Rachael Bosworth, 38, lost every baby at six weeks for almost a decade but never gave up hope she’d finally have a little one with husband Ian, 47.

After so much heartbreak, Ian didn’t want to watch Rachael go through it again and decided to have a vasectomy.

A month after Ian went to his GP to organise the procedure, Rachael found out she was pregnant again but sure she would suffer a ninth miscarriage, she didn’t do a pregnancy test.

A scan at six weeks and one day revealed she was still pregnant, and little Ellis was born on January 2 2017 weighing 5lb 15oz – and two weeks later Ian had his vasectomy.

Rachael, from Bramley, Hampshire, said: ‘We had a fantastic marriage but the only thing missing was a child.

‘It was my issue and I was going through the trauma.

‘He told me he couldn’t watch me go through it as it was making him feel physically sick.

‘At one point I was thinking I needed a bit of a reality check.

‘It just didn’t seem to be happening for one reason or another but you shouldn’t give up hope.

‘You should keep on pushing. You need to keep knocking on doors.

‘That’s what happened to me and now I have Ellis.’

The pair had been trying for a baby since they got married in 2007.

Ian, an IT consultant, already had two teenage boys from a previous relationship, now aged 21 and 14.

Just three months into their marriage Rachel fell pregnant but had a miscarriage and another a short time later.

She went to her GP who said miscarriages were extremely common and they’d only run tests after a third, which happened in January 2011.

Rachael said: ‘There was a lot of bleeding but I didn’t know if this was a normal part of being pregnant.

‘I hadn’t done it before so I just didn’t know what to expect.

‘I phoned the labour hotline and they told me to go straight to A&E.

‘My friend drove me there and by this point I knew something wasn’t right.

‘I was devastated but I thought when the time was right I’d become a parent.

‘It was a bit of a silver lining when I fell pregnant the third time as I thought I’d finally find out what was wrong with me.’

She was referred to Basingstoke Hospital for full blood tests, but they came back as normal and she was referred to St Mary’s Hospital in London.

Scans revealed she had a misshapen womb and surgeons operated to remove a thin layer of cells around the uterus – called a septum removal operation.

Doctors told her to wait three months before trying for a baby again – and she suffered a fifth and sixth marriage before going back for more tests.

Rachael said: ‘Nobody at St Mary’s could explain what was wrong with me.

‘I’d had every test under the sun and even had an operation on my womb.

‘The sixth miscarriage was the worst.

‘I went through the same heavy bleeding but on a pregnancy test it still showed up that I was pregnant.

‘I rushed to the GP but she told me my body hadn’t caught up with the fact that I was pregnant.

‘I stopped doing pregnancy tests straight away after that miscarriage.’

They stopped actively trying for a year until Rachael saw a Good Morning Britain interview with Gynaecologist Hassan Shehata.

Rachael said: ‘I got in contact with the consultant and they agreed to see me.

‘At this point is was my third hospital.’

But the expert told her she had a normal level of ‘killer cells’, she said.

‘I just completely broke down,’ she said

‘I know she meant well but to me that wasn’t good news.

‘I just wanted to know what was wrong with me; whether it could be fixed or if I was just unable to have kids.

‘That way I would be able to have closure. I was back to square one.

‘We had already asked a doctor about IVF but that is more for people who can’t physically get pregnant. We didn’t have that issue.’

She got pregnant again but as per before, six weeks in she had her seventh miscarriage..

Rachael then saw an advertisement on her Facebook feed for Response Drug Trial – a controlled clinical trial for women with a history of unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss at a nearby hospital.

The only requirement was to get pregnant but for the first time Rachael struggled and didn’t make the trial.

She then went on to have her eighth and final miscarriage in January 2016.

Rachael said: ‘At this point I had enough.

‘I had seven years of it and it was getting to a point when it was traumatising.

‘When I lost another baby we just thought we couldn’t do this anymore.’

Ian picked up a leaflet for a vasectomy from his GP – and a month later Rachel found she was pregnant for a ninth time.

She said: ‘I just wasn’t interested. I realised I had missed my period but I didn’t bother doing a pregnancy test.

‘I did one eventually and it was history repeating itself.’

She saw her healthy baby on the sonogram at six weeks and one day – and got to hear her baby’s heartbeat for the first time.

‘They’ve always been two lines on a pregnancy test but this time it was a heartbeat in a scan,’ she said.

‘To finally be in a position of hearing a heartbeat was just something else.

‘I just couldn’t believe it. It was our little miracle.

‘It wasn’t until 21 weeks when I felt him kick and it felt real.

‘Despite everything I had been through for the best part of a decade I had a normal and healthy pregnancy.

Ellis was born on 2 January 2017 weighing 5lb 15oz, and two weeks later Ian booked himself in for a vasectomy.

Rachael said: ‘I just still can’t believe he’s actually here and he’s a real little person.

‘I’m now ready to speak out and help other people.

‘I’ve joined the miscarriage association to do everything I can to help other women.

‘When I told my family and friends they just couldn’t believe it.

‘Then one of my friends who has struggled to conceive turned to me and said “you’ve given me hope”.’

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Calling all Easter fans: If you love Baileys, you’ll be overjoyed to know that you can now buy a Salted Caramel Baileys Easter egg.

The egg was released last year, but it’s now back for 2019 and it’s gone straight to the top of our Easter egg buying list.

The egg is made from milk chocolate with crunch salted caramel pieces. It also features six chocolates, each filled with a salted caramel centre, which then come covered in dark chocolate and decorated with a gold shimmer.

Alongside the salted caramel egg, on sale in supermarkets for £10, a coffee version is also available – which is decorated with glittery coffee beans and features six coffee flavour truffles.

If Baileys isn’t for you but you want to stick to the alcoholic theme, you’ll be delighted to know you can now also buy an Easter egg with an entire bottle of gin inside it. Amazing.

The eggs come after Manchester patissier and chocolatier Slattery partnered with local Zymurgorium to create unicorn and flamingo themed Easter eggs.

Alongside hollow chocolate, each egg comes with a full sized 50cl bottle of either Realm of Unicorn gin, with a toasted marshmallow flavour, or FlaGINgo gin, which is a pink gin with mango, pineapple, passionfruit and ginger.

Yes they sound incredible and, for that reason, as with things that sound too good to be true – there is a catch.

Due to the eggs being pretty fragile, you can only buy them from the Slattery store in Manchester alongside Selfridges and House of Fraser in the city.

They’re also pretty expensive – with the unicorn egg costing £49 and the flamingo one £59.

So, you might be best off just buying a standard Easter egg and filling it with gin yourself.

Or, if you prefer the Baileys idea, why not buy one of the Baileys eggs and fill it with a bottle of Baileys?

Considering bottles are selling for £12 in Tesco right now, it’ll only set you back £22.

