in the past 12 months, according to a survey.
Nearly a quarter of teachers had used alcohol in an effort to cope, while 12% have used antidepressants, the poll of 11,574 NASUWT teaching union members found.
Some 3% said the stresses of their work had driven them to self-harm.
One of the teachers who responded to the survey said they vomited before work and had cried at school due to “badly behaved students” who left them unable to teach a class.
Another said: “My energy levels have never been this low before.
“I have never felt so anxious and have very little confidence in myself.
“I feel as though my bucket is full most of the time at work and that I maybe can’t deal with challenging pupils as well as I would normally.”
The teaching union warned of a “rise in suicide, suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts” within the profession, with a motion on the topic to be debated at its national conference this weekend.
The motion calls for suicide prevention training for school leaders, and fully-funded mandatory mental health training in schools and colleges.
Read more: Trainee teachers to be offered fee-free apprenticeship degrees Govt aims to cut teacher workloads by five hours a week with new taskforce AI increasingly used by students to do their school work and many teachers can’t tell
Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “Nobody should be brought to the brink of ending their own life because of their job.
“We need a two-pronged approach to addressing the epidemic of mental ill health among the teaching profession, which both tackles the factors driving work-related stress, while also putting in place greater support systems for teachers and school leaders.”
He also said teachers need better welfare support, adding: “The status quo is not an option.
“Too many teachers are having their health destroyed and others are leaving the profession in a bid to save their sanity.
“There is no intrinsic reason why teaching should have such high levels of burnout. Things can and should be different and we need the next government to work with us to restore teaching to a profession where teachers can thrive, not just struggle to survive.”
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It comes after the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry, who killed herself after an Ofsted report downgraded her school – Caversham Primary in Reading – from its highest rating to its lowest over safeguarding concerns.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We recognise the extraordinary work that headteachers, teachers and other staff in schools provide, and we take their wellbeing very seriously.
“Our Education Staff Wellbeing Charter ensures that staff wellbeing policy is integrated within schools’ culture alongside the expansion of our £2m investment to provide professional supervision and counselling to school and college leaders.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
When the pro-Palestinian marchers came round the corner of the Strand in London, drums beating and megaphones blaring, they saw a row of Israeli flags.
The boos were loud and there were plenty of obscene gestures.
Both sides chanted “shame on you” at each other, with the police standing between them.
The pro-Palestinian protesters shouted “From the River to the Sea”, along with the other chants.
Those who defend the slogan say it is a simple call for freedom.
But it is understood by others to invoke the destruction of Israel – and now it was aimed at those bearing the blue Star of David only feet away.
Image: Pro-Palestinian protesters in Trafalgar Square carried placards. Pic: PA
During the many months of protest in London since the start of the conflict in Gaza, never have the two sides – so ideologically far apart – been so physically close.
It wasn’t violent, except for a minor scuffle, but it wasn’t very pretty either.
It seethed with mutual animosity.
‘It’s really quite scary’
The pro-Israeli counter-protesters were few in number – fewer than a hundred, vastly outnumbered by the thousands marching past them.
That disparity is why they said they were there.
“It’s really quite scary that there are so many people the police need to protect us because there’s a real threat,” a woman draped in an Israeli flag who gave her name as Davina told Sky News.
She said a pro-Palestinian protester had made a throat-slashing gesture (Sky News could not verify that claim). “That’s terrifying,” she said. “I think all these guys will be terrified to go home wearing these flags.”
“We just want to have our voices heard and our hostages to be freed.”
Read more: Truce talks to resume – reports
Image: Pro-Palestinian marchers turned out in numbers. Pic: PA
Image: The march and protests were largely peaceful. Pic: PA
There was little – well, zero – sympathy for that point of view on the other side.
As I spoke to the pro-Palestinian protesters later, I pointed out that the pro-Israeli camp had the right to peaceful protest too.
Another person interrupted: “No, they don’t, because there’s a genocide – they’re murderers.”
“Anyone who is complicit, anyone who is silent is complicit, that’s correct,” another protester interjected.
Nearly 33,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants – although the majority of those killed have been women and children, the ministry says.
Some 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, were killed when Hamas rampaged into southern Israel on 7 October and kidnapped some 250 others.
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0:59
London: Protesters call for ceasefire in Gaza
Can the police continue to cope?
In London, separating that strength of feeling, keeping the peace, are the police.
Before the march began, the Metropolitan Police had said that more than £30m had been spent policing the protests.
Some have questioned whether that can carry on. This was the eleventh march organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.
One man was arrested on suspicion of a terrorism-related offence during the protest.
“In my experience, this is the most prolonged series of protest events we’ve had for any cause – so at some point, it has to become unsustainable,” Graham Wettone, a policing commentator for Sky News, said.
“It becomes unsustainable for society and for the disruption to society to effectively police every single one because you’re going to have officers having rest days cancelled for months and months.”
The context of the protests has changed too.
When hundreds of thousands marched in November, it wasn’t the British government’s position to call for a ceasefire.
Now – arguably in part thanks to the protests – it is.
