When Mark Patterson was told he had two weeks left to live, he had one dying wish: to see his adopted daughter graduate from school.
So Lindale High School in Texas threw a mock ceremony for student Christian, all so Mark could attend the ceremony, held on the patio of The Hospice of East Texas.
Mark was diagnosed with stage four esophageal cancer in January. The disease had spread to the lymph nodes near his kidneys, and his organs began to fail when he was placed in the hospice.
He was told he wouldn’t have long left.
When asked for his final wish, Mark told his wife, Darla, he wanted to see Christian graduate high school. Her official graduation wasn’t until May, and the family worried he wouldn’t survive long enough – so they decided to throw an early graduation just for him.
An old coworker of Mark gave Darla the idea, suggesting the family got in touch with the school, where Mark had previously worked as a bus driver, to make it happen.
Mark was brought out in his bed to watch the ceremony on Wednesday 20 March, joined by other students, teachers, and Mark’s colleagues and friends.
The proud dad was able to see Christian walk down a path in her graduation cap and gown, in a moment shared on Facebook by the school.
The caption read: ‘We feel so honored to have been able to present one of our senior students, Christan Patterson, with a mock graduation in honor of her father. Her father, Mark Patterson, is a former bus driver for Lindale ISD
‘He is currently in hospice battling cancer and his wish was to see his daughter graduate. Please keep this wonderful family in your thoughts and prayers.’
At the ceremony, Christian said: ‘I just know my dad is very caring and very loving, and that he thanks everyone that was a part of this. And if he wasn’t on medicine and everything, he would be crying right now.’
The family has now set up a Go Fund Me page to raise money for the massive expenses Darla is facing. The page explains that in addition to Mark’s cancer diagnosis, Darla’s son was recently diagnosed with eye cancer, while her parents were in a car wreck back in September, and now have difficulty taking care of themselves.
Looking for a social media trend that doesn’t involve taking risky selfies or dancing in the road beside a moving car? Look no further.
The ‘Florida Man’ trend has been doing the rounds for a little while now, and is taking Twitter by storm once again.
It all comes from a longstanding meme about news articles that started with the words Florida man.
A Reddit user, back in 2013, screenshotted a picture of their Google search results when they typed in the keywords.
Some of the choice headlines included ‘Florida Man Scared Silly Over Baby Alligator On Doorstep’ and ‘Florida Man Arrested for Giving People Wedgies’.
As it turned out, many of the headlines before and since have been for absolutely crazy stories, and often have pretty hilarious mugshots as their main image.
EVERYBODY google “florida man” followed by your birthday (florida man august 22) and tell me what you get. mine is Florida Man tries to attack neighbor with tractor
From then, it’s become a major trend, with a subreddit and Twitter account starting in honour of the madness.
This month, the Florida Man Challenge was born, where tweeters were urged to to Google ‘Florida Man’ and their birthday, to find out what their story would be.
Some of the silly ones that have come up include ‘Florida Man Who Threw Toilet Through Window in East St. Louis Found With Second Crapper’, ‘Florida man put semen in coworker’s water’, and ‘Neighbors complain about Florida man doing yard work naked’.
It got Florida Man Challenge trending worldwide, with people across the glove marvelling at the ridiculous antics going on in the US state.
Some of the results are less funny, with actual horrific crimes being reported on. However, that’s not in the spirit of the challenge, so let’s gloss over these atrocities until we get to the funny headlines, agreed?
Ginema is on its way back to entertain us with two of our favourite pastimes – drinking gin and watching movies.
Last year, the pop-up sold out and Hayman’s Gin are expecting the same level of popularity in 2019, with four dates planned in May.
The event is hosted in the brand’s distillery in Balham, south west London, and will include a wide genre of movies.
On the list are classics such as Dirty Dancing, Cool Runnings, Mamma Mia, The Italian Job, The Goonies and Goldfinger.
And the menu? Gin, gin and then some more gin.
Guests will receive a complimentary G&T on arrival, made with Hayman’s True English London Dry gin.
Afterwards, perch on a beanbag chair as you watch your movie of choice and munch on gin and tonic popcorn and sweet cones that you can find in your goodie bag.
The team will also be serving London dry G&T sorbet, along with a themed cocktail, inspired by the film.
The event will run from Thursday 9 to Sunday 12 May, at 2pm for matinee shows and 7pm for evening shows.
Seating is limited, so make sure you book your spot if you want to go.
Tickets cost £35 per person and can be found here.
Movie dates and times
Thursday 9 May – Dirty Dancing (7pm)
Friday 10 May – Cool Runnings (7pm)
Saturday 11 May – Mamma Mia (2pm) and The Italian Job (7pm)
Sunday 12 May – The Goonies (2pm) and Goldfinger (7pm)
Meet Bijou, the dog who – after some expert grooming – looks like a mini polar bear.
Her look is thanks to owner Rachelle Lynn McGinnis, an expert groomer who dyes and carves her dog’s fur to turn her into a horse, a dragon, and even a peacock.
The polar bear transformation is the one that’s caught people’s attention.
‘Someone wrote that they seriously thought they were looking at a picture of a polar bear,’ says Rachelle. ‘It’s amazing how realistic she looks in both the photos and real life.
‘At the moment she looks like a polar bear, and this one requires lots of hairspray.
‘She’s so fluffy that the main part of it is washing and brushing her.
‘To actually style it, the final part only takes about 30 minutes, but to grow her fur to look like a polar bear took 11 months.
‘When I first cut the fur into the right shapes it took a couple of hours but I always do it in stages.
‘Bijou doesn’t need to be standing for hours at a time and it’s good to give her the breaks.’
While some raise concerns about Bijou’s comfort, Rachelle says her 12-year-old dog is happy to undergo extreme grooming.
‘The wackier designs the better,’ she says.
‘But Bijou has been everything from a horse, to a dragon to a polar bear.
‘It’s something I love doing and I feel like it shows off my creativity.
‘Bijou is colour-blind – she’s not bothered what she looks like as long as she’s healthy, loved and happy.