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Many fitness practitioners think of the burpee as the ‘perfect’ exercise.

It is a full-body move that combines cardio with strength as you throw yourself to the ground, support your own weight in a press up before springing back up and getting some elevation with a tuck jump.

The very word ‘burpee’ is enough to strike fear into the hearts of many gym-goers, and 10 reps in a row will be sure to leave you seriously puffing and glistening with sweat.

But if you want to really work on your strength and target muscle development, a great way to adapt the classic burpee is to add a dumbbell.

Why make this nausea-inducing move even harder? We hear you ask. Well, adding dumbbells allows you to target specific muscles in your shoulders and back.

It’s also brilliant for resistance training – conditioning your muscles to work on your strength.

And the good news is that there is less jumping in this version of the move – so the dumbbell burpee isn’t necessarily harder, just different.

Given that there are quite a few steps to doing a dumbbell burpee, you might need a helping hand to get you started.

Luckily – our fitness expert Melissa Weldon, master trainer at Sweat It London, is on hand to show us exactly how to do them.

Start standing up, holding a dumbbell in each hand – start with a weight you feel comfortable with before going heavier as you get more confident.

With your feet hip-width apart, bend over, lowering the dumbbells on to the ground.

Jump your feet backwards into a strong, high plank position – your arms extended, hands resting on each dumbbell.

Then jump your feet back up towards your hands, so that they land outside each dumbbell.

Deadlift the dumbbells off the ground, keeping your spine straight and thrusting forward slightly from the hips.

Then bend over to lower the dumbbells back to the ground and repeat the move.

Aim for ten reps, and try that three times with a 30-second break in between each set.

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A skint single mum has made almost £10,000 by charging wealthy married men to date her.

Britney Boone, 26, says it has been a massive lifestyle change for her.

The mum, from North Carolina, claims before this, childcare costs were taking up most of the wages from her sales job.

Having previously dabbled in sugar daddy websites, making around $9,000 (£6,833) in three years, she was strapped for cash after having her daughter, Britney realised she had to find another way to make extra cash.

So, when a friend told her about a dating site where affluent suitors bid generously for the chance to go on a first date with attractive singletons, it was an ideal solution.

But Britney, who as well as being paid by her dates has been showered with gifts like designer jewellery, exotic holidays and shopping sprees, is keen to refute claims that it is like escorting – which the site specifically bans.

‘While I’m on the site for its financial incentives and not to find love, it’s a completely different thing,’ she said.

‘Prostitutes are paid for a very specific thing, whereas I am paid for my time and there is no pressure to do anything I don’t want to do.

‘I can understand why people think that as money is involved, but actually, I’ve only slept with one man I met on the site, who I ended up in a relationship with anyway. Anyone else I’ve met I see more as a mentor.’

Apart a brief relationship with a friend she had known for six years and who is the father of her child, Britney had been single for around three years before joining the dating website.

During that time, she used a number of sugar daddy style websites, although she found this could be detrimental to her real romantic life.

She explained: ‘Guys either respect the fact that I’m doing this so me and my daughter don’t go without, or they really, really don’t like it.’

Then, after her daughter was born, Britney found herself struggling more than ever with her finances.

She continued: ‘I know people will read this and think, “Why didn’t you just get another job?” But I am a single mum, I can’t work 24/7 without seeing my child.

‘She has a strict routine and she needs me there. I looked into the option of childcare too, but it would be around $1,400 (£1,063) a month, which is the majority of your monthly salary, if you are low paid or on minimum wage.

‘It got to the point where I really couldn’t afford much at all. It was really tough.’

Since going on dates with rick, married men, Britney’s finances have completely changed.

And though the website is for dating and finding real connection, she says her incentive for using it is financial, not romantic.

On average, she receives $100 (£76) -$200 (£152) for a lunch or dinner date and between $400 (£304) and $800 (£609) for overnight meet-ups – money which helped her support herself and her child when she was out of work for around five months.

‘On top of the money, I’ve been given gifts like a Cartier bracelet and trips to Dubai,’ she said, listing some other perks of joining the site. ‘On one occasion, a guy gave me his credit card and let me go on an $800 (£609) shopping spree in all my favourite stores.

‘But I have also formed friendships and now have people I can rely on in a tough situation.

‘My car got repossessed a while back, so I called a man I’d met, and within a day, he gave me the money for a new one.

‘It’s reassuring to know I have that to fall back on, that I could lose my job tomorrow and be okay.’

Despite facing criticism, Britney insists that what she does is very different from sex work, stressing that if a man ever made her feel uncomfortable or pressured, she would no longer see him.

She added: ‘There is the odd man that is only after one thing, but you get that anywhere. Mostly, the men are mature, career-driven and well-rounded.

‘They’ve even given me career and business advice and let me pick their brains for sales tips, as a lot of them work in that world.’

While most of her dates have been enjoyable, however, Britney is disappointed by the fact a good number of the men she has met have been married.

Although she does not condone married men dating other women, she still says having an innocent dinner with her is better than sleeping with someone behind their wives’ backs.

‘Men want that spark too, and to feel desired and validated,’ she said. ‘A lot of them have been married a long time and their relationships have grown stagnant.

‘They don’t want to cheat, so instead they just go for dinner with someone who will pay them attention.

‘It’s nice for them to feel back in that early dating stage, where you go out for nice meals and properly court.

‘And I haven’t slept with any married men. The most they get is a peck on the cheek at the end of the night.’

The majority of Britney’s loved ones know what she does and are supportive, but she does accept that not everybody is so positive.

She added: ‘I understand where they are coming from, but this has helped me provide for my daughter, so what’s the harm?

‘To women wanting to try it themselves, I’d say be cautious and listen to your gut. Don’t let anyone pressure you into anything. Just because money is involved, doesn’t mean there is an expectation.

‘Other than that, have fun. You get to get dressed up, go out and get wined and dined – what’s so bad about that?’

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Films and books would have you thinking that once boy meets girl and the pair fall passionately in love with each other, all arguments are resolved with sweet make-up sessions.

But welcome to 21st century love where arguments are virtual and end with ‘seen’ messages or being unfollowed on social media.

When sex and relationship blogger Dami Olonisakin asked her female followers on Twitter to reveal the times they poured their heart out to men, she was inundated with very relatable examples.

Women in their droves sent in the paragraphs and essays they texted romantic suitors.

Sadly for them, a lot were met with indifference and brutal one-liners from men.

‘It’s healthy to do,’ Dami explained to Metro.co.uk. ‘Opening up about how you feel to someone you’ve been romantic/sexual with is normal. We grow and learn over time who to display those feelings to. So yeah it’s cringey, but sometimes it can be necessary’.

So if you’ve got a long love letter in your Notes page, or have sent a long essay to a partner only to be met with those excruciating blue ticks, don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Crikey. pic.twitter.com/Y57riDqRpa

— #TheBigOBook (@Oloni) March 25, 2019

Dami explained how it was her friend’s idea to get other women to submit their heartfelt essays.