Read more: Famine ‘is setting in’ in Gaza, ICJ says Senior Hamas military leader killed, Israel says Steven Spielberg warns of rising antisemitism
No sign deep divisions will heal soon
I spoke with Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, as he walked at the head of the march.
I asked whether protests like this – and the policing required to monitor them – were still necessary, when the British government wants the same thing, more or less?
“Unfortunately I wish that were the case,” he told me.
“It is true there’s a shift in the government position, and that is because of popular pressure so that emboldens people to keep marching and protesting.
“But the government position at the moment is to support a temporary pause and the government position at the moment is to continue selling arms to Israel.”
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So the marches will apparently continue – and so will the counter-protests. Their organisers have pledged to attend each demonstration.
Today was visceral confirmation of how deep the divisions really are.
An Iranian television journalist who was stabbed outside his London home on Friday has shared a defiant photo of himself in hospital – after a colleague at his broadcaster said threats towards its staff had “escalated dramatically”.
Pouria Zeraati, a presenter at London-based broadcaster Iran International, was stabbed in the leg outside his home in Wimbledon, south London, on Friday afternoon.
A photo the 36-year-old shared on social media on Saturday afternoon showed him making a ‘peace’ sign with his fingers in a hospital bed.
Police have said the motivation for the attack is not yet clear, but his occupation – coupled with recent threats towards UK-based Iranian journalists – meant the probe was being led by specialist counter-terrorism officers.
Image: Pouria Zeraati. Pic: Iran International
Iran International spokesman Adam Baillie said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has been targeting its broadcasters.
In October 2022 the IRGC – a key security force for the regime in Tehran – “openly” and “nakedly” warned Iran International ‘we’re coming for you’, Mr Baillie added.
When asked about the motives behind the attack itself, he said: “We can’t say. The fact that counter-terrorism is leading the investigation probably speaks for itself.”
But he added that Mr Zeraati had received death threats before and that the threats against Iran International’s staff had “escalated dramatically” over time.
Since 2022, several plots to either kidnap or kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the Iranian regime have been disrupted by police, it is understood.
Mehdi Hosseini Matin, the Iranian charge d’affaires in the UK, said “we deny any link” to the knife attack on Friday.
Read more from Sky News: Nightclub hostage drama ends with arrest Trump criticised over video with image of hog-tied Biden Several injured after shell explodes near UN observers
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But speaking to Sky News, Iran International’s Mr Baillie said: “I just spoke to him [Mr Zeraati]… and he sounded very well – obviously very shaken up by the whole thing.
“But he’s making a good recovery and is looking forward to getting back to work, which is excellent.
“It’s come as a great shock because this is the first sort of physical attack on a staff member.
“But our staff have been under considerable threats for a good year-and-a-half.
“The threats have escalated dramatically against people, including Pouria, who has received many death threats over the past 18 months and is a singled out target as other high profile presenters on our channel are.”
Iran International temporarily shut down its operations in London early last year and moved to studios in Washington after what it described as an escalation of “state-backed threats from Iran.” The station resumed operations at a new location in London last September.
“Since the channel began in 2017, individuals working for it have been under a lot of pressure, overtly and covertly, from the state authorities in Iran,” Mr Baillie said.
He added Iran International, alongside BBC Persian, has been labelled a terrorist channel by the IRGC, and that families of those working for them have been threatened.
Michelle Stanistreet, National Union of Journalists (NUJ) general secretary, called the incident on Friday a “cowardly attack” and “deeply shocking”, adding it would “inevitably raise fears amongst the many journalists targeted at Iran International and the BBC Persian Service that they are not safe at home or going about their work”.
Asked what the attitude among Iranian journalists is amid such pressure, Mr Baillie added: “The show must go on. That is very, very much the attitude.
“And it’s very noticeable that although it’s extremely worrying to live and to work under this kind of constant threat… people manage it and they’re very committed journalists.
“They’re committed to a free press and open press and sharing information, which is what they do very successfully. And the more successfully they do it, the greater the threats against.”
Nearly 100,000 cancer patients have now had fast-track access to newly approved NHS drugs – with one teen saying his treatment felt like being on a “slope going up”.
Yuvan Thakkar, 16, was the first NHS patient to receive a therapy that uses the body’s own cells to fight cancer.
He was diagnosed with a form of leukaemia aged six and received the pioneering treatment at Great Ormand Street Hospital.
The CAR-T therapy, called tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah), involved removing his immune cells and modifying them to recognise and destroy cancer cells, before reintroducing them to the body.
In April, the NHS will have helped 100,000 patients access new and innovative treatments over eight years.
It’s been made possible by the NHS Cancer Drugs Fund – set up in 2016 to give patients faster access to new treatments.
The fund benefits people with common cancers, such as breast, lung, colorectal and prostate; as well as those with less common ones such as ovarian, cervical, kidney, and leukaemia – and also rare cancers including thyroid and biliary tract.
NHS England said patients get access to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved treatments six months faster, and all cancer treatments are funded as soon as they are approved.