‘People always ask for pictures – I’ve even had people get out of their car because they want to stroke her.
‘For Bijou, it’s all about the attention – it’s not like she looks in the mirror, she just loves being groomed and stroked.
‘In order to get her image looking really realistic I had to get the polar bear design perfectly.
‘I also had to make sure the photos were great so she had to be stood at a certain angle with her neck elongated and we were lucky – we got some great shots of her in the snow.
‘Taken from a distance, she blends right in and it’s easily believable that there’s a mini polar bear lurking about.’
Now that Bijou and Rachelle have mastered the polar bear look, Rachelle plans to turn her pooch into a sheep next, with a fluffy body and closely trimmed paws dyed black like hooves.
That’s easy work compared to Bijou’s transformation into a horse.
‘She had a saddle and mane,’ says Rachelle. ‘It was such an intricate carving that in the end that it must have taken about eight hours to complete.’
Blame Kacey Musgraves for making us want our space, cowboy, or blame the onslaught of leopard print for prompting an itch for change. Whatever. Cow print is here, it’s a trend, and you’d better hop on it now before the fashion and beauty world moves on to another animal.
Rather than buying a new dress or investing in a cowboy hat, we’d recommend going for a manicure.
It’s the easier, cheaper option; ideal if cow print turns out to be more of a passing trend, and Ariana Grande is on board, yesterday sharing a photo of a cow printed thumbnail on her Instagram stories.
If you fancy trying out cow print nails for yourself, you’re in luck – we chatted to the lovely folks over at Shoreditch Nails, who gave us a quick and easy guide.
How to create cow print nails:
1. Apply a base coat
2. Apply two coats of white polish – for Shellac we would use Cream Puff
3. Apply brown splotches – for Shellac we would use Fedora or Faux Fur – with a striper
4. Apply black splotches
5. Apply a top coat
…And voila, you have cow print nails. Do just one as an accent or go all out and paint your entire set.
Once you’ve nailed the basic print, you can play around with different designs. We’ve popped some inspiration below.
You’re imagining all the wonderful cuddles, the walks you’ll take together and how great it will be to have a friend to hang out with whenever you want.
But the decision to get a dog should be made responsibly – and many first-time owners aren’t aware of the many issues surrounding breeding and why it’s imperative to do your research beforehand.
A common discussion in the dog world is whether people should buy dogs, instead of adopting one of the many who are patiently waiting for someone to give them a forever home.
This is one of the main arguments for adoption; if customers choose to adopt instead of shop, breeders will be put out of business and less dogs will end up in animal shelters.
However, the blame cannot be put on all breeders, as there are proper ones who take good care of their dogs and have rules in place for prospective buyers, but rather the problem is with backyard breeders, puppy farms and mills.
In these places, the dogs are often treated badly and there are no measures in place to make sure the people who purchase them are fully prepared for the responsibilities that come with owning a dog.
Many will buy a dog from such breeders and having not realised the work they have to put into this new relationship, soon after dump the dogs at shelters or on the street.
How to buy a puppy responsibly
Always ask to see the mum and pup together
Ask the breeder lots of questions
Expect a breeder to quiz you too
Visit your new pup more than once
Get all your pup’s paperwork before you take them home
Walk away if you have doubts or feel pressure to buy
Report suspicious online sellers or breeders to Trading Standards
Never meet somewhere that isn’t the pup’s home
Never buy from anyone selling multiple breeds of dog
Never buy a pup that looks small and underweight
Never buy a pup that you suspect has been imported illegally
Source: Dogs Trust UK / Puppy Smuggling
According to Dogs Trust UK, 47,500 dogs were abandoned by their owners in 2014 – all of these dogs were taken to council pounds and 5,000 of them were later put down.
‘Each year, Dogs Trust takes thousands of calls from people wanting to give up their dogs,’ a spokesperson from the organisation tells Metro.co.uk.
‘There are many reasons dogs come into the care of our rehoming centres but often it’s because they are purchased without owners doing the proper research to make sure their pet can feasibly fit into their life.
‘Sadly dogs can be a victims of “fast fashion”, especially when bought quickly online with little research or the right questions asked. Rushed sales can leave buyers unaware of how their new dog has been bred or shipped in appalling conditions from overseas purely to meet the demand for cute puppies.
‘Dealers can use fake puppy mums and homes to present a different picture. We would urge anyone looking for a dog to take their time and note our buyer advice to avoid being caught out.’
By not purchasing a dog, you also help prevent overpopulation.
It’s less evident in the UK but in some countries, such as Thailand for instance, abandoned dogs litter the streets, starve, catch diseases and die or end up in rescue shelters.
The situation has sparked a trend in the UK, with many people choosing to adopt and fly dogs over from abroad in order to save them.
However, while this is admirable, some owners then end up leaving rescue dogs at shelters in the UK, because of medical or behavioural issues that they weren’t told about before the dogs were brought over.
‘If you are thinking of getting a new dog it’s important to do your research to avoid supporting unscrupulous breeders,’ Steve Craddock, centre manager at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home tells Metro.co.uk.
‘Better still, consider getting a rescue dog.
‘If you visit your local rescue centre to rehome a dog, you’ll get a full picture of your new pet as it will have had a full medical and behavioural assessment.
‘Unfortunately, this is often not the case when buying a puppy elsewhere, and well-meaning people can end up unintentionally fuelling backstreet breeders and puppy farmers, who benefit hugely from being able to sell puppies online.
‘There are thousands of rescue dogs across the UK who are looking for a second chance at happiness, many of them still under two years old. Rehoming a rescue dog is hugely rewarding and you will be given advice and support to ensure you take home exactly the right pet for you.
‘However, if you do decide to buy elsewhere, go to a reputable breeder and make sure you see the puppies with their mother first.’
A mum of five is fighting back against trolls who called her body ‘disgusting’ in the best way: by loving herself even harder.
Brenda Rivers Streams shares photos of her stretchmarks and ‘wrinkled and floppy’ tummy to inspire other mums to fall in love with their post-baby bodies.
Brenda hasn’t always been body confident.