Ps this isn’t me pic.twitter.com/681cutDylx

— H (@L1l_me) March 23, 2019

Though the thread had us saying, ‘oh, honey’ and feeling second-hand rage and embarrassment, it also became a wholesome place full of encouraging words.

Plenty of people shared their stories of personal growth.

‘This whole thread breaks my heart!’ wrote one person. ‘To all the girls who sent this in and to all the girls going through this – if someone wants you, you will know! No questions, no essays, no begging. Don’t you ever let anyone make you think you’re not good enough.’

Preach.

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A Harry Potter superfan was proposed to on the beach by her boyfriend, who used a giant Hogwarts crest written in the sand to ask her: ‘will you marry me?’

Nia Roderick, 30, was walking along a beach when she saw the artwork drawn into the sand.

Ben Griffiths, 31, knew Harry Potter-obsessed Nia would be bowled over by the work of artist Marc Treanor.

The Hogwarts crest was sketched into the sand but instead of the motto: ‘Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus’ the wording was replaced with ‘Nia will you marry me’ written in Welsh.

Nia said: ‘We’d been for a walk and then went in a pub and Ben said ‘I need some fresh air, I don’t feel good’ so I went running after him – and then I saw it.

‘I read the books when I was growing up and I’ve seen all the films.

‘For my 30th birthday I had a surprise Harry Potter party so all of my family and friends know now but they kept it as a surprise.

‘I’ve always wanted to see Marc’s work on the beach and when I saw it I just thought “wow”. It’s amazing and I didn’t expect it at all.’

The couple from Talbot Green, South Wales, have been together for three and a half years after meeting at work at Aberthaw power station.

Ben commissioned the work to be drawn on the beach at Tenby, Pembs, while the couple were on a romantic weekend away.

Ben said: ‘I knew it was something that she liked and I thought it would be unique.

‘So I got in touch with Marc and it’s been a few months in the making as he did all of the creative side of it.

‘I had “will you marry me” translated into Welsh too.’

Marc said it took him three hours to draw the design on the sand.

He added: ‘I started doing it when the tide was out at about 11am and finished at 2pm.

‘There was lots of running around but it’s been a perfect day.’

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You’ve cleared out your clutter, folded your underwear, and emptied your inbox – now it might be time to apply the KonMari Method to your dating life.

According to Plenty of Fish, Kondo-ing is the new dating trend we all need to be aware of.

It’s a simple concept. Just as Marie Kondo recommends that you ditch any object that doesn’t ‘spark joy’ as a way to tidy your home, Kondo-ing means dumping anyone who isn’t bringing joy into your romantic life.

So, that situationship you’re in with someone who won’t commit, but expects you not to date anyone else? Doesn’t sound very joyful to us. Bin it.

That guy who makes you feel rubbish about yourself every time you chat for longer than 10 minutes? Dump him.

Now, in theory, this sounds pretty splendid. But just as with any other approach to neatening up your life, it can be taken too far.

Plenty of Fish warns that some people will adopt Kondo-ing in the wrong way, seeing any moment that isn’t joyful as a sign they should ghost their partner without warning.

Relationships should make you happy, of course, but it’s unreasonable to expect non-stop joy day in, day out. Long-term relationships are in part about being there for each other during the tough moments – bailing at the first hint of a low mood doesn’t sound particularly kind.

There’s also the question of how you dump those who don’t spark joy.

Unlike your old university essays and a T-shirt you’ve never worn, people can’t just be left at the charity shop – they’ll likely demand some kind of explanation for why they’re being dumped, and they deserve better treatment than bits of unnecessary junk from your attic.

Ghosting might be okay if you’re casually dating or realised they don’t spark joy a few weeks in, but if your Kondo-ing leads to the end of something more serious, it’s not fair to just cut and run.

Kondo-ing isn’t the only trend the dating site says to watch out for.

Plenty of Fish has termed five other dating behaviours: Hinch-ing, Brexit-ing, Easter ex-hunting, daffa-dilling, and blossoming.

Hinching is apparently using cleaning influencer Mrs Hinch as inspiration to turn your partner into a domestic hero, Brexiting is when a partner threatens to leave the relationship but then renegotiates the terms and stays together at the last minute, and Easter ex-hunting is messaging a past flame so you have someone to spend a Bank Holiday with.

Daffa-dilling describes the phenomenon of an old flame popping back up into your life at the same time every year, while blossoming is when a couple stays together through cuffing season then emerges in Spring as a fully-formed relationship. Sweet.

Dating is complicated.

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Last week we told you about claims that PrettyLittleThing were selling Fruit of the Loom joggers after removing the label and stitching in a new one.

Now Topman have been accused of the same thing.

A woman tweeted her complaint to Pretty Little Thing including a picture of the seam of the trousers, which showed the PLT label on one side and what looks like the remnants of a Fruit of the Loom label on the other.

@katiewaddielove said that the Fruit of the Loom joggers retail from between £6 – £12, but says PLT were selling the same pair for £20.

In the replies to this original tweet, another man has now accused Topman of replacing the labels in the same way.

Alex Hughes unpicked the label of his Topman joggers and noticed some suspicious stitching underneath. He wrote: ‘@Topman do it too!’

However the original details on the label cannot be seen.

@Topman do it too! pic.twitter.com/06ZJffFA1H

— alex hughes (@alexhughesss) March 21, 2019

Other people jumped in to say they had seen similar things on their own items of clothing.

Byrony Flaherty added: ‘Same on my joggers, you can see where the old label is cut off and where they’ve stitched their label over the top *how bad, not gonna be shopping on pretty little thing anymore!’

The original complainant later added to her comment on Twitter: ‘And to people replying saying “it’s business” or “most brands do this,” YES but usually they’ll add their own logos or designs.

‘Whereas PLT here have not only done a sloppy job removing the original labels but also not altered the product in any way to justify the > 100% profits made!’

Both PrettyLittleThing and Topman have been approached for comment but are yet to respond.

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When you’re new to London, finding a place to live can be tough.

What area should you be looking at? How long is a reasonable commute? How much should you be paying?

To help ease the confusion and mystery around renting in London, our weekly series, What I Rent, provides an honest look at how people are renting in the city.

We nose around people’s rented properties to see what they get for what they’re paying, to give us all a better sense of what’s normal and what’s a rip-off.

Plus, we like looking at people’s stuff. That’s always interesting.

This week we’re chatting to 21-year-old freelance illustrator and personal assistant Phebe, who moved to London in August.

Hey Phebe! How much do you pay to live here?

I pay £1,200 per month for rent.

Not much at all in bills, it changes monthly but no more than £100.

And what do you get for that?

A one-bedroom flat with a kitchen and living area and one bathroom.

