Ellee Seymour

Is there such a thing as a wonder drug? I was interested to read about Polypill, a cheap five-in-one pill which it is claimed can protect against heart attacks and stroke.

It seems to be targeted at the over 55s. But how many of our young people today will reach that age?

During a recent visit to my doctor for a routine blood test, I was also screened for diabetes. I was told by the practice nurse that this test was carried out on all patients because the disease was increasingly affecting younger people. Cases are now being diagnosed on people in their 30s and 40s, when previously the usual age was 60s and 70s.

She told me with an air of despondency that our young people today will day young because of their poor diet and lack of exercise. They are signing their own death warrant by their inertia and ignorance.

The latest worrying news for them is that bowel cancer has increased staggeringly by 120% among the under 30s. Obesity and lack of exercise are blamed for this rise in cases reported between 1997 and 2006.

What is totally shocking about this is that our supermarkets are heaving with healthy foods, and we have an abundance of well equipped gyms, both in the private and public sector. The tools are out there for our young people to avoid an early grave.

Could I suggest that school gyms and sports fields are made available to local communities free of charge during evenings, weekends and school holidays to get them moving. At least it’s a start, and I would welcome your bright ideas on this topic…

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There is still an overwhelming fascination about Barack Obama’s unprecedented use of the social media which took him straight to The White House.

He used it to raise a staggering $668 million and on the day of the election, there were 1.2 billion blog posts written about him. Crucially, Obama used YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and blogs to listen to people and respond. He even set up a special blog called Fight the Smears to deal with lies that his enemies tried to discredit him with, a very clever move.

Obama’s social media techniques are described on this video by Tom Latchford, E-Media consultant for Action Planning who I met recently. He has studied this closely and offers advice to our politiicans about how they can use the same techniques.

I’m not sure whether it would have the same dramatic impact here, but it is great for politicians who understand and use the social media properly. As Tom says, the tools are there, but it is how they are used that matters.

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I imagine it’s the spare room tonight for the shamed husband of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith who was forced into making a humiliating apology for heaping huge embarrassment on his wife over a bungled expenses claim which included two porno films he watched while she was out.

She ‘mistakenly’ submitted an £67 MPs expenses claim which included five pay-per-view films, including the two adult movies which were viewed at her family home in her Redditch constituency, which she has since repaid.

Surely as her parliamentary aide, as well as her nearest and dearest, Richard Timney would have wanted to ensure that there were no financial discrepencies with her expenses, a hot topic at the moment as she is being investigated over the use of her second homes allowance.

And is her husband genuinely sorry for the embarrassment he caused his wife, or is it the fact that the whole world now knows that he watches porno movies on his own, and that this information is under public scrutiny too?

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My MEP Robert Sturdy is a key international trade spokesman and in this video he explains why we need to increase free trade across borders globally and do away with protectionism to help recover from the recession. Is that what G20 world leaders will have in mind when they meet this week?

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This video provides advice from the experts on how charities can use communications to promote their organisations during the economic downturn. It features hot tips from Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow; Mark Webster, Director of Communications with the Charities Aid Foundation; Ted Hart, founder of International ePhilapnthorpy Foundation; and David Senior, Director of Development with  Action Planning, which organised the conference where I met these great speakers.

It is clear that the Web plays an important role and using social networking sites to reach out to audiences. Ted Hart’s expert advice on fundraising should be ignored at your own peril.

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I heard Victoria Woodhall, deputy features editor for You magazine, Mail on Sunday, give this helpful advice at a charity conference, and asked her to share it via my video.

Although it is aimed at the charity sector and describes how they can successfully achieve positive media coverage in a glossy mag, such as You, it is also great advice for the communications industry in general.

I hope you find it interesting. And many thanks Victoria.

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The “shame” and “embarrassment” some people feel about admitting to having cancer has been described in this video by Jola Gore-Booth, founder of europacolon.

“There’s taboo of cancer, there’s still embarrassment. People do not want to admit that they have cancer in Eastern European countries, you are ashamed of it. It means that God thinks you a bad person in some countries,”she said.

This kind of ignorance is killing people and means the work of Jola and her dedicated team is absolutely vital.

My MEP Robert Sturdy hosted the launch of a colorectal cancer campaign in the European Parliament to save lives in the European Union; it is the second year he has supported this great cause.

The charity is strongly urging all 27 member states to fully implement EU recommendations for colorectal cancer screening. Colorectal cancer is the second biggest cause of cancer deaths in Europe and highly treatable if diagnosed early.

Please sign an online pledge in support of europacolon’s Manifesto for Life by visiting their website at this link.

I was told by Jola that I could be at risk as my father died from bowel cancer, and have promised to be tested. She was most insistant that I do this, and so was the fabulous Julia Kennedy, director of operations for europacolon, who is keen that I do this.

Like everyone else, I believe it won’t happen to me, but I shall keep my promise to Jola and Julia.

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How should charities communicate and survive the economic downturn? Peter Bingle, chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Affairs had some sound advice – “deal with Brown, prepare for Cameron.”