After giving birth to her first child, she struggled to accept her larger breasts, scars, and the sagging skin on her stomach.
Each pregnancy brought more changes, further denting Brenda’s self-image. It wasn’t until her fifth child, Benjamin, was born that she decided to love her body just the way it is, viewing it as an incredible thing that brought five lives into the world.
‘Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to be a mummy. I literally am living the dream life,’ says Brenda
‘My first birth was a bit traumatic. I ended up with an emergency caesarean which left a huge scar on my lower abdomen. I didn’t like my body, my breasts grew three times larger, I had stretch marks on my sides, my belly flopped, and I just didn’t feel beautiful.
‘With each pregnancy and birth came more changes. It wasn’t until the birth of my fifth child that I gained confidence to love myself.
‘It took me five pregnancies, two caesarean births, three unmedicated VBACs (vaginal birth after caesarean), and five beautiful healthy children to realise the depth of strength and beauty a woman’s body has.
‘Becoming a mother has helped me realise that to my children it doesn’t matter what my body looks like, they see me for who I am inside. They know my heart and to them that’s enough. I want to love myself how they love me.
‘My breasts are way large, my belly is wrinkled and floppy, I have stretch marks on my sides, my abdomen isn’t flat.
‘But it’s also changed in other ways, my body now is stronger, I have a higher tolerance for physical pain, my body loves deeper, my body can hold five babies, this body is capable of loving so much more than that pre-pregnancy one.
‘I am very proud. My body carried life within me, not everyone has that privilege. I’ve had two major surgeries and three unmedicated VBACS, I am very proud.’
She received some nasty comments from people branding her body ‘ugly’ and ‘disgusting’ – but she won’t let that stop her. Instead the cruel comments remind her just how badly honest depictions of bodies are needed.
‘I get it all. Hate messages, trolls, comments saying my body is disgusting or ugly,’ says Brenda.
‘Those comments usually fuel me to post again and again until we normalise the true beauty of a mum’s body.
‘I feel very positive about my body. I do have physical goals I want to reach. I want to be healthy and strong and stay active throughout my days. I have my moments when I feel ‘ugly’ and I usually snap out of it when I remind myself how far I’ve come.
‘When I stop and think of what my body has done for me, I change the focus and start thanking my body, I take time for myself and slow down. I am able to appreciate myself better.
‘I wish I could have realised how strong and amazing my body was with my first baby.
‘I don’t want others to wait as long as I did to love themselves for who they are right now.’
And to other mums struggling to embrace the way they look, Brenda has these words of wisdom: ‘While society wants to sit behind a screen and label us as flawed, I am here to remind all of you that to our children we are perfect. They see behind the stretched-out skin, marks, and lines. They see us for who we truly are.
‘They know our hearts and love us unconditionally and that is all that matters.
‘Your body is amazing. Your body is beautiful. Your body is powerful. Your body is strong. Your body is capable. Your body made you a mother.
‘Your body grew a human inside. Not everybody has that privilege.’
When you have limited space, you have to get creative.
For a lot of us wedged into tiny flatshares, that means storing stuff at our parents’ house and wedging our winter coats under the bed in summer.
Over in Hong Kong, where space is limited and many live in skyscrapers, a simple task requires some smart thinking.
How do you dry your clothes when you don’t have a garden or any space in your living quarters?
That’s a question that fascinates photographer Jimmi Ho.
‘Living in high-density places of Hong Kong, the space for drying clothes at home has become more and more narrow,’ says Jimmi. ‘Private spaces are compressed to the limit, which makes the rest of the public space more precious.’
Since 2017, Jimmi has wandered around Hong Kong documenting the spaces people use to hang their laundry outside, looking at how a method born out of necessity can be strangely beautiful.
The end result is Laundry Art, a series of photos of clothes hung out on railings, benches, and playground equipment.
‘Citizens respond to their own needs and discover, create and utilize the public spaces that belong to them,’ Jimmi explains.
‘The art of clothes drying can be seen everywhere in Hong Kong. Some people carry their own clothes lines by skillfully using ropes and lamp posts, or ingenious use of the environment.
‘It is inadvertently adding vitality to public spaces. Although drying clothes in public places still have grey areas in the law, I sincerely admire the laundry skills and adaptability of Hong Kong residents.’
In two weeks, head to Hoxton for your fashion fix.
Wotever – a community that supports Queer art and culture – will be hosting an event dubbed Queer Fayre on 7 April, where LGBTIQA+ people will be selling everything from gender-free underwear, jam, witchcraft and kink trinkets, everyday items, party goods and pottery.
It’s a ‘queer space, run by queer people for queer people’ but all allies are welcome to come pop in.
A DJ will set the atmosphere and organisers are encouraging people to socialise and make new friends.
The pinot noir gin is the third addition to Chapel Down’s premium spirit range and is made from distilled pinot noir grape skins, blended with English wheat spirit, ‘with delicate aromas of red berries, perfectly balanced with a juniper-led palate and citrus finish’.
Chapel Down also has a vodka made from Chardonnay grapes and another gin – but this one contains the usual ingredients, such as juniper.
‘Not only have we made use of the skins, we’ve added additional complexity by matching the botanicals with the characteristics of the pinot noir grape,’ said head winemaker, Josh Donaghay-Spire.
‘This means the gin is infused with juniper, coriander, dried red berries, rose buds, citrus fruits, rosehip, angelica and grains of paradise, all of which brilliantly reflect pinot noir.
‘The result is an aromatic pink gin with delicate aromas of red berries which perfectly balance the juniper-led palate and refreshing citrus finish.
‘This is our best yet.’
The new bottle will be stocked in Selfridges as well as served in the company’s own bar & restaurant Gin Works in King’s Cross. You can also buy it directly from the winery.
If you fancy getting a bottle, it’ll cost you £35 for 70ml.
While the medical profession should rightly be involved in this debate, terminally ill people and their families – those who have accompanied loved ones to Dignitas, and those who have seen loved ones endure horrific deaths in the UK – should be the ones who lead this discussion.
