Tucked away among the Yorkshire Pennines you’ll find the Titanic Spa, a leading eco-friendly retreat.

Taking a break from the city doesn’t always have to involve a flight across the Atlantic and it can have everything to do with making an environmentally-friendly choice. It’s also the perfect seasonal gift.

But can you really take a trip to the spa without the environmental guilt?

The short answer: yes.

Titanic Spa sources all its own power to provide its relaxing luxuries, including the heat the sauna and steam room, the water used to fill hot tubs and swimming pools and of course the huge number of towels that need to be laundered every year.

Opened since 2005, Titanic Spa is an award-winning eco spa that prides itself on focusing on not only the wellness of the environment but that of the people that walk through its doors.

The location, a historic 20th Century textile mill, is definitely one to write home about. It offers chic accommodation in luxury apartments along with a huge list of elite treatments.

Arriving in the countryside by car, following a train journey to Nottingham, the Londoner in me felt somewhat accomplished knowing that our carbon footprint would be heavily reduced that weekend as we charged the Nissan’s new Leaf electric car upon arrival, using the many charging ports available in the car park.

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Feeling pretty pleased with myself I checked into my duplex apartment – paired with a living room, kitchen and two double rooms –  and popped downstairs. The activities soon began just after lunch in the canteen with all the other guests, who were eating comfortably in their grey waffle-style robes.

Food menus there are seasonal with local, organic and fair-trade food sourced where possible and the team also recycles as many materials as they can.

The amount of water used at Titanic Spa’s is evident, with the staff explaining that water is the most prominent feature. But have no fear, it’s all used in an environmentally friendly way.

The haven has its own natural water source, located directly under the old mill, which provides fresh drinking water, water for the plunge pool and water for the swimming pool, showers and ice experience.

From outdoors, guests who might be checking on the batteries of their electric vehicles will notice that the Huddersfield building has solar photovoltaic roof panels that convert light directly into electricity, while the low U value windows eliminate draughts and thermal mass meaning they use less electricity all year round.

Finding out that there was an abundance of treatment and facilities rooms to walk into with my reusable cotton slippers, I struggled to make my first decision.

The Elemis Deeper Than Deep Hot Stone massage did what it said on the tin and left me in a zone of extreme bliss – my masseuse allowed me to nap for 15 minutes after the 55-minute session was over.

Other available treatments include the facials, deep tissue massages, body scrubs and wraps, a private mud chamber, pregnancy treatments, reiki, hopi ear candle and hand and foot treatments.

Still thinking about the hot stones, I continued my nap in my room before taking on the Heat and Ice Experience.

Switching between saunas, ice rooms, crystal steam baths and freezing cold rain showers, I quickly decided on sticking with the warmth and the outdoor jacuzzi over the large indoor pool.

The few lengths I swam in the pool made me sleepy (again) but rather than climbing the stairs to my third-floor apartment I opted on catching a few winks in the relaxation room – which is essentially a large, dark room with gigantic cushions and soothing music. Once down it’s hard to get back up again.

As a Londoner and someone always standing upright on the district line, the naps were very welcomed.

Following the two-course dinner – this time guests dressed up and left their robes in the room – my zen body left me no choice but to call it an early night while watching old reruns of friends in my living room TV.

Breakfast is left in a hamper in your room’s kitchen – a few croissants, fruit and orange juice – and check-out follows soon after.

Reluctant to leave the valleys for the not-so serene London, I tell myself I was able to look after myself while looking after the planet too.

Nissan provided us with their bestselling electric vehicle, the Nissan LEAF, which costs £21,990 including the government grant and has a 168 mile range, for our journey up North. 

Stays at Titanic Spa start from £79 per person for spa days or £129 per person for spa breaks. 

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Just two months after his second anniversary, Eric Lanktree, 25, died in a motorbike accident.

His wife Vanessa, now 29, was devasted.

Eric was her childhood sweetheart and she thought they would have the rest of their lives together.

On their wedding anniversary in 2016, Vanessa found herself putting on her wedding dress to remember their big day and a new tradition was born.

The following year she wore the dress in the yard of the house they had shared and this year, she posed in a sunflower field, with her new boyfriend Kurtis Isbister, 29, snapping the pictures.

Vanessa, of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada, said: ‘It’s my way of celebrating and remembering that special day and keeping Eric’s memory alive.

‘Most people get to go out with their husband for supper or a date night on their anniversary and this is my thing that I get to do without him.

‘I try to do it on our anniversary or as close to it as possible. I will probably do this every year for the rest of my life.’

Vanessa and Eric met at school and soon became high school sweethearts.

She added: ‘We had such an amazing relationship. We met when I was in grade 10 [aged 16] and he was in grade 12 [aged 17].

‘He was my first boyfriend, my first love. Our relationship through the years was so strong because it started so young. I had no doubt about our lives together.’

They got engaged on Christmas Eve 2011 and married in September 2012 in a church ceremony.

Vanessa added: ‘As I walked down the aisle with my dad, Eric was bawling his eyes out.

‘I already knew I wanted to marry him but when I saw him crying, I thought how lucky I was.

‘The best part of our day was being surrounded by our family and friends. At the reception, we did not leave the dance floor. If anyone wanted to see us or talk to us, they had to dance.’

But on 3 November 2014, Eric died in a motorbike accident, while on holiday with friends and his father, Brian Lanktree, 55, in Las Vegas.

Vanessa said: ‘Eric always went down to Vegas for the SEMA car show. That year they decided to rent motorbikes and head down to California. The accident happened on the way back.

‘Eric was an hour outside of Vegas and there was a head-on collision with a truck that took his life. I couldn’t believe it.’

When Brian called Vanessa and told her that Eric had been airlifted to a hospital, she held out hope for her husband’s life.

She said: ‘I thought it would be alright. I kept thinking: ‘He is strong. He is a fighter’. I didn’t realize how severe it was.

‘I was packing my bag to go to Vegas because I thought he’d need to see me when he woke up.

‘When my father-in-law called me and told me that my husband had passed away, I just threw my phone and walked out of the house.’

When the second wedding anniversary without him came around in September 2016, Vanessa found herself putting on her bridal gown.

The dress still had dirt from the dance floor on the bottom and Vanessa put on Keith Urban’s song ‘Making Memories Of Us’, a track which was played at her wedding.

She danced around the kitchen, remembering their special day.

‘Grief doesn’t go away but somehow you find little things to help you cope, like putting on your dress,’ she said.

The next year she put on the dress again and posed for a picture in the yard of her home, a house she and Eric had built together.

In 2018, she took a simple snap of herself in the gown.

This year, she asked Kurtis, an electrician in the oil industry and her boyfriend of 18 months, to take pictures of her in a field of sunflowers.

She explained: ‘It was a little chilly but I love those sunflowers. It felt so fun. I had my rubber boots on and I was running around while Kurtis took photos.

‘I was just being me. Life doesn’t stop and it pushes you forward. We still want to find happiness in our lives. I know Eric wouldn’t want me to be miserable.

‘He was such a happy person. He taught me to look for the best in life.

‘I’m never going to get it cleaned and I am never going to have it boxed up. As long as it fits me, I’ll wear it.’

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In just a few short hours it will be Bonfire Night, aka Guy Fawkes Night, and you know what that means – it’s almost time to wrap up warm, grab your thermos and stand in a chilly field to look at a fireworks display.