How did you find the flat?

I’ve been here since October. It wasn’t actually being advertised when I saw it. I asked an estate agent to select a few properties for me and this was one of them.

Do you like the area?

I live in Raynes Park. I love it around here, as I work in central London every day it’s nice to come home to somewhere quiet and residential.

And are you happy where you live?

I honestly love it. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to live in a flat on my own in London. It isn’t something I will continue to do as its obviously pretty pricey.

How have you made your flat feel like home?

Well, as you can see, I have a lot of stuff. Little bits of me in every nook and cranny. Even at uni I always filled my room to the brim with stuff. Some might call it tacky but I love it.

Also I love having photos everywhere, I think a home isn’t a home without photos of your loved ones!

Are there any issues with the flat?

It can be really really noisy but I’m getting used to it. Everything else is great.

Do you have plans to move again?

Yeah I’ll move when its my break clause, I want to move somewhere a little more central – Clapham South, Balham etc. Obviously sticking to South West!

I’ve already got plans to move in with my childhood bestie. Can’t wait.

And what about buying a place?

Haha, no. I doubt I will ever buy in London.

We relate. Shall we have a look around Phebe’s flat?

What I Rent is a weekly series that’s out every Tuesday at 10am. Check back next week to have a nose around another rented property in London.

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Air Max Day is the trainer-lover’s Christmas Day.

A celebration of all things Air Max, Nike’s classic shoe. But with such an extensive Air Max family it can be damn-near impossible to choose your favourite design.

Keep it sleek and simple with Air Max 90 or go futuristic with the bouncy new Air Max 720? The choices seem endless.

But new figures from JD Sports can reveal which model of the Air Max is the most popular in the UK.

The nationwide survey revealed that it’s actually a tie.

The Air Vapormax and the Air Max 97 came in joint first place, with an equal share of popularity, followed by last years addition to the Air Max family, the Air Max 270.

Researchers went on to break it down by region, discovering that the Air Max 720 is the most sought after in London, whilst it’s recent predecessors, the Air Vapormax and the Air Max 270 proved to be more popular in the North West than any other region in England.

The shoe that started it all, the Air Max 1, is most popular in North East Scotland whilst the Air Max 97 is most popular in mid Scotland and Fife.

The Air Vapormax proves to be the chosen shoe of North Wales with South Wales opting for the ever popular Air Max 97.

So which ones will you go for? Air Max Day is the perfect opportunity to rock your favourite Nikes, now you can decide whether to go with the popular choice or buck the trend.

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When you think of an engagement ring, you probably think of a big, sparkly diamond.

Or, if you’re more budget-conscious, you ponder on the possibility of buying a Poundland ring, for – you guessed it – £1.

For some, the ubiquity of diamond engagement rings has made those massive rocks feel a tad overdone. A new trend is perfect for those bored of diamonds being the go-to option: birthstone engagement rings.

According to Etsy’s 2019 trend report, birthstone engagement rings are due to be the next big thing in weddings.

As a February baby, I’m here for it (who doesn’t love amethyst?).

The trend is an easy way to make an engagement ring feel more personal, it steers you away from getting the same ring as every other bride, and it’s likely to be a chunk cheaper than trying to buy the biggest diamond you can.

Etsy’s trend expert Dayna Isom Johnson said: ‘One emerging trend in non-diamond engagement rings is incorporating birthstones. On Etsy, we’ve seen 34K searches for ‘birthstone engagement rings’ in the last three months, and I predict the trend will continue to grow.

‘2019 is going to be all about putting a twist on traditional styles.

‘For generations, the diamond has been the ultimate stone for proposing, but today’s bride isn’t tied to the norm — she wants to express her personal style and choose a ring that reflects her personality — which is why in the new year, other gemstones will become go-to staples for engagement rings.’

Before you go charging off to update your wedding Pinterest or search for a colourful gem for your partner, you should probably get to know the birthstone for each month. So, which one is yours?

Some caveats on that list, though.

A few months have multiple birthstones, and sadly there’s no official governing body to say which one is the correct birthstone for that month (the list above has the most popular rulings).

December, for example, lists turquoise, zircon, and tanzanite as its birthstones, while along with pearl June has alexandrite.

There’s good news there if you look for it – December and June babies have multiple options to choose from.

Those with April birthdays, however, will have to make do with boring old diamonds. How sad.

There’s something else to consider before you go all out on the birthstone trend: the Moh’s hardness scale.

Diamonds aren’t just used for engagement rings because they’re pretty, but because the stone is hard, tough, and thus resistent to scratches or other damage. It scores a 10 on the Moh’s hardness scale, the official measure for how easily you can scratch a gem with a harder substance.

The general consensus is that a score of 7.5 or above makes a stone suitable for an engagement ring, as you want something that will stand up for daily wear.

Unfortunately, some birthstones don’t meet that mark.

Garnet, amethyst, and peridot are all between a 6.5-7.5, meaning they’re not ideal but will work as engagement rings as long as you’re gently with them.

Ruby (nine), sapphire (eight), and aquamarine (eight), and topaz (eight) are good choices.

Apologies to those with a birthday in June, as pearls are absolutely not suited for engagement rings, with a hardness score of just 2.5. The same goes for October kids, as opals have a score of six.

Our advice? Don’t get too stuck on birthstones. You don’t have to go for an emerald if you don’t like green but happen to have been born in May.

Instead, let this trend open up the world of possibilities. Just as you’re not tied to your birthstone, you don’t have to be tied to a diamond when it comes to an engagement ring. You don’t even have to have a stone at all, if you’re not keen. Have whatever you like – it’s your ring.

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We’ve seen a lot of mother daughter duos who claim they look so alike people think they’re sisters.

A lot of the time, these pairs don’t actually look that much alike, and it’s pretty easy to see who’s the mum and who’s the daughter.

That’s not the case with Andrea Malczewski, 34, and her mum Sharon Malczewski, 57.

They say they’re often mistaken for sisters, and this time, we believe them.

Mum of two Andrea says she has to regularly explain to people that Sharon is her mum, not her sibling.

Sharon credits her youthful looks to regular exercise, a good sense of style, and always wearing sunblock. They also both work as hair stylists, so their manes look pretty great too.

Andrea, who lives in Hawaii, US, said: ‘My mum and I are super close, and even though we live apart we still manage to catch up every day.

‘It is pretty funny when people ask “are you two sisters?”

‘But it’s no surprise because my mum looks more like she is in her thirties than nearly 60.

‘People are always complimenting my mum and saying how awesome she is, it’s good that she looks after herself and keeps super fit for her age.

‘She often asks for my advice when shopping, we tend to wear similar things, but she will never buy anything that would make her look like she is trying to be young.

‘My mum loves to wear skin tight midi dresses but would never wear a mini one like I do.’