I was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2012. I had started to notice symptoms a few months earlier: the muscles in my hand were weakening and I was getting exhausted while walking.
As a nurse practitioner with over 40 years of experience, I had some idea about what might be wrong with me. MND was one of the conditions I suspected.
I recall hoping it would ‘only’ be multiple sclerosis. Being diagnosed with MND was my worst fear.
It is a progressive, terminal disease with no cure. You steadily lose all voluntary movement, becoming effectively locked in your own body.
Your respiratory muscle becomes affected, so that you slowly suffocate. Your swallowing muscle gets weaker, so that eating and drinking become impossible, unless you choose to be artificially tube-fed.
I knew as soon as I was diagnosed that I would not want to end up leading a frightening and painful existence.
I have nursed many patients who suffered horribly at the end of their lives. I do not want that.
I believe that if people have a terminal illness and are of sound mind, they should have the choice of assisted dying. But this is currently illegal in the UK.
I could choose to make a dignified and peaceful exit via Dignitas in Switzerland. But I do not want to.
I believe that assisted dying should be available here at home, and I want to fight for it.
To my mind, good palliative care should be caring to the end. There are times when the caring thing to do is to stop trying to prolong life that is painful and without quality, and to intervene to end it where the patient chooses to.
While I appreciate that doctors will have a range of views on this topic, I feel it is only right that those who are fervently campaigning against it are open about their reasons.
It has also been revealed this week – by research from Dignity in Dying – that a network of anti-choice activists were involved in legally challenging the RCP’s assisted dying survey, attempting to stop the results from being published.
Many of these activists have a long history of campaigning for pro-life causes, as well as connections to American pro-life lobbyists.
Fortunately, the case was rejected by the high court yesterday, but it is concerning that a small but vocal group, with what I’d describe as rather extreme views, is attempting to influence this important debate.
Although I am gradually becoming accustomed to the idea of dying, I do not want my nearest and dearest to have to watch me suffer.
My family understands my views and respects them; my husband insists that he would feel the same.
My daughters are both healthcare professionals and understand my wishes, being able – as I am – to see things from both a personal and a professional point of view.
An overwhelming majority of the public – who will all be patients at one time or another – want to see a change in the law that gives terminally ill people like me a real say over how and when we die.
I hope that more doctors and nurses will listen to their patients on this issue.
And above all, I hope that by the time I am ready to go, I can do it on my own terms.
If you look around in any busy place, there’s probably someone living with an illness or disability.
But their condition is invisible. You would have no idea that anything is wrong.
They might be living with debilitating pain or struggling with symptoms but when they use disabled seats, disabled bathrooms or disabled parking spots, they often get challenged and are told ‘You don’t look sick.’
That’s the name of our series. Each week we speak to someone with an invisible illness or disability about what it is like living with their condition.
Katy Johnston, 23, from Aberdeen, has stage 4 endometriosis, where tissue similar to the womb lining grows in other places like the ovaries, fallopian tubes and bladder.
It can cause severe period pain, very heavy periods and can affect fertility. There are four stages – stage one is minimal, stage two is mild, stage three is moderate and stage four (Katy’s type) is severe.
Katy had been experiencing symptoms since she was 16 but was not officially diagnosed until April last year – a problem that is very common among people with the condition. On average, it takes seven and a half years for a diagnosis.
Katy’s condition became so severe, she could no longer walk more than a few paces without help and she wasn’t able to leave her house for months.
Since her teenage years, she had suffered from periods that were so painful she was forced to take time off work, school and university almost every month.
But after her graduation from her undergraduate degree, she started a masters in multimedia journalism at Glasgow Caledonian University and the pain intensified and started to affect her almost every day, rather than just during her period.
She explains: ‘The pain that I had willfully ignored every month for years started to linger and it became harder to pretend what I was experiencing was ‘normal’.
What are the symptoms of endometriosis?
Symptoms vary from person to person but some of the most common include:
‘By this time, it was common practice for me to pass out and end up in A&E demanding morphine every time I got my period but – of course – I didn’t speak about it that much because speaking about the pain would mean talking about my period and admit that I couldn’t ‘just get on with it’, like every other girl I knew seemed to be able to.
‘Eventually, the pain was daily. It felt like stabbing. I was unable to stand up, I would black out and was sweating from the pain. I gained and lost over two stone in the space of a couple of months and was vomiting upwards of six or seven times a day.
‘I went to my doctor who at first suggested what I might be experiencing was bulimia (very unhelpfully) and I was eventually referred for scans and an MRI which revealed I had several cysts on my ovaries (endometriomas). At this point, I was put on a waiting list for surgery.’
Despite living with the pain for years, Katy says that the lack of visible symptoms and the stigma around talking about periods led her to hide her condition for a long time, until it became too much for her to bear.
Even when things deteriorated, the response she had to how she looked meant she still struggled to speak to anyone about what was happening.
She explains: ‘When my endometriosis symptoms were coming to a head, I was losing weight rapidly.
‘At this point, all anyone ever said to me was that I “looked great”. I felt confident and I am horrified to say that for a while, I was willfully ignoring the symptoms of my condition because I was so delighted to be thin.
‘I was overcome with the physical reaction to being sick and I was experiencing black out pain on a daily basis without knowing why. I thought I was dying, but I was skinny and people thought I looked good – that made it a lot harder to speak up.
‘Now, people are always shocked when I tell them I am as sick as I am because I don’t come across as poorly. I don’t present as a sick person but I am and this can be frustrating.
‘People don’t get it that I’m not cured that the pain isn’t over just because I had an operation 11 months ago.
‘People don’t get it that when I say I’m having a hot flush I mean – get out of my way I am dripping in sweat and dizzy and am going to need a fan and a jug of water asap.
‘People don’t understand that the reason I am dressed up to the nines and going 100 miles an hour is because I am terrified about what will happen when I stop, or when my body forces me to stop.’
When her symptoms got worse, Katy had to put her life on hold to try to deal with the condition, because she was too ill to leave the house.
‘I had just started my dream course at university, studying to become a journalist but was forced to stop before my exams as I simply couldn’t function with the pain,’ she says.