This yearly tradition, to mark the failed gunpowder plot orchestrated by Guy Fawkes and 12 other men, sees us braving the wintery elements to watch fireworks and bonfires all over the capital.

With Bonfire Night falling on a Tuesday this year, the Blackheath, Alexandra Palace and Battersea Park events all happened at the weekend.

But that doesn’t mean that there’s no fun left to be had, as there are still fireworks displays to be enjoyed tonight and over the coming weekend…

Wimbledon

Unfortunately, tickets to both shows at Wimbledon Park tonight, 5 November, have sold out.

If you have tickets to one of the two shows – from 6:30pm and 8:15pm – then you can expect a musical fireworks display, food and drink stalls and fire and light show performances.

If you haven’t managed to get tickets, then you can always check if there have been any returns or set up shop at the nearby Garratt Park or Gap Road Cemetery to try and catch a glimpse of the show from afar.

Wembley Park

The fireworks display happening at Wembley Park on Sunday, 10 November will celebrate a both Bonfire Night and Diwali.

In addition to the fireworks, attendees will be able to enjoy a parade and live performances.

On top of that, the whole event is completely free, and you don’t need to pre-register or get a ticket to turn up.

Southwark

Southwark Fireworks are also being held tonight, with a funfair, food and drink stalls open to enjoy from 5pm until 8pm.

Unfortunately, however the tickets are now sold out, with free tickets having been available to Southwark residents.

If you have been able to score a ticket, then you’ll be able to get into the park until 6:30pm.

If you don’t have a ticket, then you might be able to see the fireworks from the nearby Deptford Park or King George’s Field.

Kingston Upon Thames

On Friday 8 November, the Kingston upon Thames Round Table and Rotary Club will be hosting a fireworks display complete with a fairground at Kingsmeadow Stadium.

Tickets cost £5.00 in advance and £6.00 on the day, with the gates opening at 6:30pm and the fireworks starting at 8:00pm.

Barnes

Barnes Sports Club in Richmond will be hosting a Guy Fawkes event with a bonfire and fireworks display on 9 November.

While the event is now sold out, you might be able to watch the fireworks from nearby fields and greens such as Barnes Green, Vine Road Recreation Ground or the King’s House Sports Ground across the river.

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A TV reporter has opened up about how treatment for a skin breakout left her with terrible acne.

Frances Wang, a 27-year-old anchor and reporter at WFOR-CBS4, was diagnosed with perioral dermatitis this year shortly after moving to Miami, Florida.

Before moving, Wang hoped the Miami humidity would clear up the slight eczema she has had for years.

She tried covering the itchy, dry patches on her face with makeup when she went on air, but the problem persisted so she sought out dermatologist.

Wang said she was prescribed a topical steroid cream for her eczema, which initially worked – then made her face breakout worse than ever.

She said she didn’t realize there were steroids in the skin cream. She took a sick day after the breakout and was prescribed more steroids, which only made matters worse.

‘My face blew up. It looked like a giant rash, like I had a crazy allergic reaction with acne on top of it,’ she said, according to the Miami Herald.

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She spent months trying to hide her skin problems at her on-air job. She tried dozens of treatments and medications. She stopped wearing makeup, tried different diets, and even drank celery juice every morning for three weeks – but nothing worked.

‘Whenever I could see myself for too long in the peripheral screen, my heart would start racing, my palms were sweaty and I was so nervous,’ she said.

‘There was a time in July when I felt like I was doing such a horrible job I was reconsidering my whole career…And only in hindsight did I realize it was coming from the insecurity of my face.’

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The condition left Wang in serious pain. Doctors diagnosed her with perioral dermatitis, a rash around the mouth that makes talking or eating painful, which usually starts after using topical steroid creams.

Wang decided to share her story in Instagram in September and went off the air in October to ‘heal’ and give her face a break from TV makeup.

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She is now set to return to her job even though her skin has not completely cleared.

Wang said: ‘I’m not fully healed. It’s going to take time – I’m not sure how long. So, I’m hoping people are more forgiving and more kind now that I’ve been so public with what’s going on.’

You may have seen this morning that Emma Watson has declared she has a new partner.

Drumroll for those who haven’t… It’s herself.

Yes, the Harry Potter actor has declared that she is single, but in a way that’s much more fun than conscious uncoupling. Instead, she claims her preferred relationship status is ‘self-partnered’.

The admission was part of an interview with British Vogue in which she was discussing her upcoming thirtieth birthday and the expectations placed on her as a result.

Speaking to Paris Lees, she said ‘If you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby, and you are turning 30, and you’re not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career, or you’re still figuring things out… There’s just this incredible amount of anxiety.’

Although Emma has been linked to people in the past – including Glee actor Chord Overstreet – this is probably the most candid she’s been when it comes to relationships.

She goes on to say, ‘I never believed the whole “I’m happy single” spiel. I was like, “This is totally spiel.” It took me a long time, but I’m very happy. I call it being self-partnered.’

But what makes being self-partnered, and how is it any different to being single?

Self-partnered; the new relationship status

If we look at what Emma is trying to say in this interview, it shows just why she feels the need to define a new cubby for herself outside of the world of ‘singledom’.

Pressures come from every angle for women as they get older, and it’s a lot more than your granny asking you why you haven’t got a boyfriend yet (although that it is still annoying).

The way that ‘single’ is talked about comes with an air of condolence. But not everybody does feel like that they’re inferior for being single – and those that do really shouldn’t.

Sometimes, when explaining to your smug married friends or your boss with five children (who obviously has a nanny, which is why they’re so keen on parenthood) it’s difficult to explain that, yes, you are happy without the trappings of sharing your life with another.

You don’t want to brag about the fact you got to spend all of this Sunday in bed with a bag of croissants and no distractions, and it comes across as unnecessarily simpering to say you’re glad you bought yourself a new handbag this month rather than a bumper pack of nappies.

Instead of inviting those pitying smiles and ‘it’ll work out for you some day’ platitudes, it appears that Emma wanted to find a new way to label herself; a way that shows she isn’t simply waiting for the right thing to come around, and is out enjoying life.

Despite the fact that some people seem to find it revolting that a person could be happy without a romantic partner, if we look at Emma’s life, with her multitude of friends, UN campaigns, shoots for the likes of Burberry and Lancôme, and award-winning acting career, you wonder why her love life is even something worth considering for a moment.

While us mere mortals may not have the same lavish lifestyles, the term self-partnered can help emphasis everything else going on for us that doesn’t happen to involve dating.

So, whether you’ve just got your degree, are smashing it at work, or have cultivated an absolute cracker of an allotment, you can take the focus and put it back onto that.

It’s perhaps a sad thing that anyone feels the need to justify being single with a new term. But it is heartening to see that even megastars feel the pressure and want to combat it.

That’s why I have a little challenge for you lot who are sick of the pity. Next time granny asks where your date is to a family dinner, tell her you’re actually self-partnered, pull out a hand mirror, and start a vigorous makeout session with it. That should work.

At least until Facebook update their relationship status settings.

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Ivy Kimble is the latest star of the American Girl catalogue.

In the U.S., toy company Mattel produces the 18-inch dolls that come with various accessories and playsets and kids love flicking through the dedicated catalogue for the latest releases.

Although not available here, they are very popular with American kids.

The company has always prided itself on the diverse range of dolls available including some with hearing aids, insulin pumps, wheelchairs, service dogs and crutches.

