Category Archive : Health

Andrew (right) was fit and healthy, so I was sure he could survive (Picture: Milica Davies) ‘I am really sorry because you are a young man and this is a life limiting condition.’  After months of waiting for answers, the neurologist delivered them with crushing clarity.  It was October 2024, and my husband Andrew had […]

I knew my life was at risk (Picture: Donna Green Photography) Lying in bed next to my husband, John, I writhed in agony. Something was horribly, terribly wrong. ‘John, I’m dying,’ I managed to cry out in pain. It was 4am in March 2009 and our then-four-year-old son was asleep in the house so John jumped […]

My speech came out slurred and all of a sudden, I wasn’t making any sense at all (Picture: Tayler Laycy) Three months after the birth of my second child, I was home alone with my three-month-old baby son, talking on the phone to my best friend, Melanie. Ever since we’d bonded at work as administrators […]

It was not easy, but then I never expected it to be (Picture: Duncan Lindsay for metro.co.uk) Defeating my eating disorder has undoubtedly been the biggest achievement in my life to date. I say ‘defeating’ – and that’s very much what I identify it as – but anyone with the illness will know that it […]

Pink mould thrives in an English winter (Picture: Getty Images) Everyone knows about the dangers of black mould, but what about its pal, pink mould? The pinkish-reddish-toned bacteria – yes, bacteria, not technically mould – loves the moist, damp conditions of an English winter. And while you may have spotted it and decided it’s an […]

I decided to give up eating in front of anyone entirely – even those closest to me (Picture: Photography by Tracey-Louise) Shakily biting into a small spoonful of paella, I silently prayed that my partner, Piyus, wasn’t watching.  Even though we’d been dating for a whole year, I hadn’t dared eat in front of him […]

I can’t imagine myself with hair now (Picture: Reid Rolls) ‘I don’t want you to feel insecure,’ my mum said, as she looked at me with pity, ‘we will pay for a hair transplant.’  I was only 18, which is young to be balding but the process had actually started a few years before that. […]

Caption: Sir Nick Partridge (Picture: Sir Nick Partridge / Alan Davidson/REXShutterstock / Getty) As I picked the photograph off the desk, my heart stopped. There were seven of us in it – but I suddenly realised, within five years of it being taken, only three of us were still alive. It was taken in the […]

Richard Scarborough lost his partner, Paul, to AIDS in 1996 (Picture: Richard Scarborough) I was volunteering at George House Trust – a charity which offers support to people living with HIV – cataloguing their archive, when I reached for a large black leather album. I could feel the tears welling up as I flicked the pages to the […]

Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi (M) gives a thumbs up before a run (Picture: Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi) Depressed. Isolated. Disconnected. These were the main things my patient, Seamus*, was feeling when he came to me for help in February last year.  As a GP I see my fair share of patients and treat all manner of physical […]