‘It was the same pain that I had ignored for so long but it had grown persistent and was now (coupled with the vomiting) totally unmanageable and unavoidable.
‘It was like I’d been slapped in the uterus and forced to acknowledge that this was more than just a bad period, this was something more sinister and there was nothing I could do but wait for an answer.
‘I couldn’t leave the house. I couldn’t work. I couldn’t do anything and I was in Glasgow, three hours away from my family, waiting for an operation. I was calling up my surgeon’s secretary every day asking if there had been any cancellations so I could have an answer about what was going on and why my body was failing me like this.
‘Eventually, there was a cancellation and I got my operation on 4 April 2018.’
Katy had surgery to cut away patches of the endometriosis tissue and it has improved her quality of life but she still does have to deal with the effects of the condition as there is no cure.
She was put on a course of drugs which stimulate a short-term medical menopause, which suppresses ovulation and therefore the spread of the endometriosis. Katy expects to be menopausal for about a year but she may need more surgery in the future to remove the tissue as it develops.
She says: ‘This was a pretty bizarre treatment plan to accept. It basically meant that I was experiencing hot flushes, night sweats and all the trappings of being a menopausal woman at 22-years-old.
‘It was surreal but worth it (and a great icebreaker with all of mum’s pals). This treatment allowed me to re-start my life in the way that I’d been dreaming of for all that time shut up in my flat unable to function when things were really bad.
‘Now, on a good day, I can feel invincible. I am back at university (finally) and working towards my final exams.
‘I am working as a radio presenter and a writing freelance, I’m in a choir, I am able to get out and about and see my pals, spend time with my family and live my life.
‘I also run a community page on Instagram supporting other women with endometriosis and have met some amazing, strong, empowering women through that.
‘I’ve come really far and I’m actually really proud of myself for where I am now and the way I’ve really thrown myself back into life.
‘It’s a year since I was shut up in my house in agony and uncertainty before my operation, and in that time, I have done all I can to support other people with/with suspected endometriosis.
‘I’ve launched a platform called Endo Silence Scotland that supports thousands with this condition, made recommendations at Scottish parliament and given a talk at Strathclyde University about periods and female empowerment.
‘I presented my first live radio show and have since presented numerous shows on Capital Scotland, and now I’m working on a campaign with Standard Life that could really change the game for employees suffering with this condition.
‘Some days I feel really grateful for the perspective getting sick has given me – I will never take my health for granted again. I will never take being able to walk and leave the house and do anything I want for granted.
‘I’m also certain I’ll never allow anyone to convince me I don’t know my own body and my own mind. I feel more connected with my body now than ever, now that I understand its limits and have made sense of my pain.’
Although Katy has had many positive moments since her diagnosis and surgery, she says that she still has bad days.
‘On a bad day, I’m menopausal but still bleeding,’ she says. ‘I’m depressed and have breakthrough pain that stings like a stabbing reminder that I could be back in that place and become that sick girl again at any moment – that reminds me this could all be too good to be true.
‘On a bad day, I have to accept that I’m actually not invincible and that I’m reliant on a cocktail of seriously strong drugs and hormone blockers to achieve any semblance of normal life.
‘On a bad day I am acutely aware that I might be carrying broken parts and that my body has been through a lot and that my willful ignorance (my not wanting to talk about period pain for so many years) contributed towards getting me here.
‘On a bad day, I am aware that I may never be able to have children. I’m 23, I’m young and I am hopeful but my endometriosis means that the white picket fence dream of being a mother might not be on the cards for me.
‘That hurts a lot. It hurts me and my partner. It hurts my mum. It shouldn’t but it makes me feel like a failure before I’ve even got to trying.
‘On a more basic level, on a bad day I can’t move from bed. I have to accept that today is a non-start day and admit that I’m not capable of any more.
‘I am furious that there is still no cure, so little awareness and so little promise of change on the horizon. I’m determined to change that.’
Katy is fighting to raise awareness of the condition as she wants other women to feel able to speak openly about what they are going through to avoid it getting
She explains: ‘The online community has been incredibly helpful for me. Starting Endo Silence Scotland was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
‘There’s now thousands of women using that community to share their experience, advice, have a whinge. It’s been essential to my mental recovery.
‘Awareness is key. Why is it that 20% of the public have still never even heard the word endometriosis when our numbers equal a tenth of women – a figure on a par with diabetes in our country?
‘What makes it so that a condition that affects SO many can still take an average of 7 ½ years to diagnose? If you’re lucky.
‘Why is it that the fog – the stigma – that is now – thankfully and deservedly shifting over issues of sexuality, gender, mental health, sexual violence is STILL circling around what is STILL slurred at as ‘hysteria’ – ‘women’s troubles’.
‘It’s frustrating and it’s damaging and we are raising a generation of young people to be ignorant about a condition that they will most certainly encounter in some way at some point in their lifetime.
‘I have made it my personal (and professional) mission to raise awareness about endo and dismantle the stigma surrounding periods and women’s health more generally but we also need practical support, education, more effective diagnosis and treatment and understanding amongst our friends, employers and tutors.
‘Endometriosis is not just a bad period – it’s a life sentence that means decades of agony, infertility, pain during sex, surgery, IBS, depression and there is no cure.’
For Endometriosis awareness month, Katy is featured in an exhibition held by Standard Life in partnership with Endometriosis UK. Beyond the Invisible features portraits by internationally-renowned portrait photographer Rankin and will explore the lives of those suffering from the condition.
The ‘Beyond the Invisible’ exhibition will be at La Galleria Pall Mall, 5b Pall Mall, 30 Royal Opera Arcade, London, SW1Y 4UY from 21-28 March, open to the public from 11am-5pm.
It will move to Stills Gallery, 23 Cockburn Street Edinburgh, from 1-8 April, open to the public every day from 11am – 5pm.
You Don’t Look Sick is a weekly series telling the stories of people with invisible illness and disabilities. Next week, we speak to Tas who has Ulcerative Colitis.