The company has never made a doll with Down’s syndrome but the company is also trying to encourage more inclusivity in the modelling industry by featuring four-year-old Ivy in their October catalogue.

The little girl, from Chicago, appears wearing a red sparkly dress holding a doll in the same outfit.

Her mum Kristen told ABC7 that it is one step towards better representation overall.

She said: ‘I have four girls and to have one of them in the [American Girl] catalogue is every mother’s dream.

‘But especially having a child with Down syndrome, there’s not a lot of print or media with a lot of kids with Down syndrome. So it’s a big deal for her. I mean, she’s a cute little girl and she has Down syndrome and she’s in the catalogue. We’re proud.

For us, we want to keep seeing kids of all abilities out there in print.

‘And I love that these companies are trying to make the conscious effort to continue to put them in print. My hope is that … it stops being a conscious effort and it just becomes natural. They’re just seen everywhere.’

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Eyeball tattooing – or sclera tattooing – is a practice of body modification where ink is injected into the white part of someone’s eyes.

Done properly, the ink will never actually enter the eye, and instead will just under the conjunctiva layer of the eye, and spread out.

It’s a procedure that can go badly wrong, however, as evidenced by 24-year-old Amber Luke, of Brisbane, Australia, who went blind for three weeks following the body mod.

Amber, who calls herself Blue Eyes White Dragon, is no stranger to a tattoo studio, and estimates that she has around 200 across her body.

She’s also had surgery in the form of a breast enlargement, and has had cosmetic procedures such as lip and cheek fillers, a tongue split, and eyebrow tattoos, all totalling $37,000 (£19,678).

That didn’t stop her mum, Vikki, questioning the sclera tattoo beforehand and begging Amber not to go through with it.

‘Why would you do that to yourself, knowing that there is a – I suppose a danger to it,’ her mother Vikki questioned.

Her protestations were in vain, though, and she continues: ‘As we know as the parents, some kids will just do what they want to do, regardless of what we say. But I brought her into the world with the best skills that I could give, the best that I could give her. It’s just for me to be there and go along the journey with her and prop her up and love her.’

The pair steeled themselves ahead of the 40-minute procedure, which unfortunately didn’t go as planned.

Speaking to Barcroft Media, Amber said: ‘I can’t even begin to describe to you what the feeling was like, the best thing I can give you is once the eyeball was penetrated with the ink, it felt like [the tattoo artist] grabbed 10 shards of glass and rubbed it in my eye.’

‘Unfortunately, my artist went too deep into my eyeball,’ says Amber.

‘If your eyeball procedure’s done correctly, you’re not supposed to go blind at all. I was blind for three weeks. That was pretty brutal.’

When Amber had the tattooing done back in 2017, her mum cried for her, and she said a few ‘choice words’.

Amber’s happiness with her new look has only grown, though, as the colour in the eye has darkened and become more vivid over time – and obviously her sight came back.

Talking about her choice to start changing her body in her teens, Amber said that she got her first tattoo at 16, calling it a ‘negative energy release’ after being diagnosed with depression some years before.

While some may say that these things might be extreme, the model says, ‘I’m not harming anyone, I’m doing what I want to do and if it makes me get up in the morning and be a happy person, then so be it.’

Amber said she hopes to fully cover her body with tattoos by March next year, but did say: ‘I don’t plan on getting any more body modifications that are extreme in that manner. So no more tongue splitting, no more eyeball tattooing.’

Her mum has also come to terms with the changes to her daughter, saying: ‘She never saw herself as being beautiful. She didn’t see herself through my eyes.

‘But I’ve supported her because I could actually see the transition, the growth and how it’s made her come to who she is today. I think over time, I’ve learned to actually understand that it doesn’t change you. It’s the society’s perception on it.’

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Every so often, life gives us everyday wins, like a good hair day or arriving on the platform just in time for the early train.

But what does it feel like to win big… Like, lottery-win big?

That’s something People’s Postcode Lottery player Rianna Chapman, 32, experienced last Christmas, when she won a mega £30,000, simply by virtue of her home postcode.

The mum-of-one was blown away when ambassador Jeff Brazier turned up at her front door with a life-changing cheque from their daily Street Prize draw last December.

‘It felt like all of my Christmases had come at once,’ she tells Metro.co.uk. ‘I never win anything – not even the school raffle.’

But Rianna had been playing People’s Postcode Lottery for less than a year before her Worthing postcode was drawn in the December street prize draw last year, to make her one of five residents in the same street to win big.

People’s Postcode Lottery is a £10-a-month subscription lottery where players who use their postcode to sign up are automatically entered into every prize draw, with one winning postcode announced every Saturday and Sunday.

Not only has Rianna been able to take her nine-year-old son Leon on the holiday of his dreams to Disneyland Paris with the winnings, but the office administrator has finally been able to start saving for her first family home.

‘I was shaking when I found out how much I’d won,’ Rianna recalls. ‘Sometimes you win £10 and £20 prizes on People’s Postcode Lottery, but £30,000 was unbelievable.

‘I’ve never had this kind of money before and I knew what a difference it would make to my family. I was on the verge of tears, ringing everyone I knew to share the good news.’

Straight away, Disney fan Rianna booked the trip of a lifetime with her partner Ollie, 33, to Disneyland, where they celebrated son Leon’s birthday.

She says: ‘Every year, I try to put a little money aside for family holidays in Devon, Cornwall and Isle of Wight, but I’ve always dreamed of taking my son on a special holiday abroad.

‘It felt so special to treat my sister and her children as well since I knew that we would never have been able to afford a big family holiday like this.’

After the initial excitement, Rianna made some long-term plans for the remainder of her winnings.

‘Spending it was a lot of fun,’ she says. ‘But I was sensible with my winnings, too. I was able to put a further £20,000 into savings so we can buy a house one day, which is something I never thought possible.’

In 2019, as much as £150million in prizes have been won by to People’s Postcode Lottery players.

December is a particularly lucky month for some, because every single day one winning postcode is announce, where players of People’s Postcode Lottery could win £30,000, just like Rianna and her neighbours.

Aside from going towards incredible cash prizes, players having raised a staggering £486 million for good cause to date.

‘Signing up was so easy,’ says Rianna. ‘You don’t need to pick any numbers or go out and buy a ticket every week, you just sign up with your postcode, for a small monthly fee and you’re in with a chance of winning something.

‘I love that the ticket price goes towards good causes, too. All of my family and friends play now.’

Every day in the December draws players will win £30k. Join in by midnight on 21 November to play in the December draws. Terms and conditions apply*

*£10 to be entered into all draws, paid monthly in advance. Winning postcodes for the December draws announced daily from 7 December to 10 January. Estimated max possible ticket prize in the December millions draw is £189,000, which is 10% of estimated draw proceeds. People’s Postcode Lottery manages 20 draws per month across multiple lotteries for good causes who receive a minimum of 32% of each ticket sale. To find out draw dates, which good cause promotes and benefits from each draw, and the relevant prizes, see Prize Draw Calendar at www.postcodelottery.co.uk/good-causes/draw-calendar. Not available in NI. Conditions apply. Postcode Lottery Limited is incorporated in England and Wales and is licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission under licences 000-000829-N-102511 and 000-000829-R-102513. Registered office: Postcode Lottery Ltd, Titchfield House, 69/85 Tabernacle Street, London, EC2A 4BD. Company reg. no. 04862732. VAT reg. no 848 3165 07. Trading address: 28 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, EH2 4ET. © 2019 Postcode Lottery Ltd.