The mum and daughter are super close despite their geographical distance and 23 year age gap, having run four marathons together and nine half marathons.

‘I grew up watching my mum being a hairdresser so I decided to follow her footsteps,’ says Andrea.

‘We both can’t trust anyone else to do our hair, so we only go to each other, even if it does mean a five and a half hour flight as I live in Hawaii and she lives in Washington.

‘She has been my hairstylists since birth, running partner and the listening ear that I can call anytime of the day or night.

‘She is my go-to-girl if I ever need anything as I am with her, I think I definitely help keep her young.’

Sweet, right?

Sharon, who also has a son called Jason, 32, and two grandchildren, says she loves being glamorous.

‘I love going shopping with Andrea as she will give me an honest opinion and help me find something nice, we like to match as much as we can,’ says Sharon.

I live a very healthy lifestyle by running each week and eating healthily, but I do love a bit of chocolate.

‘My husband Rob says I look better now than I did when I married him 37 years ago.

‘I have always been into makeup but Andrea keeps me up to date with what products are best and I always moisturise and wear sunscreen.’

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Rose Strong-Ramsey is a ‘proud mother’ of 80 goats.

She grew up on her family’s farm in the remote town of Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia and when she got older, she took on the family’s goat dairy business.

So when it came to getting married, Rose knew she wanted to include goats in her big day.

The 37-year-old decided to have eight-year-old white goat Lilly as her ring bearer when she married Dale Ramsey, 41.

Rose said: ‘I had my very first goat was when I was just three years old. I fell in love and I haven’t looked back since.

‘I get very attached to them, they are like my children.

‘I had Lilly ever since she was born. I bottle fed her, so I think that’s when our bond started.

‘Lilly is very affectionate. When I call her, she will answer back with a little bleat.

‘She will come up and rub her head on me asking for a pat and a scratch. I’ve also taught her to shake hands on command.

‘It’s funny as we do have pet dogs which I love, but I actually spend more time with the Lilly.

‘She is more of a pet to me than the dogs and I feel closer to her.

‘I was over the moon when Dale proposed and got to planning straight away.

‘All my friends asked me whether it would be goat-themed, because they all know my love for them.

‘But I knew I didn’t want goat invitations or decorations. That just felt tacky to me.

‘Then I saw this video online about a dog ring-bearer, it was the cutest thing, and suddenly I realised maybe Lilly could be my ring bearer.

‘I knew that would be unique and special to me. She is just an important part of my life it just made sense.’

Rose wanted Lilly to look her best on the big day so she dressed her up in a dainty white sash and a dazzling tiara.

Rose said: ‘She looked so beautiful that she nearly upstaged me.

‘I made her a lovely sash that tied under her belly with some diamonte gems to glam in up, so the rings would be tied on the side.

‘Then I made a tiara for her, with some elastic around her little head to keep it in place. She had no issues with it at all.

‘She looked so elegant and regal. You can see she was very pleased with herself.

‘I had one of my bridesmaids walk her up the aisle. I didn’t tell anyone as I wanted to keep it a surprise.

‘Everyone started laughing. They absolutely loved it.

‘I am so incredibly proud of her. She did everything perfectly.’

And while some brides might have their doubts about appointing a goat to play such an important role in their wedding, Rose said Lilly performed beautifully and added that her presence made her special day even more memorable.

She said: ‘Having Lilly as my ring bearer was really the icing on top of the cake. It was so perfect.

‘The top two compliments I got on my wedding day was how much they loved my dress and how much they loved Lilly the goat.

‘Lilly has been so lovely and so good to me over the years, I wanted to show her how much she means to me by having her in my wedding.

‘I couldn’t stop laughing and smiling all day. I wouldn’t do anything differently.

‘My entire wedding was magical, and I’ll never forget it.’

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You can now buy Mother’s Day cards specifically for parents who have given up alcohol.

For some, this will be a welcome contrast to many of the cards in the Mother’s Day section, which play into ‘mummy drinking’ culture with messages about mothers loving glasses of wine, prosecco or gin.

We Are In Good Company is a brand selling cards celebrating sobriety and it now offers Mother’s Day cards that don’t feel the need to celebrate excessive boozing among parents.

It’s run by Lucy Wilkins and Sara Bender, both of whom want to tackle what they see as dangerous messages about booze on greeting cards.

Lucy, 43, gave up her nightly glass of wine a year ago and says she’s become far happier and more successful.

When her daughters Mia, eight, and Ella, six, asked if they could design her a card for Mother’s Day, to thank her for giving up alcohol, Lucy was delighted.

The cards they made served as inspiration for We Are In Good Company’s Mother’s Day range.

One card says: ‘Mum. The best things about you…your happy smile. Hugs that make it all ok. Your honest advice. Being sober (This is my favourite). Happy Mother’s Day.’

Another reads: ‘Mum. Thank you for begging me to do my homework. Supporting my bad choices. Showing me how to be human. But most of all being sober. Happy Mother’s Day.’

‘As a mum, I found myself fully immersed in ‘mummy wine culture’,’ said Lucy.

‘I didn’t want my kids to think up drinking wine as a way to de-stress from a hard day was normal.

‘I could feel I was rushing bedtime because I wanted to go downstairs and have a glass of wine.

‘The reason I think wine has become entrenched in motherhood is that it’s an easy way to go from being a stressed mum to a relaxed one. It’s like time travel. And the culture encourages you to have a glass of wine.

‘But it’s such a dangerous message.’

Lucy and Sara set up their card brand back in December 2017, after noticing a gap in the market when trying to find a card to celebrate a loved one’s 100th day sober.

‘I went to the high street and couldn’t find anything,’ says Lucy.

‘I ended up making my own card and I thought there must be more people out there who needed these cards.

‘After that, the penny dropped and I couldn’t end up going to the card shop without getting massively incensed.’

Lucy approached former colleague Sara and soon, the business was off, selling 28 cards celebrating milestones such as sobriety anniversaries and numbers of days without alcohol.

One of the company’s best-selling cards says: ‘You’re in good company. Brad Pitt, Bradley Cooper and Tom Hardy are all sober…and as sexy as hell.’

A birthday card says: #It’s your birthday! Let’s go crazy and celebrate with anything non-alcoholic. And be home in bed by 10pm.’

Sara, who practices mindful drinking, says she wants the cards to show sober people that they are worth celebration.

‘Choosing to be alcohol-free doesn’t mean you’ve signed up to be anonymous, unseen or boring,’ she says.

‘Being sober, whatever the reason, deserves recognition and tailored products that make you feel included, that you’re not an afterthought.

‘Our cards support, encourage and celebrate the choice to be alcohol-free.

‘I think there are two types of cards available in the shops. You see one that says ‘Cheers’ on it with a picture of a champagne bottle, that’s fine.