How to get involved with You Don't Look Sick
You Don’t Look Sick is Metro.co.uk’s weekly series that discusses invisible illness and disabilities.
If you have an invisible illness or disability and fancy taking part, please email youdontlooksick@metro.co.uk
You’ll need to be happy to share pictures that show how your condition affects you, and have some time to have some pictures taken.
Dogs bark as a way of communicating, whether that’s because they’re unhappy, want to go for walks, or if there is an immediate or looming danger.
One family couldn’t figure out why their dog Hank kept barking up a storm one night when they went to bed.
Twitter user Ulysses S. Cocksman told the story of how Hank had actually saved his family’s life by alerting them to a blazing fire in their backyard.
The dad explained on Twitter how his wife and kids were asleep and he was up watching a film one night when the excessive barking began.
After getting up to see what was going on with the family pet, the dad realised that their entire garden was up in flames and immediately woke up his family and rang up his neighbours to get out.
The dad, and rest of Twitter, commended Hank for his incredible rescue efforts.
Let’s hope Hank knows who’s a good boy.
Ulysses started the story by sharing a picture of the family pet from six years ago, when he was just a little pup eating his mum owner’s trainers.
Within a few hours of reminiscing about the time Hank ate the Vans, the family went to bed. Around midnight though, Hank started barking incessantly.
‘At midnight last night, Hank started barking from the living room,’ wrote the dad. ‘My wife and kids were asleep, I was finishing up a movie in another room. Hank would not shut up.
‘So I dragged myself off the couch and went out to the living room to make him stop. As soon as I came around the corner, I saw that the entire yard was glowing orange.
‘The very large wooden work shed full of gasoline, paint, and God knows what else was blazing. The oaks were on fire. Flaming leaves and embers were blowing everywhere.’
Ulysses explained how the fire spread to his neighbour’s garden where their shed went up in flames within seconds. But he called the emergency services and his neighbours who were able to get out with their kids and dog.
‘The fire spread to the back of our house the same minute the firefighters got the hoses to it. A minute or two more, and it was gone. Instead, everyone is safe, and we still have a house. It’s black and crispy on one side, but it’s totally intact.’
Joanne Campbell, 32, was devastated when she realised she couldn’t breastfeed her son, Hayden, now six months old.
He was he was tongue tied, where the strip of skin connecting the babies tongue to the bottom of his mouth is shorter than normal, and her own supply was low.
The mum-of-one, from Sydney, Australia, took to Facebook in a bid to find other mum’s who were willing to donate their breast milk.
After finding dozens of support groups online, Joanne vowed to avoid milk formula for Hayden after realising it was giving him stomach ache.
Hayden now drinks up to one litre of free donated breast milk from Facebook mums each day which Joanne drives round to pick up in frozen batches – and she said she couldn’t be happier with the experience.
Joanne, a stay at home mum, said: ‘I found out about these Facebook groups for mum’s donating their milk before I gave birth.
‘I was hoping to donate my own milk to help others but I had no idea that I would then need it myself.
‘After writing my first post about needing milk for Hayden, I was inundated with messages from women who were willing to help.
‘I went to one woman’s house for my first batch of frozen milk and have since used another seven donors since in a bid to feed Hayden with breast milk instead of formula.
‘Hayden didn’t get on well with the formula based products as it gave him stomach ache so I did everything I could to avoid it.
‘I store the breast milk in my freezer and defrost it daily as Hayden needs about one litre per day.
‘Some people find it disgusting and don’t understand why we’d share another human bodily fluid but I find it so normal now.
‘There are some bacterial diseases you can catch through breast milk but I don’t believe any mums on the Facebook group would donate their breast milk if they had anything that could harm another baby.
‘Hayden has benefited so much from other women’s milk.’
She said her partner Adam Bahan, 31, also supports the unusual feeding technique.
She added: ‘Hayden couldn’t latch on properly and I was given a pump by the hospital so I could feed him with a bottle afterwards but it was faulty.
‘My supply was really low at this point and I had no choice but to use formula until I found a way to find milk donors online.
‘The mums on Facebook have been a huge lifeline as without them Hayden would still be facing agonising stomach cramps from the formula milk.
‘My partner, Adam, trusted that I knew what was best for Hayden so I posted online for possible milk donors in Sydney and the rest is history.’
Joanne claims hospitals in Sydney do not provide breast milk for babies unless they are born premature.
She added: ‘Ideally we’d be able to access it through clinics and hospitals as we’d know it had been screened for diseases but I trust the mum’s I meet online.
‘I hope the next time I have a baby that I’m able to breastfeed myself now I know more about it all.
‘I’m now introducing solids into Hayden’s diet so he won’t need as much breast milk as before but I still like to keep a freezer stash as it can last for months.’
Mum-of-two Janet Brown was born with a birth defect which means she doesn’t have hands.
The 31-year-old from North Carolina, U.S, manages to do everything by herself and even has a job where she has to constantly use her hands.
To provide for her family Janet has become an Uber and Lyft driver and works in the mornings while her two sons are in school or in daycare.
She said her passengers hardly notice how she uses her stump to steer the wheel and change gears.
Janet, who also doesn’t have most of her toes, said the only real struggle is that she can’t wear open-toed shoes.
But to make other disabled people feel less alone, Janet has started a non-profit organisation, Inspiring with Helping hands, to motivate and educate the world about disabled people.
She wants others to see that those with differences don’t need to hide themselves away for fear of what people might say, and those that are able should still go about their lives.
Janet has said she has no name for the condition that meant she was born without some of her limbs.
‘There is no everyday task that I can’t do – my condition doesn’t stop me from doing anything,’ said Janet.
‘Most of my passengers say that I am an excellent driver and most of them want me to be their personal Uber driver.
‘The common misconception is that people with a disability need help. And that’s just not always the case.’
Janet added that though well-intentioned people try to help her, it can be annoying to feel like she can’t do anything for herself. They also assume that her condition was caused by a tragic accident.
‘I don’t think that I am judged because I was born different but I think people think that I am helpless.
‘I would prefer people to ask and not just assume or not just look. If you want to know just ask.’