Feeling stressed out? Go to bed.

Just one bad night’s sleep can increase stress levels and feelings of anxiety by a third, suggests new research – so you really will benefit mentally by giving that snooze another go.

The study, from the University of California, Berkeley, found that poor sleep shuts down the area of grey matter called the medial prefrontal cortex, which keeps anxiety in check.

Deep sleep, meanwhile, soothes worries. Brainwaves become highly synchronised and heart rates and blood pressure drop, allowing your mind to ‘work through’ any stress and worries.

Author Professor Matthew Walker said: ‘We have identified a new function of deep sleep, one that decreases anxiety overnight by reorganising connections in the brain.

‘Deep sleep seems to be a natural anxiety inhibitor, so long as we get it each and every night.’

The study involved scanning the brains of 18 young adults as they viewed videos designed to trigger emotions, after a full night’s sleep and after a night spent tossing and turning.

After watching the videos, stress levels were assessed through a questionnaire called the state-trait anxiety inventory. Researchers found that after a night of little sleep, X-rays showed that the stress-reducing medial prefrontal cortex had stopped activity, while the brain’s emotional centres were overactive.

Essentially this means that when we’re tired, we’re reacting emotionally without being able to process and reduce our negative feelings.

Or as Professor Walker puts it: ‘Without sleep, it is almost as if the brain is too heavy on the emotional accelerator pedal, without enough brake.’

The study, which was then replicated among people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, found that after a full night’s sleep people’s anxiety levels significantly declined, especially so in those who experienced more slow-wave NREM sleep.

An accompanying online study tracked 280 people to see how both their sleep and anxiety levels changed over the course of four days.

The amount and quality of sleep they got from one night to the next predicted their stress levels the next day. Even subtle changes in snoozing made a difference.

All this is great news if you consider that sleep is a free remedy to your worries, but not-so-great news when you realise that Britain is one of the most sleep-deprived nations in the world.

In short: We really need to sort out our sleep so we can all be less stressed out and miserable.

Lead author Dr Eti Ben Simon, of the Centre for Human Sleep Science at UC Berkeley, said: ‘Our study strongly suggests insufficient sleep amplifies levels of anxiety and, conversely, that deep sleep helps reduce such stress.

‘People with anxiety disorders routinely report having disturbed sleep, but rarely is sleep improvement considered as a clinical recommendation for lowering anxiety.

‘Our study not only establishes a causal connection between sleep and anxiety, but it identifies the kind of deep NREM sleep we need to calm the overanxious brain.’

Matthew Walker adds: ‘The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night of sleep.’

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When it comes to debt, it can all be quite confusing.

What’s the difference between a secured debt and an unsecured debt? What even is a credit rating?

Luckily, Metro.co.uk is here to help. This month, we’re talking about all things debt. There’s still lots of shame around talking about it and asking for help can be difficult.

It’s even more difficult if you do reach out and you’re met with lots of words you just don’t understand.

In a bid to break it down for you, we’re explaining some of the most common words you might encounter when talking about debt

Arrears

you might be told you’re in a certain number of months of arrears, which simply means the number of payments you have missed. It can refer to missed payments on any regular bill including mortgage, rent, council tax, unsecured debts or household bills.

Assets

Things that you own that has a monetary value like property, land or your car.

Bankruptcy

When you’re at the point where you are in so much debt, you can’t repay it in a reasonable time, you might be declared bankrupt.

This is a legal procedure and means that the courts write off your debts – but it’s not an easy option.

You must sell any assets, apart from a few exceptions, to repay some of your debts. It can have an impact on your job and it will have a negative impact on your credit file. Bankruptcy will be recorded on a public register.

Creditor

The person who lends you money.

Credit rating (or score)

When you ask to borrow money, the people lending it use this to assess whether they want to. Looking at how you have borrowed and repaid money before helps them decide how likely you are to keep up with repayments. You can check your credit score online.

Debtor

The person who owes money to the creditor.

Debt management plan

If you are struggling to repay your debts, you can create a debt management plan and have an agreement with your creditors to pay off your debts with a small amount each month. You can arrange a plan yourself or through a licensed debt management company for a fee.

Default

When a debtor fails to make a repayment when it is due. A creditor can then send a default notice, letting them know that they have broken the terms and conditions of a credit agreement.

Fixed-rate

An interest rate that doesn’t go up or down during a set period of time.

Individual voluntary arrangement

An IVA is an agreement with creditors to pay off all or part of your debts. This is done through an insolvency practitioner. They work out how much you can afford to repay each month and they divide the money between the creditors.

They will contact the creditors on your behalf and if 75% of them agree, it will apply to all of them.

Insolvent

Someone is insolvent when they can’t repay their debts in a reasonable amount of time and the value of their assets is less than the amount of debt they have.

Non-priority debts

These are debts where if you don’t make payments, you aren’t at risk of losing your home or being sent to prison. Examples include credit cards, overdrafts, payday loans, personal debts to family and friends.

Secured debt

Money that is secured to an asset like your house, which means that if you can’t make a repayment, the creditor who take the asset.

Unsecured debt

Borrowing money that is not secured to an asset, like credit cards, store cards and overdrafts.

Variable rate

An interest rate that can increase or decrease at the discretion of the lender.

Millennials are responsible for killing so many things (canned tuna, Christmas traditions, lunch, to name a few), that it’s no surprise we’re so relaxed making jokes about death.

Take a browse through Twitter and you’ll find memes of the Roll Safe guy tapping his temple to the idea that you can’t pay off student loans if you’re dead, jokes about responding to the threat of death with ‘well, hold on a minute’, and tweets centering around the concept of getting hit by a car so debts will disappear.

We’re kidding, obviously. Death is funny.

But all our jokes do raise an interesting question. What actually happens to our debt when we die? Does our debt really die with us?

Short answer: sort of.

What happens to your debt if you die?

When someone dies, any outstanding debt they have becomes a liability on their estate, rather than just evaporating into thin air.

The debts then become the responsibility of the executor of the estate (whoever’s responsible for all your possessions and money) or, if no will has been left, the administrator.

This person is then responsible for paying off any outstanding debt from the estate – so, any money the person had lying around, money that could be made by selling a property, and so on.

If a deceased person’s estate simply doesn’t have enough money or things to pay off the debts, that’s when you get into debt dying with them.

In this case, any debts will be paid in priority order until the money and assets run out. Once everything runs out, remaining debts are likely to just be written off. Relatives won’t have to pay off any outstanding debts in this case, unless they acted as a guarantor or co-signatory of the debt.

So if you had a joint mortgage, loan, or an overdraft on a joint account, the other person would need to pay it back if you died. If you acted alone on that loan, your wife, kids, or family members wouldn’t need to use their own money to pay it off.

That doesn’t mean relatives and spouses won’t be affected money-wise, though. Obviously, if you die with a load of debt that will prevent you from leaving much in the way of inheritance.

And if someone were to leave their mortgaged house to someone else in the will, that person would need to continue to pay off the mortgage.

But the good news is that if you die, creditors are not allowed to chase down family members to pay back money you owed, no matter how big the debt may be.

When it comes to student loans, that specific debt does die with you (in the UK, at least).

