Balsam

The very best end of a September when I got to listen not once but twice to one of my gurus in Public Health Sir Michael Marmot first at #Healthworks30 and later at #NewcastleUniversity #Insights #Lectures Today I have had a dose of #hope that will last for a long time.

Thank you

#GreatNorth10K My 1st. Only ever did #ParkRun & #WingsForLife solo runs. For a long time I’ve had low confidence. Standing in the 1st wave among competent runners a moment of self doubt creeped but I brushed away.Today I proved a lot to myself & my time was better than I ever imagined #selfbelief

Baking at almost midnight. My cat watched and watched over me. He has wisely decided to give in or give up and go to sleep 😴

After more than 10 years my Jasmine tree is finally in full bloom. I have always kept faith and hope that one day it will thrive and have kept on doing all I can for this happen. #Hope #Perseverence #Faith #nevergiveup

Equity of Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Children and Young People With Type 1 Diabetes: A Systematic Review Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) and ethnic inequalities in type 1 diabetes (T1D) outcomes are well-established. There is concern that unequal access to technologies, including continuous gluco....

#Type1Diabetes #CGM #CYP #Inequalities
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Reform councillors aged 19 and 22 in charge of children’s and adult services at local authority Social workers raise questions over clash of values and lack of experience of new lead members at Leicestershire County Council

new.basw.co.uk/about-social...

“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.”- Mother Teresa

“Digging deep”, an article my son wrote in the SIA Magazine Summer edition. This is a reflection of a trip of a lifetime to Southeast Asia last year & what he learnt as a young person with a recent spinal injury.

#SpinalCordInjury #Accessibility #Travel #WheelchairUser #SelfDiscovery #LifeLessons

I ordered your book and picking it from my local Waterstones this Saturday. I can’t wait to read it. Congratulations

The fact this is a decision by #AccessToWork is shocking #Touretteshero artistic work gave many opportunities to other disabled artists, my son included. I am saddened and angered to read this.

I am deeply saddened to read this. I know how much the work means to you but also the impact it has had on other disabled artists. So sorry & what a sad world we live in

It is. A friend advised me to fly to Poland from Newcastle on a cheap airline and then from there to London. She worked it out as cheaper. We aren’t flying for various reasons including mainly the environmental.

Yup. The carbon footprint of having to pursue an alternative course of action that is financially attainable is ridiculously high. We all know this is a financial rip off & the reasons: greed & lack of political commitment to change the status quo. If other countries can do it why can’t the UK?

As a country we can’t be serious about addressing climate change if prices of travel on public transport, especially trains, continue to soar exponentially. These👇are discounted return prices for 2 adults (disabled person card) travelling between Newcastle to London in late July. Unethical!

Ending visas for overseas Care Workers will likely result in Care Homes being unable to recruit & poor care for their residents. This might be you, your relatives or your friends.

Unless @teamlabouruk.bsky.social is prepared to increase payments to homes at the same time. Somehow I doubt that.

“Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better” Albert Einstein

Stunning sunset at Paddy Freeman, Newcastle upon Tyne

A memory from four years ago when my son was an inpatient in hospital. He wrote this note & the play specialist in the ward laminated & attached on curtains around his bed in a bay. Evidence suggests that protecting patients’ #privacy during hospitalisation is an important element of #dignifiedCare

Map reveals residential wood-burning hotspots in England and Wales Researchers analyse energy performance certificate data to identify areas with potentially high particle pollution

Where are all wood burners in England & Wales?

Urban areas outside major cities are likely to have the worst #airpollution from wood burning.

New mapping highlights #Worthing, #Norwich, #Reading, #Cambridge & #Hastings.

Study led by @ucl.ac.uk. Story by me.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The Perfect Storm: Measles Resurgence in an Era of Vaccine Disinformation and the Dismantling of Public Health | Milbank Memorial Fund In 2024, we warned about the potential for measles resurgence in the United States, due to declining vaccination rates and growing religious and other

Vaccine Disinformation
Dismantling of Public Health
Very limited primary care infrastructure
Falling routine vaccination

= Measles Resurgence

And an outbreak that will be very difficult to stop

www.milbank.org/quarterly/op...

Unravelling the linkages between conflict and antimicrobial resistance - npj Antimicrobials and Resistance The compounded impacts of conflicts, natural disasters and climate change increasingly fuel the development and spread of drug-resistant organisms while weakening mitigation efforts through failed gov...

Important & timely paper #AMR #ArmedConflict #Displacement #ClimateEmergency #Disasters #Poverty

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

A gorgeous morning more so as my marshalling volunteering position in Parkrun could not have been more perfect: I was in a sunny spot opposite the picnic field & next to a field of wild garlic. Being here I get a positive dose of hope & energy that will last for a week.

Wishing all a joyful Easter

Michelin-starred chef to host luxury five-course meal benefitting disabled kids Chef Kenny Atkinson will be cooking up a huge fundraiser with the team at Smile For Life Children’s Charity

Ah that is lovely!
www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/foo...

85% of NHS medicines could be at risk due to tariff trade friction, ministers warned Ministers must treat medicines supplies as a ‘defence’ issue as it faces ‘hostile activity’ over the brewing trade war

“It makes complete sense [to treat it like defence], particularly as we have various state actors engaged in grey zone hostile activity. A good example of that is antibiotics. We don’t make any antibiotics in the UK: that’s not a resilient situation to be in.”

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

Integrated Care Board Cuts – What Does It All Mean? | The King's Fund A seismic shift or a trivial tweak? We asked our policy experts how the cuts to integrated care board running costs might play out in reality.]

Integrated care board cuts – what does it all mean?

Is the complete overhaul of the function and purpose of ICBs a seismic shift or a trivial tweak? We asked our policy experts how the cuts to ICB running costs might play out in reality.

Read the full blog. buff.ly/Y8Kebp3

UK creating ‘murder prediction’ tool to identify people most likely to kill Algorithms allegedly being used to study data of thousands of people, in project critics say is ‘chilling and dystopian’

I can help the government predict who's likely to kill, but they won't like the answer
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

A great thread #vaccines #Immunisation #VaccinePreventableDiseases #Outbreaks #Policy #AntiVaxxers #MMR #PublicTrust #PublicHealth

Once again, the short termism of administrative cost cutting. Yes, you can have a workforce that is entirely made up of clinicians, but who will communicate with patients? Make sure people turn up to appointments? Fix things when they go wrong?

We are in this situation because we did this in 2012

Good question. I expect the impact of these job losses will hit more in the North of England given our local economy and reliance on work in the public sector. We are already seeing job losses in local universities and ? in the automotive industry such as Nissan as globally operations are cut

Hospitals in England could shed 100,000 jobs in response to cost-cutting orders Exclusive: Scale of looming job losses prompts NHS leaders to ask Treasury to cover costs

This is madness.

Administrative staff are essential to allow clinical staff to do their jobs.

All initiatives like this do is add more admin tasks to the workload of clinical staff who are already being asked to look after more people for less and less.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...