She often tells her sons that though she looks different from other mums, she can do anything they can.
In this way, and through her work with Helping Hands, she hopes she can help others.
‘My intention is to let people know that people with disabilities are not different because they are classified as different, just because you have a disability, don’t just sit and say “I am not going to go out the house” or “I can’t do this for myself cause I only have one leg” or “I can’t do this for myself because my skin doesn’t look this way or my hair is not this way”.
‘My goal is to help people, motivate and inspire them.’
My first job was as an architect in Italy, where I am from. However, I soon realised that I really wanted to travel and live in another country and this wasn’t possible as an architect.It’s hard to start a firm and build a pool of clients – leaving my then clients behind and starting again from scratch seemed too difficult.
I began to work part-time as an interior designer at the IKEA store in Rome, working my way up to a full-time manager before deciding to move to the UK.
I have now been the interior design leader for IKEA UK and Ireland for six and half years. Initially, I focused on leading the design of the stores’ room sets, creating spaces that inspired customers to visualise how our products would fit into their homes (cue the famous 500 Days Of Summer scene).
Now I have shifted my focus to marketing and PR – working on TV advertising and Instagram pictures, events and mores. One of the things I work on is ensuring that there is a strong connection between internal and external media, so people can link what they see in stores with what’s on the web, in magazines or pictures.
Every day is different: one day I’ll be sitting at my desk going through emails, having face to face meetings or Skype calls to develop projects.
Sometimes I personally develop set designs, but I much prefer to take the opportunity to work with young interior designers from our stores to help them develop and grow.
The next day I might be on a TV advert set ensuring that our home furnishing message is clear, or with the PR team looking at a potential location for a press event.
I love the variety that comes with my job.
In 2017, I styled a whole house in Soho as we created a house party open to the public to celebrate IKEA’s 30th birthday in the UK and Ireland. This was a challenge, as each room in the house represented a different decade, and they all had a totally different look and feel.
It was fantastic to see how IKEA’s design has changed throughout the years and how some of our iconic products from the 80s are still prominent in the home today.
There is a slightly surreal element to my job, as I design and style so many rooms that no one will ever live in. Sometimes this can be disappointing, because before we plan anything, we always analyse the profile of the hypothetical people that will live in that particular room.
It would be really great to then see them in there interacting with the space, but what can I do – this is the retail reality!
When it comes to designing a room, it can take me anything from a single day to a whole week depending on how big the job is and what the deadline is.
Before I begin planning, I need to know who the final users of the room are and analyse their needs. For example, it’s completely different designing a room or a house for a family with two kids to a couple of friends sharing a flat.
Based on their needs, I then try to find the best and most creative solutions, and choose the products from our range that are the most functional and fitted to the desired style.
My job does of course feed into my own home, which we are constantly updating the design of. I concentrate on the look and feel of the room, and as a working mum with toddler twins I make sure that the room evolves with their new needs.
Everything needs to be super functional and super beautiful simultaneously, but I have to admit it’s my husband who takes care of building the IKEA furniture!
For anyone that is looking to redesign any part of their house, I would highly recommend starting off by creating a mood board. Pinterest is the perfect place for this – select all the pictures that inspire you and that you can imagine fitting into your dream home.
Once you have a good number of images, group those that have a similar look and feel, either through their colour, style or use of furniture. Then, choose the group of pictures you like the most and discard the others. This will then be your bible and it will guide you in any decision you need to make throughout the process of creating your dream home.
This is my way to plan any house, room or set. When I look for inspiration, solutions or ideas for a new plan, I can be attracted by conflicting things, and if I don’t have a clear mood board I risk ending up with a terrible mix of styles that don’t speak the same language.
For me, it is really important to park stuff that inspires me but that isn’t right at that particular moment so that I can use them in a different project, and stay true to the mood board I decided to use. This will guarantee consistency in the space and a harmonic result.
I’ve been working at IKEA for more than 17 years covering different roles. In those 17 years, IKEA has evolved and changed a lot and I’m sure it will continue to do so.
How to get involved with My Odd Job
My Odd Job is a new weekly series from Metro.co.uk, published every Sunday. If you have an unusual job and want to get involved, email aimee.meade@metro.co.uk.
You might have heard of crazy hair day – a new take on the non-uniform day.
Instead of getting to wear their own clothes, kids go to school with colourful or strange hair, with prizes for the wackiest design.
April Castillo, had the best idea to try to help her daughter win.
Four-year-old Atlantis had a plait, wrapped around an Ariel doll and then spray painted green to look like her tail.
Her older sister Ariel Romero posted the pictures on Twitter and said: ‘My sister had crazy hair day at school today and my mom was not playing games and really wanted her to win.’
The post went viral with over 750,000 likes and 138,000 retweets.
She later added that her mum was inspired to create the style because of her two daughter’s names, Ariel and Atlantis.
She said: ‘My mom did the mermaid because my name is Ariel and my sister is Atlantis which is where Ariel lives under the sea. We’ve grown up loving mermaids thanks to my parents.’
And she added that her little sister won the prize.
Ariel laughed: ‘She’s only in pre-K lmao y’all just wait for my mom the upcoming years.’
Twitter loved the idea with lots of people posting pictures of their own crazy hair designs.
my mom made sure my 5 y/o lil sis won her crazy hair day at school too 🤪🤩 and ofc my 3 y/o lil sis wanted to be just like her big sis (hence the last pic) 💞 pic.twitter.com/bblKaHWtct
When racism doesn’t happen to you every day in covert and overt ways, it can be hard to notice it.
If it happens in a workplace you manage, you might be enlightened to the ways certain members of staff are treated in contrast to others.
That’s what happened after one restaurant head hired a black male waiter. He kept receiving complaints about his work despite not doing anything wrong.
The business manager wrote on Reddit that his craft beer restaurant was in a white-dominated town where customers tend to be older white men, though the establishment had started to attract a millennial crowd.
When he hired an African American man, the manager said he did not think of race for a second and felt the man was competent for the job.
However, the poster noticed that the black waiter was getting a lot more complaints about his professional conduct even when he was carrying out work-related tasks.