For Yuvan, who spent his childhood in hospital fighting leukaemia, faster access to the CAR-T therapy means he is now able to sit his GCSEs.
Recounting his treatment, he said: “I remember receiving the cells for a bit. I was feeling quite down” – before being sent to intensive care “where I couldn’t do basic counting and things like that”.
Image: The 16-year-old pictured with his family and (below) painting for his art GCSE
The teenager said he doesn’t remember any of his treatment until it was finished.
“I thought I could start to get better, then I remembered, ‘oh, I can do this, I can do that’. And from now on, it’s just been like a slope going up,” said Yuvan.
Concern as cancer targets cut
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS England medical director, said treating 100,000 people was “a fantastic milestone”.
He said: “This vital fund is helping ensure patients get access to the most promising drugs far quicker than would otherwise be the case, helping people with cancer like Yuvan receive a life-changing intervention that sets a path for a longer, healthier life spent with family and friends”.
However, Professor Pat Price, a leading oncologist and co-founder of the Catch Up With Cancer campaign, is concerned about those still struggling to get treatment due to the backlog of cancer cases.
Read more from Sky News: Contraceptive injections linked to brain tumour risk Preventative therapies ‘can cause cancer to hibernate and return’
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Since the pandemic, she said 250,000 patients have not had their treatment on time.
National guidance states 85% of people should begin treatment within two months, or 62 days, of an urgent referral, but Professor Price said there has been a downgrade in ambition.
She told Sky News: “We are in the biggest cancer crisis we’ve ever had. This week the NHS have reset their targets for 2025 and sadly, they’ve pushed their recovery target for cancer.”
She said the target for next year had been cut from 85% to 70%.
Former Wales rugby international Louis Rees-Zammit has signed for NFL champions Kansas City Chiefs.
The former Gloucester, Wales and British and Irish Lions wing announced in January he was quitting rugby to chase his American football dream.
In a video posted by the Chiefs on X, he said: “Hi Chiefs Kingdom, Louis Rees-Zammit here.
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“Just signed, can’t wait to go and see you all at Arrowhead.”
The Chiefs said on their official website: “The Kansas City Chiefs made an international splash on Friday with the addition of former European rugby star Louis Rees-Zammit to the roster.”
Rees-Zammit had made 32 appearances for his country’s national side, and scored 70 points.
But the 23-year-old joined the NFL’s international player pathway ahead of a Six Nations tournament that saw Wales take home the wooden spoon.
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Welsh rugby union star chases American dream
Earlier this month, he told Sky News making it in the NFL would be the “most proud moment of [his] life”.
He visited several NFL franchises, including the New York Jets, Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos, but has settled on the Chiefs, who have won the last two Super Bowl titles and three of the last five, inspired by star quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce.
His dream moved a step closer when he impressed during last week’s pro day that forms part of the international player pathway.
Scouts from all 32 NFL teams watched him go through his paces at the event at the University of South Florida.
Image: Louis Rees-Zammit played 32 times for Wales. Pic: PA
Rees-Zammit clocked 4.43 seconds in his 40-yard dash, a 9ft 7in broad jump and 29-inch vertical jump.
He will try to win a place on Kansas City’s final 53-man roster for the 2024 season, which begins in September.
Running back and wide receiver are his designated positions, but if he does not make it, he is likely to spend his first season on Kansas City’s practice squad, the BBC said.
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The Chiefs added: “Rees-Zammit participated in the international player pathway programme workout earlier this month, which provided the former rugby star with an opportunity to show NFL scouts what he could do.
“His workout included a 4.44-second 40-yard dash, which would have ranked fifth among tailbacks at the 2024 NFL scouting combine.”
A man arrested in connection with the death of Gogglebox star George Gilbey has been released under investigation.
The man, who is in his 40s, was arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with Gilbey’s death on Thursday.
The 40-year-old star reportedly died following an accident at work on Wednesday.
Essex Police said: “As part of our ongoing investigation into the death of a man in Campfield Road, Shoebury, on Wednesday 27 March, a man aged in his 40s from the Witham area was arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.
“He has now been released under investigation.
“This is a joint investigation with the Health and Safety Executive and our enquiries are ongoing.”
Police previously said they were called to an incident in Shoebury at around 10am on Wednesday after “a man who was working at height had fallen and sustained an injury”.
Gilbey was best known for appearing on the Channel 4 show alongside his mother Linda McGarry and stepfather Pete McGarry, who died in 2021 aged 71.
Image: Reality star Gilbey. Pic: Shutterstock
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The family first appeared on the second series of Gogglebox in 2013 but were dropped the following year when the reality star signed up for the 14th series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2014, reaching the final.
Gilbey appeared on the Channel 5 version of the show alongside other famous faces including The Hills star Stephanie Pratt and American actor Gary Busey, who won the series.
The family later returned to Gogglebox and a spokesperson for the award-winning programme said: “George was part of the Gogglebox family for eight series alongside his mum Linda and stepdad Pete.
“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with Linda and George’s family and friends at this very sad time. The family has asked for privacy.”