‘That’s not going to nudge anyone in the wrong direction or promote alcohol as an acceptable saviour to life’s problems.

‘But there is this huge gap in acceptable messaging.

‘In advertising – with the ASA – you can’t say that people should get wasted so why is it okay on cards?

‘It’s fine to say that people should enjoy a drink but it’s extreme to say that people should get trashed.’

Lucy adds: ‘Society just normalises that alcohol is a really powerful drug that its okay to enjoy to excess.

‘Actually for a lot of people it isn’t.

‘We wanted to design the cards that are full of humour and bright and colourful.

‘We wanted to dispel the myth that sober is boring when actually it is fun and vibrant.’

Lucy and Sara are now working to get their cards available on the high street, but for now you can order their cards online.

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‘What are you thinking?’ my fiancée asked.

We were walking back from the shops on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. The kind where you spend a day caught between doing something and nothing, often spending hours browsing and reading Netflix synopses, but never making full-scale commitment to anything in particular.

Inevitably, silences fall over the course of such days, and in those lulls this question is a useful way back into more discussions of what to watch, or eat, where to visit, hopes, dreams, wants.

‘What are you thinking?’

I realised I’d never, in my life, been asked it by a man.

There was, perhaps, the odd occasion a therapist might have asked me in sessions I had some 15 years ago but, in fairness, it’s exactly the thing I was paying him to ask me. I usually avoided it, improvising ever more verbose dances around describing exactly what I was thinking.

It can be a strange experience, therapy. I paid to tell someone my deepest fears, worries and shames. Yet while they beat around my head I said anything but what I was thinking, as the clock ran down. It’s a bit like getting golf lessons but steadfastly refusing to pick up a club.

It’s not uncommon for a male friend to say, ‘We’re heading to the pub about 5pm… what are you thinking?’. But it seems solely in the realm of intimate relationships that this question crops up.

‘What are you thinking?’

Not often am I intentionally thinking about anything. My mind might float through a place, a memory, an argument, address parliament, visualise a perfect pub, imagine worst-case scenarios, dream of best-case ones.

I might just be experiencing a kind of dread; leaking plumbing while I’m out of the house, for instance, without so much as a pipe ever entering my mind. Just the sensation of dread, anxiety. But you can’t say that to your partner, can you?

‘What are you thinking?’

‘Umm… dread really… but not a specific dread… just the vague sense of dread… burst pipe level… nothing too serious… but not specifically pipes you understand… In fact I haven’t imagined a pipe at all… I was just experiencing that level of dread… not a catastrophic flood, or damage to anything other than the carpet… sort of minor level pipe-dread… just without the pipes.’

But I wasn’t really thinking about dread. This time anyway.

I was thinking about T.S Eliot’s early life, and how, potentially as an exile or immigrant voice, there could be an argument that The Waste Land is actually a poem about London.

And there’s that slight pause, the gap after the question where you suddenly become conscious of what you’re thinking.

You have time to assess how suitable it would be to share and, if it’s that recurring nightmare fantasy about being wrongly identified by vigilante paedophile hunters and live streamed on Facebook in a car park, then best keep it in the old mind palace, and enter into the realm of topics that might please the questioner, impress them, or be so mundane as to throw them off the scent all together.

I’d say you’ve got a solid four seconds to make your play.

Everyone who has ever been in a relationship they’re not happy in has experienced that moment. Those four seconds after your partner says, ‘What are you thinking?’ and the first act is to resist screaming, ‘I’M NOT HAPPY!’ or, ‘HOW CAN YOU EVEN ASK THAT YOU MUST KNOW, SURELY YOU MUST KNOW BY NOW I’D RATHER DRIVE A SPIKE INTO MY FOREHEAD THAN GO ON LIKE THIS!’

Once that’s swallowed down you move into the tricky areas of lying. Do you lay the groundwork for a serious conversation? Do you completely change the topic? Or do you completely cop out… ‘Nothing really… just thinking’. Before becoming consumed by anger because you know they know what you’re thinking and if they want you to say it then they should just be brave enough to say it for you so you don’t have to! Awful, awful business.

Alas, I’m perfectly happy in my relationship, I’d go as far as to say I was blissful, euphoric even. But that didn’t stop the muscle memory and dark exchanges from the past racing through my mind. It was perhaps a little odd not to feel I had to hide my thoughts.

I checked myself.

What to say?

Perhaps a great opportunity to further impress her.

‘I was thinking about T.S Eliot’s early life, and how, potentially as an exile or immigrant voice, there could be an argument that The Waste Land is actually a poem about London.

‘Its fragmentary verses and voices mirror London’s fragmentary districts. In the same way that in London, high and low culture, upper and working class, the divine and the debauched sit merely streets away, so too they sit mere lines away from each other in the poem.

‘Perhaps The Waste Land would seem less complex if we experienced it as a walk from London Bridge, through Soho, to King’s Cross!’

That would be a very impressive thing to say. I kind of wish I’d said it at university come to think of it, as opposed to convincing the barman to sell me wine after hours and drink it in my room writing an email to a girl I fancied, before, with regret, sending it.

I could use this opportunity to further deepen her happiness.

‘I was thinking that, actually, if we do move in together and you want a dog… I mean really, really want one… If that would make you happy… to have one of those puppies like you showed me on Instagram and have it shit everywhere, and to literally spend the next 10 years picking up actual shit with your actual hands every day and have the f*cking thing barking all the goddamn time.’

NO NO NO NO NO. Can’t do it. Cannot. Say. Those. Words.

All of this is happening in split seconds you understand, this positioning and bargaining with myself. And it dawns on me that actually I don’t have any reason to deflect the question, or to impress her, or to commit to having a bloody dog. I can just be honest, with no fear. And so I was.

‘What are you thinking?’ she asked.

‘I’m thinking about trench warfare,’ I replied.

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A woman who suffered a massive stroke caused by yoga bravely got back on her mat just one month later.

40-year-old Rebecca Leigh was performing a yogic headstand when she tore a major blood vessel in her neck.

Just two hours before the life-altering injury she had filmed an advanced sequence in a pink bikini for her 26,000 social media fans.

Today she cannot speak for more than a few minutes, suffers headaches daily and has severe memory loss.

But just one month after the devastating episode, Rebecca, of Gambrills, Maryland, USA, was back on her mat and still practices the exercise for an hour every day.

She is now telling her story to raise awareness of yoga-induced strokes, so other people can spot the symptoms and seek medical help quickly.

‘After decades of focusing on working out and my diet and making as many healthy decisions as I could for my body, having a stroke by doing yoga just didn’t seem fair,’ she said.

‘But I had to get back out there and do the things that made me happy and one of those things was obviously my yoga practice.’

Rebecca, who ran a mobile sunless tanning company, tore her right carotid artery in a ‘hollowback’ handstand on the morning of October 8, 2017.