When someone dies the Student Loans Company will cancel their student loan, as long as someone lets SLC know they have died and provides evidence (a death certificate) and the person’s customer reference number.

That’s the case among some student lenders in the US, but not all.

How to sort out the debt of someone who has died

Sorting out someone’s debt after they die can be a stressful and time-consuming experience, and it’s often worth seeking the advice of a solicitor.

Nick Hill, Money Expert from the Money and Pensions Services tells Metro.co.uk: ‘Dealing with the bereavement of a loved one is an incredibly difficult thing to go through even without the extra shock of finding out about any debts.

‘You’re going to need time to deal with both the emotional and administrative sides of things so make sure that you inform creditors of the bereavement as soon as possible.

‘Tell them you’re going through the legal process of dealing with the person’s estate and ask them for a letter or statement showing the outstanding balance on the debt. They should normally be sympathetic and give the executor or administrator of the estate time to sort out the debts if they are kept updated.

‘The good news is that there are places you can go to for help. The Money Advice Service website has a step by step guide and their free money guidance helpline is available on 0800 138 7777.’

The first step of managing someone’s finances after their debt is working out what they owe, what they have, and whether they have any insurance specifically to pay off any outstanding debts.

A life assurance policy might repay a mortgage, personal protection insurance can cover loans and credit cards, and some pensions and employers will provide a lump sum of money as a ‘death in service’ payment.

You would need to go through papers and financial statements and make a list of everything owed, as well as working out if any debts are joint or have a guarantor, who would be liable for any debts that cannot be paid by the estate.

Then it’s time to let creditors know that the person has died, so that they won’t be pestering anyone for payments. You can also ask for a statement to tell you the outstanding balance on the debt.

If there is enough money in the person’s estate to pay off debts, they have to be paid in priority order: first secured debts such as mortgage repayments, then priority debts such as income tax and council tax, then unsecured debts including utility bills and credit cards.

If you’re concerned about debt or dealing with the finances of someone who has died, there are services available to help. Get in touch with the Money Advice Service or StepChange to get further advice.

MORE: How do you know if you’re in a ‘debt crisis’?

MORE: How to support someone who is in debt without giving them money

MORE: The damaging repackaging of debt, from challenger banks to buy-now-pay-later

Davina Moon is an actress and a mother – she has a role in the upcoming James Bond film, and had a small part in the recent live action Aladdin remake.

As a mixed-race actress she says she has to be wary of being cast as the ‘token ethnic’.

‘When someone asks me where I’m from, I genuinely have no idea what they actually mean,’ Davina tells Metro.co.uk.

‘I have to ask them to specify if they mean where do I live, where I was born, or what is my racial mix (I’ve been asked what “combination” am I?).

‘Or maybe they’ve detected something in my accent – I spent a considerable amount of my childhood in Australia and some of the accent has stuck with me.’

If people are asking about her genetic makeup, Davina keeps things simple by telling them she is Irish and Sri Lankan. Which is true, but isn’t the whole story.

‘My mum is part Irish, part German, part Russian Jewish with Spanish thrown in, and my dad is part Sri Lankan, part Indian and part Portuguese,’ she explains.

‘Being mixed-race has two sides to its coin. It’s great to be made up of such different cultures and beliefs but on the other hand, you can be left not identifying as either.

‘I’ve spent so much emotional and psychological energy trying to be accepted. I’ve stopped now. I am who I am.’

Davina’s daughter doesn’t look like her. She’s blonde with hazel eyes. Which doesn’t both Davina in the slightest, but it seems to give strangers the right to question her legitimacy as a mother.

‘I am well aware that we don’t look alike,’ says Davina, ‘but, just in case, some members of society like to remind me of this.

‘I’ve gone to pick her up from nursery and the nursery teacher, holding her, has recoiled as I went to take her.

‘Another time, during a church service, a woman in front of us kept turning back to look at us. At the end of the service, she turned to my daughter, then aged three, and asked her; “is this your mummy?” and then left, without acknowledging me.’

There was another incident recently where Davina was kneeling by her daughter at an after school activity when another mother asked her if a child with brown skin, who was in a different room at the time, was hers.

‘I said she wasn’t,’ says Davina, ‘I said that the child I was tending to, although she didn’t look like me, was mine, and that just because the other little girl and I had a similar skin colour, did not mean we were related.

‘Her defences went up and all she kept repeating was: “I don’t see skin colour. I don’t see skin colour”.

‘A short time later I came back into the room to hostility from her and her friends. She was the victim and, clearly, I was the bad guy.

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‘It soon becomes water off a duck’s back, but the odd occasion which makes your eyes well up or your blood boil, does sneak through.’

In her professional life, Davina started getting seen for Asian roles in TV shows early on, she thinks the whole industry still has work to do to become truly inclusive.

‘All of a sudden I was in shows wearing a sari or a salwar kameez and finding myself straightening my incredibly naturally curly hair to try and conform to the Asian stereotype,’ she explains.

‘I had a good run of shows, but my breakthrough came when I was cast in a production which required the role to be half Indian half Welsh. That almost never happens.

‘It didn’t matter how I wore my hair as I had a wig fixed in a 1940’s style. Again, being of colour and in a period piece also almost never happens.

‘Since then I have mostly been seen for roles using “colour blind” casting, (which in itself is a whole other conversation!)

‘It’s getting better in acting and performance, you still have shows which have their “token ethnics” though, so you know your chances of getting that job are much slimmer than if you were white.’

When Davina was younger she didn’t identify with one side of her heritage over another. She said one of the reasons for the relative disconnect with her dad’s side was the language barrier.

‘My brother and I never learnt our dad’s language, Sinhalese. He refused to teach us. I can only imagine it was because he is of the generation where ethnic minorities wanted acceptance for their children that they never had.

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‘So we were Westernised as much as possible. But unfortunately that meant we were alienated further from one half of our culture.’

Davina had aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends who all spoke a language she wasn’t privy to.

‘Even when my late paternal grandmother tried to teach us, we would show our dad what we’d learnt but he never commended our efforts,’ Davina adds. But she doesn’t entirely blame her dad for his actions.

‘My parents came to England at a time when it was common to see signs that read: “no blacks, no dogs, no Irish”. So even my mum would compare me to my white, English contemporaries.

‘I was never as good or as clever as anyone else. I know it’s because she wanted me to be the best I could be, but my journey was never going to be the one she wanted me to take.

Davina thinks her parents had an acute awareness of the fact that they were bringing children into the world who would need to be prepared for external negativity, but she doesn’t have the same approach for her own kids.

‘I now lavish so much praise on my children, I think I have to be careful it doesn’t have a reverse effect.’

Her parents were right in a way, Davina has experienced negativity. At various points in her life she has noticed overt racism or covert microaggressions. But when she spoke to her parents about this, their advice wasn’t always what she wanted to hear.

‘When I was about seven or eight, I was at a day camp in the school holidays,’ she remembers. ‘There was an older white boy who had said to me; “when you smile at night, all you can see is your teeth!”

‘While it didn’t sit right, and not really understating what he meant, I wanted to be accepted by him and all the other kids so I laughed along.

‘I went home and told my mum what he said and her response was that next time I should say to him, when he smiles in the day, you can’t see him at all. This also didn’t sit right. Even at that age I knew it was wrong to fight negative with negative.