It was then that the manager realised the customers were treating the employee differently because of his race.
And fellow Redditors told the poster to not only acknowledge it but act on it and either kick these racist customers out or warn them that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated.
‘He has been by no means incompetent in his job,’ wrote the poster. ‘However, complaints about his service have been disproportionate compared to all our other servers.’
‘Example: “That kid over there is talking to someone when he should be bringing our drinks.” Well okay, that someone is the business owner and when I checked the ticket they had been waiting for their drinks for about two minutes. They got their drinks about 30 seconds later.
‘Example 2: someone flagging me down about a server standing there doing nothing… it was him putting in a large order at another terminal.
‘There have been about six or so instances of this in the past two months. And you know what’s common about these complaints? They’re all coming from Boomer generation white men.’
The poster recalled one incident where a white couple even refused to look at the black server in the eye and opted to speak to a white waiter instead.
He said he lamented that black people had to endure this kind of racism despite doing nothing wrong.
‘These complaints about standing around, meandering, are always directed towards him, and when I check on the issue he’s always doing something job-related. Hell, the guy has about a 100% record for coming in when called in or asked to stay late. He has a great work ethic.’
Many commenters encouraged him to ban the customers or kick them out.
One person wrote: ‘Kick them the f*ck out. Racism should not be tolerated. And if there are people around, be sure to yell out “your racism will not be tolerated here”.
‘If the server as much as apologises about this, be sure he knows that he has done nothing wrong, and should never apologise for the actions of others.’
The original poster then revealed the business owners are not willing to ban customers unless they say anything overtly racist.
However, most people told him that he could warn people that racism will not be tolerated without taking phyiscal action.
Easter is under a month away and you’ve probably already being eyeing up all the chocolate eggs.
This one though, combines two pretty excellent things – chocolate and gin.
Manchester patissier and chocolatier Slattery has partnered with local Zymurgorium to created the unicorn and flamingo Easter eggs.
Each egg has a full size 50cl bottle of either Realm of the Unicorn gin, with a toasted marshmallow flavour, or FlaGINgo gin, which is a pink gin with mango, pineapple, passionfruit and ginger.
The milk chocolate shell is constructed around the bottle, then coated in white chocolate and strawberry chocolate and covered with a pearlised finished.
Slattery is famous for their intricate Easter eggs in various themes and colours, including the Game of Thrones theme dragon eggs, circus eggs, complete with top hat, and selfie eggs, with a photo printed on chocolate, but this is the first time they have combined alcohol with their designs.
Unfortunately, they are pretty fragile and are only available from the Slattery store in Manchester and Selfridges and House of Fraser in the city. The eggs can be preordered over the phone by calling 01617679303
The unicorn egg costs £49, while the flamingo is £59.
A spokesperson for Slattery said: ‘All our Easter eggs are made by hand, and we have a skilled team of chocolatiers and cake decorators that are involved in the process. Each year we bring back old favourites like the unicorn and circus egg which are always popular, but we always try and create new and exciting ideas.
‘As our eggs are handmade and have lots of intricate work, the majority are collection only as they are too fragile to send by courier. We have a small selection on our website that we are able to post throughout the UK.’
We Brits have quite a few tells that are quintessentially British.
If you keep saying sorry every time you go near a stranger or bump into a table; if the weather is your go-to small talk topic or you put the kettle on at the sign of a crisis then you’re probably British.
There are plenty of other things that really mark our Britishness and a new survey has compiled a whole list of them.
Research by OnePoll looked at 2,000 adults to reveal the top 40 typically British traits, which also include always having a stiff upper lip, dunking biscuits in tea, loving a trip to the pub. and having a fry-up for breakfast.
The last three on the list include respecting LGBT culture, being open with feelings and emotions, and being supportive of immigration.
The study was commissioned by TV channel Sky Arts to launch Art 50, where 50 artists have created pieces to show what it means to be British.
Generational differences were also found in the study as 42% of pensioners considered it British to be proud of where you’re from whereas just 19% of younger adults agreed.
But 13% said they weren’t proud to be British at all.
Top 40 signs you're British
1. Talking about the weather
2. Queuing
3. Having a roast dinner on Sundays
4. Putting the kettle on in a crisis
5. Liking fish and chips
6. Using tea as a cure/fix for everything
7. Saying ‘sorry’ too frequently
8. Saying please and thank you
9. Dunking biscuits in tea
10. Going to the pub
11. Having a stiff upper lip
12. Having a dry sense of humour
13. Having good manners
14. Sarcasm
15. Eating fry ups for breakfast
16. Being proud of where you are from
17. Pulling together in a crisis
18. Not complaining in a restaurant when the food is poor
19. Having meals based on what day it is – like Fishy Friday
20. Having a barbecue as soon as the sun comes out
21. Holding the door open for someone when they’re unnecessarily far away so they end up running for the door
22. Wearing shorts and sunglasses the second the sun comes out
23. Respecting our elders
24. Moaning about our commute
25. Saying ‘right’ before you’re about to do something
26. Being tolerant
27. Being squashed on the train by a larger person and pretending you don’t notice when they are half sitting in your seat
28. Shouting ‘wahey when someone drops a drink in the pub
29. Never letting your emotions get the better of you
30. Putting ketchup on everything
31. Uttering ‘aaah’ after taking the first sip of a cold beer
32. Loving to hate the Royal Family
33. Eating cucumber sandwiches
34. Always clearing your plate at dinnertime
35. Refusing to eat non-Heinz baked beans
36. Being culturally aware
37. Not swearing or using bad language
38. Respecting LGBT culture
39. Being open with your feelings and emotions
40. Being supportive of immigration
But while 78% of Brits described themselves as being typically British, the poll revealed that half think what it means to be British has changed over time.
47% of people said they were proud to be British, with another four in 10 saying they felt this way ‘a little bit’.
And while 44% of the nation described themselves as British, 38% said they are English instead.
Just 20% of Scots described themselves as being British, along with just a third Welsh folk and 37% of those from Northern Ireland.