She said: ‘I was on my front porch practicing a pretty intense type of yoga handstand called a ‘hollowback’ handstand.

‘This pose requires you to extend your neck, drop your hips back and arch your lower spine all while in a headstand.

‘I felt that I had really nailed it but as I walked inside my house, my peripheral vision went out and the rest of my vision became blurry.

‘It was like a curtain coming down all around me.

‘I sat down and tried to put my hair into a ponytail but my left arm flopped around without any control.’

At first Rebecca attributed the symptoms to the severely herniated discs in her neck which she had been diagnosed with in her early twenties.

She said: ‘I knew that arm numbness could be a symptom of that.

‘It only lasted for five minutes but then my head began to hurt.

‘I have suffered from headaches and migraines since I was a teenager but I knew this was different.’

Two days later, Rebecca was horrified to notice that her pupils were different sizes.

‘My right eye drooped and my pupils were different sizes,’ she said.

‘It was terrifying.

‘It was then that I knew something was very, very wrong.’

Rebecca and husband Kevin, 45, who works in federal law enforcement, immediately went to the emergency room where an MRI scan revealed Rebecca had suffered a stroke.

She said: ‘The doctor on staff came into the little room we were waiting in and said in a monotone voice: “Well, you, my dear, had a stroke”.

‘Kevin and I both let out a little laugh, because we thought he had to be kidding.

‘There was no way that someone my age, in my health, could have had a stroke.

‘But he responded to our laughter in solemn silence and his face said it all.’

She spent the next five days in the neurological intensive care unit as doctors battled to understand why an active, healthy eating, non smoker aged 39 could have suffered a stroke.

‘After all the blood work, ultrasounds, MRIs and CT scans, it was finally a CTA scan that explained it,’ she said.

While doing handstands Rebecca had torn her right carotid artery, one of the four arteries that supplies blood to the brain.

The tear sent a blood clot to her brain which caused the stroke and the trauma of the tear in the wall of the artery also caused a small aneurysm, a bulge in the vessel, to develop.

At first Rebecca felt fury and disbelief that something as healthy as yoga could have triggered a stroke.

She said: ‘I couldn’t believe it. How could this happen to me?

‘I was angry at my body, I felt that it had betrayed me somehow.’

For six weeks, Rebecca endured terrible pain with constant headaches which made any kind of light unbearable.

She lost 20lbs and couldn’t get out of bed without help.

‘The stroke caused massive head pain, unlike any headache I had ever experienced before,’ she said.

‘I couldn’t shower without help, wash my hair, feed myself, or take my pile of scary and unfamiliar, life-saving medications.

‘The nerve damage made any sort of light unbearable.

‘The pain it caused my eyes was excruciating. My usually bright, sunlight-filled house was kept completely dark for the first few months.

‘The tear in the artery caused my blood flow to be turbulent.

‘For the first three months I heard a constant ‘wooshing’ sound in my right ear. That was the sound of the blood trying to get through my artery up into my brain.

‘It was absolutely terrifying.’

But slowly she began to notice improvement and was able to take short walks outside by herself.

‘Eventually I was able to shower with my husband nearby,’ she said.

‘I slowly started to take two to three-minute walks outside.

‘I started to make simple meals for myself and I was able to sit up in bed to watch TV.

‘These small accomplishments felt huge to me.

‘Each week I made it through felt like a milestone.

‘Simply surviving was an achievement.’

Incredibly, just one month after the stroke, Rebecca was back on her yoga mat.

She said: ‘I simply sat on my mat in lotus pose and listened to my breath.

‘I slowly led back up to simple stretches and the poses that felt most safe to me.

‘I knew that if I didn’t get back to my practice relatively soon after my stroke, I never would.

‘I would have freaked myself out too much about it.’

At Rebecca’s six-month scan, doctors told her that her carotid artery had completely healed.

The aneurysm however was still there and Rebecca feels the effects daily.

She said: ‘The immediate arm numbness that I experienced during the stroke went away that day, but in its place is a nearly constant tingly sensation.

‘It’s like a wave of electricity is going back and forth from my elbow to my hand and back over and over again.

‘I am still dealing with some sort of headache, face or neck pain on a daily basis.

‘The carotid artery apparently houses a bundle of nerves and when it was torn, those nerves were damaged.

‘My face physically hurts and gets worse just by talking for a few minutes or having a busy day.

‘My eye is still a bit droopy and my memory is awful.

‘I forget things quickly. I have to ask people to remind me of things they’ve already told me, something I never had to do prior to my injury.

‘I fatigue much quicker than I did before. It doesn’t take more than a trip to the grocery store to count me out for the rest of the day.’

Though she is doing much better now, Rebecca lives with the fear that the stroke could strike again.

She said: ‘It’s very hard to recover from something so scary that came out of nowhere.

‘You think you’re doing everything right and then when something like this happens, it’s hard not to think that it can happen again.’

But she is happy to be back on her mat, practicing sun salutations.

She said: ‘About a year after my stroke I was about 75% back to where I was before my stroke.

‘I know I will never be where I was before 100 per cent.

‘The fact that I can touch my toes is enough to make me smile.

‘I wanted to share my story so that something like this doesn’t happen to any other yogis.

‘I had never heard of it happening before it had happened to me.

‘If I had read of just one incidence of something similar, I would have known that a stroke was a very real possibility when I was experiencing my symptoms.

‘That it wasn’t my neck, my herniated discs or my nerves. It was my brain gasping for its life.’

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Despite it not being totally surprising that disabled people still experience discrimination, it’s still shocking that in 2019 it’s so blatant.

Journalist Lucy Webster documented her experience of a night out in London, exposing just how inaccessible and discriminatory many people and venues are.

Her Twitter thread on the subject starts at a bar where (despite the lift to the dance floor being broken) things go relatively well.

When Lucy and her friends decide to go on to a club, however, is when things go downhill.

Lucy searched online for an accessible club, finding one nearby to where they were. When they got to the door, though, the staff refused to let her in.

Initially, the bouncer told the group that – although people were still being let in and there were no physical access issues – they couldn’t come in because it was too busy and it was for Lucy’s safety.

This is where it starts to get odd. The bouncer informs me that the physical access is fine, but the club is busy and he just wants to "keep me safe". I'm used to busy,. I say, I live in London, and anyway, I can look after myself. They're still letting other people in

— Lucy Webster (@Lucy_Webster_) March 25, 2019

A second bouncer then got involved with a second reasoning that the music is ‘too rowdy’ for Lucy to enter the club.

After a back and forth, Lucy decided to leave the club and get food with her friends, opting for a KFC before going home instead.

Let me just say that again. @Aquum wouldn't let me in in my wheelchair because they decided the music wasn't suitable for me. It is 2019.

— Lucy Webster (@Lucy_Webster_) March 25, 2019

They knew the chicken shop wasn’t wheelchair accessible, so Lucy’s friends went inside in ordered while she waited.