‘Regardless, I never saw him again. It saddens me that children from such a tender age experience such unkindness. I’ve seen enough young children to know that they are not born or choose to discriminate, it is something they learn from others, usually at home.

‘Even though I have had my own experiences of racism or racial preconceptions, I am fully aware that there are those who have experienced far worse than I ever have and possibly will.’

One of Davina’s defence mechanisms is humour. She figured out that making people laugh can be a pretty satisfying substitute for acceptance.

‘It is a skill I developed at a young age,’ she explains. ‘My family moved around a little, which meant I went to eight different schools. Eight times being the gawky, brown, new girl.

‘Each night before I started, I would go through the worst case scenarios and the best case scenarios.

‘Evidently, I found that I would get admiration and attention (which I confused for acceptance) when I made people laugh. So that is the mask I wore.’

She says becoming an actor is the perfect embodiment of her life-long craving for acceptance – in some ways she still feels like she is wearing that mask she hid behind at school.

At the same time, she now believes that he has a strong sense of who she is and is conscious of passing on this sense of self-worth to the next generation.

‘I love being mixed-race, but then, it’s all I know to be,’ says Davina. ‘It’s taken me a long time to accept who I am and I’m just glad that came before I had children, as I wouldn’t want to project any confusion or insecurities on to them.

‘I have so many mixed race friends and I often wonder if we are drawn to each other because of this commonality – the fact that we have all been exposed to multiple cultures.

‘I find myself celebrating Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Chinese new year and so many more, as that is what I have been brought up with.’

Davina’s wedding was the best example of this. Her husband is from Cornwall and that is where the ceremony took place. The night before the wedding they had a Mendhi ‘of sorts’ as Davina describes it.

On the day of the event, guests were encouraged to wear sari’s and shalwars. There was an Asian buffet and the couple served Guinness and champ, passionfruit cordial and Cornish pasties.

‘I understand why a lot of people of mixed heritage are uncomfortable with being asked where they’re from, but I’m still conflicted by it,’ says Davina.

‘Part of me thinks, you shouldn’t be seeing me as anything other than a person and it shouldn’t matter “where I’m from”, as it means you are making a judgement and pigeonholing me.

‘But on the other hand, I’m thinking, we should all have an interest in where each other are from, and what we bring to society as we live in such a rich, diverse melting pot of a world.’

Davina is passionate that nobody should be defined by the colour of their skin, the country they’re born in, the language they speak or the god they worship.

‘If anything, we should be defined by what is in our hearts and minds,’ she says.

‘I have recently acquired a copy of Self Portrait In Black And White by Thomas Chatteron Williams who calls for us to consider why we uphold race categories defined “using plantation logic” and encourages us to do away with the arbitrary nomenclature altogether.

‘I think he has a point.’

Davina will be appearing in The Snow Queen at The Rose Theatre, Kingston from December.

Mixed Up

Mixed Up is our weekly series that gets to the heart of what it means to be mixed-race in the UK today.

Going beyond discussions of divided identity, this series takes a look at the unique joys, privileges and complexities that come with being mixed-race - across of variety of different contexts.

The mixed-race population is the UK's fastest-growing ethnic group, and yet there is still so much more to understand about the varied lived experiences of individuals within this hugely heterogenous group.

Each week we speak to the people who know exactly how it feels to navigate this inbetween space.

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Sure, those framed quotes and little owl motifs are a cute nod to the Harry Potter series you know and love, but let’s just take a moment to behold a true wizard at work.

Brian Thompson, from California, has created a Hogwarts themed bedroom that’s absolutely magical.

When we say Harry Potter themed, we don’t just mean some nice bedsheets. Brian’s room looks just like the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall, from the candles down to the trees.

The transformation began when Brian visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios and was blown away – and inspired.

In the 18 months that followed he began collecting props and pieces from thrift stores and online, all on a tight budget.

In total he spent around $1,500 (£1,164) on the transformation, doing every part on his own by watching YouTube videos and borrowing his dad’s tools.

Yes, it was pretty complicated. Brian had to lay down fresh flooring to match the Gryffindor common room, build fake trees, and make the walls look like bricks, which he did by crafting each individual brick from insulation foam.

‘Each brick (there must be 400-500) was individually cut from foam, textured with a heat gun, and sealed with caulking to protect and make paintable,’ Brian told BuzzFeed.

‘The “grout” between all the bricks is actually a few hundred feet of rope interwoven in the gaps to fill the space which was then sealed with more caulking.’

The barista also turned the ceiling into a starry night sky with glimmering wallpaper and strategic mirror placement, then added a chandelier he found at a thrift store and painted gold and black (to look like it’s floating), golden frames, floating candles, and furniture to match the Hogwarts you see on screen.

The end result is incredible, and it’s won Brian a load of fans online. We’re not surprised.

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Apple recently released a statement saying in 2020 they will be adding androgynous looking emojis to accompany the male and female presenting emojis that already exist.

The media was quick to announce that Apple was adding ‘non-binary emojis’ to the selection, which has inevitably caused controversy.

While some people don’t really understand why you need things like a ‘non-binary’ carrot farmer emoji, it is a great step to add more diverse representation to the emoji collection.

However, the language used around this is often quite misleading and ends up enforcing outdated stereotypes about how people should present according to gender.

This creation is undoubtedly borne from increased conversation about being non-binary and people expressing their gender in various ways. It’s definitely great that the conversation is having an effect on such big companies, but it’s important to note that technically these emojis aren’t non-binary at all.

To understand why they aren’t non-binary, we must consider the difference between who you are (your gender identity) and how you dress (your gender expression). Who you are in terms of gender relates to how you experience your own inner sense of self – for example as a man, woman or a non-binary person. Your gender expression is how you choose to present yourself.

Traditionally women dress femininely and men dress in a masculine manner. So when we think of non-binary people, the assumption is that they will be somewhere in between that, looking androgynous.

But that isn’t always the case. There are people who don’t conform to people’s expectations of how to dress. There are women who have short hair and dress more masculine and we have men who use make-up and wear more feminine attire – and everything in between.

People can present in all sorts of ways. It should go without saying that a woman who never wears dresses, for example, is no less of a woman.

Your clothes don’t make you who you are, even though they can be a tool to let us express ourselves in a way that makes us comfortable and ensure we are seen how we want to be.

The same goes for non-binary people. Non-binary people can dress in a variety of ways and there are plenty of non-binary people who present in a feminine or a masculine manner.

I personally don’t experience myself entirely as a man or a woman, even though my experience of my gender is indefinitely more feminine. This means that the way I dress is more feminine, and inevitably my life experiences align with the experiences of women. It doesn’t take away from how I experience my own sense of gender, however.

So when we talk about these emojis, it’s important to realise that they aren’t necessarily non-binary.

The more logical way to describe the emojis would be to say that they are androgynous. It doesn’t even have to be that complicated, as they are simply just another look for us to choose from. How can more choice be a bad thing?

In the grand scheme of things this might not seem like a big deal. But if we are to truly understand what being non-binary is, we have to stop seeing it as purely an aesthetic and acknowledge it as a valid sense of self.

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The only reason you’d listen to someone’s poetry collection is if you’re trying to get them into bed.

It’s a tale as old as time but lying (or bending the truth) to get someone to have sex with you is not just common, but natural, according to a study.

According to the findings in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, the brain is hardwired to tell lies to potential sex partners.