Drunk passers-by laughed at her and one even tried to spin her wheelchair, leaving Lucy in tears on the taxi home.

KFC is of course not accessible, so I wait outside and my mates go in. But I am a magnet for drunk people. I am pointed at, laughed at. A man asks if he can spin my chair. I am done. I shed some tears in the taxi. I eat a lot of chicken

— Lucy Webster (@Lucy_Webster_) March 25, 2019

A colleague of Lucy’s at the BBC contacted the club in question, who offered their apologies and promised to retrain their third party staff.

Apologies and promises to change are always welcome, but this situation should never have happened in the first place.

Accessibility undoubtedly needs to improve – but attitudes from staff and the general public even more so.

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Purple Day, which falls on 26 March every year, might not be one of the most well-known days in the calendar, but it represents one of the most common neurological disorders.

Epilepsy effects roughly 50 million people across the world today, but it is believed that around the cause is unknown for around 50% of the cases.

Purple Day is a relatively new occasion which came about to try and raise awareness of epilepsy which, despite its prevalence, still isn’t talked about enough as it should be in many parts of the world.

The annual event encourages people to wear purple and host their own events to promote awareness and help support research into the disorder.

So, to mark Purple Day, here’s everything you need to know about why and how it started, as well as some facts about epilepsy and how to support those with the condition.

What is Purple Day?

Purple Day was created by a nine-year-old Canadian girl called Cassidy Megan in 2008.

Cassidy was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was seven, and she started the day with a view to globally raising awareness of the condition, and to break down whatever taboos there may be concerning it.

The first Purple Day event was held with the aid of the Epilepsy Association of Nova Scotia in 2008, and on that day, people were encouraged to show their support by wearing purple.

Now, Purple Day is marked in over 100 countries all across the world, with people holding fundraising events and donning the fabulous royal colour.

Purple was chosen to be the symbol of the day because of the relaxing effect that lavender has on the central nervous system.

It’s not too late to show your support for Purple Day either – you can still donate to the Epilepsy Society, and host fundraising events all year round.

Some facts about epilepsy…

According to purpleday.org, it’s thought that 1 in 100 people all over the world have epilepsy, and in 50% of these cases, the cause of a person’s epilepsy is not known.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that effects the central nervous system, and results in recurrent seizures.

Seizures can take multiple forms, with signs of a seizure including but not limited to, odd sensations, convulsions, a blank stare, uncontrollable movements, muscle spasms, and altered awareness.

Even though epilepsy most commonly shows itself in childhood or in old age, a person can become epileptic at any age – which makes it even more important that both funds and awareness are raised to aid the condition.

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A child with a splinter is not fun for anyone.

There’s the tears and the screams followed by hours of fruitless attempts to remove the pesky shard. Tweezers, warm water, sucking – we have tried the lot.

But one mum has discovered an ingenious hack for removing splinters, fragments of glass and even bee stings from her children’s skin – and it’s so simple.

The woman, who lives in Australia, explained on Facebook how she uses the syringe that comes in boxes of children’s Nurofen to remove all kinds of stings and splinters.

‘If you have ever bought Nurofen for kids before, you would know it comes with this little thing to measure/administer the liquid medicine,’ she wrote.

‘Simply place the outer tube hole over the wound site, press firmly against the skin, then pull the inside orange tube out really quickly.’

She lauded the technique as ‘quick’ and ‘painless’ and it definitely sounds better than trying to dig around looking for a splinter with tweezers.

‘The vacuum in the tube should extract the offending item,’ she explained, adding that parents should definitely add one of these syringes to their first aid kits.

The post has amassed more than 11,000 likes in the parenting group on Facebook. One user replied: ‘Such a great idea.

‘Kids panic if you go near them with needles and tweezers to get those things out.’

Apparently the same technique can also be used on blackheads – which is something we are definitely keen to test out.

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If your luggage has ever gone missing after a flight, it can be pretty annoying.

You might face wearing the same pair of pants for a few days. But spare a thought for this guy.

Peter Messervy-Gross flew from Heathrow to Mongolia for a four-day-long, 100 mile ultra marathon across snow and ice.

Peter, 47, from Jersey, landed safely in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, but unfortunately, his bags did not.

The dad-of-three was initially told that his bags would turn up in time for the race two days later but as the day approached, he still didn’t have his kit.

He said: ‘When we arrived in Mongolia there were five bags missing – my large holdall and four other people’s bags.

‘It was absolute carnage trying to find out where they were, but everyone seemed pretty confident they would turn up, so I wasn’t worried.

‘At that point, we had two days until race day but the Rat Race founder Jim, suggested I buy some running shoes just in case.’

Facing the race with nothing but the clothes he arrived in, he did get some extra thermals but he wasn’t able to find any shoes to fit his size 13 feet. The largest size he found was a size 11.

Wearing his jeans, brogues, a hoody and a light puffer jacket, Peter and his fellow adventurers then took a two-hour bus ride to camp.

But Peter, an information officer for a global administration firm, said he was ‘gutted’ when he realised his bag would not be arriving.

Peter – originally from Auckland, New Zealand, said: ‘It was a heartbreaking moment for me, very gutting because you can’t really run 100 miles across a frozen lake in brogues.

‘I spent that night in camp in a duvet but it was freezing.

‘Jim sorted me out with some expedition rations and an emergency survival bag.

‘I had a toothbrush on me but no deodorant, toilet roll, soap or wipes.

‘People were amazing, offering up stuff for me to use, which was incredible because it meant by giving things to me, they were worse off.

‘My friend Marcus gave me another set of thermals, another guy gave me some socks, someone else handed me a balaclava – I was a walking charity shop.’

His fellow runners tried to help him out where they could but without any other shoes, he was forced to clamber across the ice in his leather brogues he usually wears for work.

He suffered agonising blisters but still managed to complete the race, organised by UK firm Rat Race Adventure Sports across the Khovsgol Nuur lake, in four days.

Peter added: ‘When you run a race like that your feet swell because you’re on them for so long – I literally became too big for my boots.

‘It did get pretty uncomfortable, my feet blistered really badly and especially on my little toes, which was quite painful.

‘One of the guys there had a pair of giant Mongolian fur boots that the locals wear.

‘I wouldn’t have been able to walk long distances in them, but I parked them at the first stage so that I could pull out of the race if I needed to and put them on.

‘But I just wanted to keep plodding along – I couldn’t really feel the cold in my feet during the day, it was more discomfort than anything else.’

And his bag did eventually turn up – 15 minutes before check-in for his return home.

He said: ‘I never found out what happened to my bag, but after I told my family was happened they were all so proud of me for carrying on. I’m so glad I stuck it out.

‘My shoes held up surprisingly well – I’m just a bit allergic to putting the things on now.’

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