Makes sense, considering the brain is wired to increase the chances of pleasure (which is why we repeat pleasurable behaviour such as eating, drinking, and having sex).

Despite something going against your own beliefs or personality, you’re more likely to embellish things or exaggerate their importance to appear in a favourable light.

‘When the possibility of sex looms, people are more likely to change their attitudes and engage in deceptive self-presentation,’ said researchers with the University of Rochester and the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel.

‘In other words, they conform, embellish, and sometimes lie.’

Definitely true of folks on Tinder.

The science whizzes studied the behaviours of more than 600 heterosexual students who interacted with members of the opposite sex.

Those who participated were given scenarios in which they were instructed to take opposite points of view from an attractive stranger they would be chatting to.

But they were split in two – one group was exposed to sexually suggestive images while the other was not.

Results indicated that following sexual priming, participants were more likely to conform to the stranger’s views

In some cases, participants fudged answers about whether they would date someone who worked out or whether they enjoy cuddling.

In a separate study, the researchers found that participants sometimes straight-up lied to a good looking stranger such as on the number of sexual partners they’ve had.

But it’s not all that harmful, scientists concluded.

‘Such attitude changes might be viewed as a subtle exaggeration or as a harmless move to impress or be closer to a potential partner,’ said the researchers.

‘People will do and say just about anything in order to make a connection with an attractive stranger.

‘When your sexual system is activated you are motivated to present yourself in the best light possible. That means you’ll tell a stranger things that make you look better than you really are.’

But let’s keep the lies to a minimum, folks. Or prepare for some awkward mornings after.

MORE: Sex on the first date is dying out – study shows Brits wait longer to go all the way

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Pork pie is probably a distant memory if you’ve turned vegan or vegetarian.

But the good news is that any pork, jelly and pastry cravings you’ve had can now be fulfilled as Morrisons is launching a vegan version next month.

They claim they are the first supermarket to create a plant-based version of the usually meaty pie.

The vegan ‘No Pork’ Pie will launch on 9 December in stores.

It replicates the traditional pork pie with a meaty taste, crumbly pastry texture and classic appearance but it will be completely free of animal products.

The launch has been kept secret with only six Morrisons staff knowing the secret recipe so all they can say at the minute is that it’s made from soya and pea protein.

The pies will be baked by Morrisons experts at their pie shop counters, and are set to sell for £1.75 or two for £3, from next month.

Morrisons Pie Buyer, Steven Halford, said: ‘So many people across the UK are fond of eating a pork pie at Christmas.

‘Our vegan and vegetarian customers previously couldn’t enjoy a pork pie but with our new meat free product they can enjoy a great tasting alternative.’

It’s not the first vegan product from Morrisons that has got people talking this week.

They announced the launch of the footlong vegan sausage roll on Monday.

Weighing in at a whopping 466g, the gigantic vegan roll is double the length of its competition and nearly four times the weight – and it only costs £1.

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Jonathan Rowe, 32, spent over a decade struggling with severe eczema on his face and later the symptoms of topical steroid withdrawal.

Now he’s taking treatment into his own hands by depriving his body of moisture.

Jonathan developed eczema on his face when he was just 18, at which point his doctor gave him a steroid cream. This helped at first, but the painful, cracked skin returned soon after.

Each month he went back to his doctor as his eczema grew worse, and with each visit he was prescribed a stronger steroid cream.

By the time he was 24, Jonathan’s entire body was covered with eczema. Each time he stopped taking steroids, his eczema would come back worse.

Eventually he was put on cyclosporine, an oral immunosuppressant normally used for transplant patients. This made his eczema more manageable, but as long-term use poses the risk of developing cancer, he knew he couldn’t stay on the medication forever. After two years he stopped.

His last-ditch effort was Protopic, a cream that burned his skin for 12 hours, cleared his eczema, but soon saw the return of symptoms.

He knew he needed to find a better solution.

In 2018 Jonathan came across articles discussing topical steroid withdrawal (TSW), and realised that was what he was suffering from. But when he told a dermatologist about his findings, they told him TSW doesn’t exist.

‘I was worried about the possible side effects of cyclosporine, and I had to have regular blood tests to check my liver and kidneys,’ said Jonathan. ‘I really thought a 24-year-old shouldn’t be having this to control their skin.

‘I was the one who pushed to come off as I wasn’t comfortable taking it due to the possible side effects. I was told there was a risk of getting cancer from this medication.

‘When I came off, the dermatologist told me that he would let me manage my skin.

‘I realised that using the creams wasn’t a long-term solution, so I knew that something else had to be done. I was worried I would have to go back on cyclosporine, which had the cancer risk.

‘I realised I was addicted to steroids and Protopic and if I stopped using the creams then my skin would flare out of control.

‘The symptoms for TSW are flaking skin, fluid oozing from skin, blisters, swelling, irritated eyes, hair loss, trouble sleeping and appetite changes.

‘I visited a consultant dermatologist and they said topical steroid addiction was not a real thing and I should carry on with the steroids. I told him that I’d been researching TSW and I disagreed with him so I wouldn’t be following his treatment recommendation.

‘I just felt disappointed that he was so closed minded and he couldn’t even see it as a possibility.’

In January 2019 Jonathan began no moisture therapy in an attempt to dry out the skin and encourage it to make its own moisture again.

He says it’s been life-changing – but we’d strongly recommend anyone struggling with eczema talks to a dermatologist before trying it out for themselves.

Jonathan wants to share his story to show people that steroids aren’t their only option.

‘For eight months I saw little to no improvement and had all of the symptoms as mentioned above, until I found the research of a Japanese doctor called Dr Sato who has been treating TSW using his ground-breaking approach of NMT,’ he said.

‘I drink a maximum of one litre of water a day, no moisturiser, I limit showers to one per week for two minutes, no baths, no water after 7pm, and I eat more protein to counteract the loss of protein. Effectively, you’re treating TSW by completely drying out your skin.

‘I believe that topical steroids and Protopic cause the eczema and it’s totally preventable. When people go to the doctors with eczema, they shouldn’t be given topical steroids but try to understand what has caused it, such as diet, stress or environment.

‘My skin has never been better than it is now and it does not affect me in my daily life. I never apply anything to my skin anymore, especially not moisturiser. Prior to steroids being created in the fifties, very few adults had eczema but now millions have it.’

You can follow Jonathan’s skincare journey over on Instagram.

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It’s been a big month for beauty queen Shirin Akter Shela, who was crowned Miss Bangladesh at the end of October.

In doing so, the stunning contestant becomes the first person from a Muslim-majority country in South Asia to compete for the title of Miss Universe.

There have been other Muslim contestants in the past (such as Lebanese-American Rima Fakih) but from the Middle East or in Africa.

She was crowned by Bollywood legend Sushmita Sen, who won both Miss World and Miss Universe in 1994 (Priyanka Chopra won Miss World in 2000).

The contest, held in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, saw Shirin beat off competition from beauty queens Alisha Islam and Jessia Islam.

Shirin wowed judges with her poise and brains as a third-year physics student at the University of Dhaka.

Her dad is a member of the Border Guard Bangladesh and Shirin grew up watching him fight for the country, a patriotic zeal she developed too.

During the pageant, Shirin, from Thakurgaon revealed that her dad was a ‘great inspiration’ to her.

She added that she would also work for the ‘betterment’ of her country which begins with winning Miss Universe Bangladesh.

She has been making the South Asian country proud, having been declared the best female model in the Face of Bangladesh 2019 contest.

In 2018, she participated in Miss Bangladesh World and was among the top ten contestants. This year, she also represented Bangladesh at Face of Asia 2019, which took place in Seoul, South Korea.

The path to Miss Universe began in July 2019 when more than 12,000 participants vied for the coveted title of Miss Universe Bangladesh (the contest that needs to be won in respective countries to have a shot at the main title).

This was followed by a three-month boot camp.

Now Shirin will be an ambassador for Bangladesh at the 68th edition of Miss Universe, taking place in Atlanta, Georgia on 8 December.

In this final competition, top models from 130 countries are going to participate.

Shirin’s historic win meant a lot to Bangladeshi and other Asian folks who took to social media to congratulate her. One person tweeted: ‘Hats off Shirin’ while another said: ‘how amazing is this?’.

Another wrote: ‘After 68 years of Miss Universe, we’re finally getting Bangladesh represented in the competition. I’m so proud.’

Good luck to Shirin and all the other finalists.

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Sober October may be over, and there’s some time to wait before Dry January, but there’s no reason to hold off on giving up the booze.

The benefits of sobriety go far beyond a month alcohol-free.

If you’d like some visual evidence, take a look at Kenny D, a 37-year-old railroad engineer who took mirror selfies over the course of three years to show how much sobriety changed his appeance.

Each time he received a new sobriety coin or chip from Alcoholics Anonymous, Kenny snapped a photo – from the 24 hours sober mark to three years on.

Kenny told BoredPanda: ‘I took a picture of myself the day I got my first sobriety coin, 24 hours sober. I felt so ill and I looked so bad, I wanted to remember it so I wouldn’t forget.

‘The day I got my 30-day coin, I thought my look had changed drastically so I took another selfie.’

He’s not wrong – just a month after making the decision to stop drinking, Kenny looks dramatically different.

Kenny shared the photos on Reddit, where he received an overwhelming response from other people struggling with addiction.

He began drinking when at university, but years later realised that he could not control the amount he drank after the first sip of alcohol.

‘I could not drink without getting drunk,’ he explains.

Kenny managed to abstain from alcohol for weeks and months before relapsing, until in 2016 when he reached his rock bottom. He was getting drunk every day, having 12 to 24 drinks a day, and blacking out three to four times a week.

That’s when he decided to take the brave step to go to Alcoholics Anonymous and begin their 12 step programme.

The progress he made prompted Kenny to make changes to his general fitness and health, beginning to exercise as he realised how much freer he felt without booze.

Yes, a lot of the differences between Kenny while using alcohol and Kenny sober are internal, but there are physical changes too – all captured in photographs taken in Kenny’s bathroom mirror.

He’s slimmer and fitter, absolutely – but look at how much happier he appears, too.

‘The biggest difference between myself now and three years ago is that today I live my life by a set of spiritual principles,’ said Kenny. ‘From morning to night, I run all of my decisions through a sort of spiritual filter.

‘I do my best to not be resentful or spiteful or angry, though I am human and I have a tendency to forget sometimes. I’m not a saint.

‘If I have a problem that I can’t tackle with stuff in my normal spiritual toolkit, I get on the phone to my sponsor or another alcoholic-in-recovery.

‘There is always somebody around to help, I just have to reach out.’

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Vicki Sparrow was 38 weeks pregnant when she suddenly went into labour at home.

After a pregnancy with lots of complications, she was planning to have a c-section in hospital.

But just days before she was due to have the operation, her baby Kayden decided to make an appearance, on her living room floor.

Kayden’s cord was wrapped twice around his neck and doctors suspected Vicki’s placenta was infected, so they were both in danger.

But thanks to quick-thinking dad Dan, 38, who used a lace from his work trainers to tie off the placenta, both Vicki and Kayden were fine.

It took another 20 minutes for paramedics to arrive, and when the family got to hospital, nurses praised Dan for his actions.

Guidance around cord-cutting is varied, but it has long been believed delaying cutting the cord can increase birth complications, especially if there is a risk of infection.

Dan, a building and landscape company owner, from Pontypridd, South Wales, said: ‘At the time I hated it.

‘The doctors were all saying Kayden wouldn’t survive a natural birth in hospital as it would be too traumatic for him to go through.

‘So when I realised it was going to be a home birth I started to panic.

‘Then when I realised it was all down to me I was absolutely terrified.

‘When Vicki’s waters broke he just shot out. She was just silent and I was scared I would see my son die in my arms.’

Vicki and Dan found out they were expecting their second baby last October – just weeks after booking their wedding venue.

But at their 20-week scan the couple were told their baby was too small and would need to be monitored with weekly scans and regular doppler monitoring.

Vicki said: ‘He was a twin but unfortunately his twin didn’t make it.

‘The doctors ran some tests but they weren’t entirely sure what the problem was. Only that he wasn’t developing.

‘They said his lungs wouldn’t have developed properly so would have trouble breathing.’

The couple still went forward with the wedding – six days before the birth – and size eight Vicki’s bump was so little she didn’t even need to have her dress refitted.

She was suffering from a suspected placental infection, so was booked in for a planned c-section in 38 weeks, due to doctors fears over a natural labour.

But 12 days before he was due, Vicki woke up in the middle of the night with pains that she initially thought were fake Braxton hicks contractions.

Dan wanted to take her to hospital but Vicki assured him it was fine and they went back to sleep.

But in the morning, she was in more pain and when Dan carried her downstairs to the sofa, her waters broke.

Dan said: ‘That’s when I started to worry. The doctors said he wouldn’t survive a natural birth in hospital.

‘After I grabbed the towels and called 999 I could already see his head.

‘It was sheer panic but I couldn’t freak out as I had to be there for Vicki and Kayden.’

A call handler gave him advice, and 45 minutes later their baby was born – with paramedics still to arrive.

Kayden’s cord was wrapped twice around his neck and it wasn’t long enough to pass him to his mum.

Dan was only wearing his boxers as he had been in the middle of getting dressed when Vicki’s waters broke.

He adds: ‘The operator was telling me to grab anything I could cut the umbilical cord with.

‘That’s when I caught sight of my work shoes in the hallway.

‘I grabbed one them, balanced Kayden on Vicki’s stomach and pulled the lace out.

‘I was just making sure I had tied it up tight enough.

‘I knew if I didn’t cut it right I would have risked poisoning Vicki or Kayden or even both. I had no clue what I was doing.

‘He cried for a few seconds but then he was quiet. He was still breathing but I was so scared.

‘Turns out I managed to do the right thing.’

The paramedics arrived 17 minutes later and the family were rushed to Cardiff University hospital where he spent two-and-a-half weeks in the neonatal unit.

Now four-and-a-half months old baby Kayden routinely visits Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital, Wales, every two weeks where doctors say he is growing at a ‘healthy rate’.

Dan said: ‘When we tell people they always say just how special it is.

‘At the time you don’t think it, you’re just in survival mode.

‘I’m just glad he’s defied the odds and he’s here now.

‘He had a bit of a difficult time for the first weeks of his life being in intensive care.

‘But he’s here now and he’s doing great.

‘We couldn’t be happier.’

Vicki, a former hairdresser added: ‘I’m just such a proud mum and wife.

‘For Kayden to defy the odds and for Dan to step up and save the day was one of the happiest days of my life.’

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