It was uncomfortably political for some of the audience at the conference where Peter spoke, but made sound sense to me. I was attending as chair of trustees for Headway Cambridgeshire, and captured Peter’s advice on my video camera.

He recommended making Nick Hurd your new best friend as the Shadow Minister for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering could become Minister of a new body, the Office of Civil Society to promote this sector.  David Cameron’s view is that the third sector should become the first sector, which will be music to the ears of those involved with charities who are struggling to survive and have their voices heard.

The leading PR guru sounds quite confident about a new Conservative government on the horizon and urged charities to act now by talking to the Tory Party, meeting Conservative policy makers and parliamentary candidates  to help write the manifesto and policy agenda for the next government.

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It’s the kind of zany stuff you might have seen featured on BBC’s Tomorrow’s World.

I am totally blown away by the innovativeness of these five far-reaching ideas which have been shortlisted in the Financial Times Climate Change Challenge which I wrote about last November.

You are invited to vote for your winning choice at the FT link here, and the $75,000 prize money will be spent on making the inventor’s dream become a reality.

This is the shortlist for you to choose before the 3 April deadline 3 April:

1. The Black Phantom is a machine that turns wood and organic material into charcoal. This can be used as a fertiliser or burnt in power stations and cooking stoves. Alternatively, this highly stable form of carbon can be stored underground in ‘carbon sinks’ (Carbonscape, New Zealand/UK)

2. Deflecktors are wheel covers that make lorries more fuel efficient by reducing drag. The inexpensive, lightweight fabric devices cover holes in the wheels, cutting fuel consumption by two per cent. The devices also offer money-making opportunities as advertising space (ADEF Ltd., USA)

3. Kyoto Box is a cheap, solar-powered cardboard cooker. The simple design can be made in existing cardboard factories, flat-packed and easily distributed. It could halve firewood use, saving trees and preventing carbon emissions (Kyoto Energy Ltd., Kenya)

4. Mootral is a feed supplement for livestock that reduces the methane they emit by 15 per cent. The garlic-based extract is a natural antibiotic that works by fighting bacteria in the  stomachs of cows and sheep. Neem estimates the world’s herds and flocks are responsible for 20 per cent of global warming (Neem Biotech, UK)

5. Hollow ceiling tiles are used in an air cooling system that can work with or replace traditional air conditioning. Instead of pumping cool air into a room, the tiles are built into a false ceiling to draw warm air out. The process works by evaporating water stored in the tiles (Loughborough University, UK)

I personally favour Mootral. It seems a very simple way to make a huge impact on reducing carbon emissions. I have followed this issue with plant scientists I worked with in the past, as well as my MEP, and it can produce instant results. It’s a win-win.

I did hope to get an invitation to an award winning ceremony to meet one of media idols, Lionel Barber, Editor of the FT. But apparently there isn’t going to be one. I’m hugely disappointed at this, but wish this competition every success. I hope the other brilliant ideas will not be wasted.

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They broke the mould when they made my mother Loula. Like many of her generation, she has had to overcome many hardships. I  remember her telling me how she used to walk miles as a child for a crust of bread to survive the ravages of war.

She had no fun-filled teenage life, living it through a civil war in Greece when more Greeks killed Greeks than Germans in WW2.

The only good thing that came out of it was that she caught the eye of my father who as a soldier was stationed in Thessaloniki and they fell in love, even though they could not speak the same language and communicate.

She was only 16 when as a young bride she stepped foot on the black, flat, Fenland landscape; it couldn’t have been more  different than the stunning blue sea and sky she had left behind. Her parents sold everything they owned in Greece and moved to England to be with her – but were not allowed to stay by the government and had to return.

Ignorance was so great among country folk in those days that when my father told his parents he had married a Greek girl, the first thing they said when they met her was, “thank God she isn’t black!”

She soon made a name for herself as an exotic beauty, and even now, people recall how she looked just like Gina Lollobrigida. And she most certainly did, she was a real head turner, and still is. She still has great legs too, I wish mine were as good as hers!

My mother loves Greek music and plays it constantly. We sing along to it together and drive my family mad. We love the haunting melodies of the tragic love songs, and the thrusting male dominated taverna music. My mother was blessed with a beautiful voice and could easily have been a trained singer if her life had been different. She still sings constantly, it remains one of her greatest pleasures.

My mother loves beautiful clothes and has five wardrobes at home which is constantly updated, thanks to the generosity of my lovely sister Rosalind who owns a dress shop.

She is renowned and admired for her beautiful, flawless skin which is totally wrinkle free, due thankfully to her genes and  rigorous beauty routine. One of the best lessons she taught me was to look after my skin.

She is endlessly amusing and actively encourages us to be “wild and exciting”. My son James is trying hard to live up this expectation! He doesn’t want to disappoint her. Nobody could ever say my mother is dull.

The love for her family has been her sole source of happiness throughout her life. Love is all that matters to my mother, which is why she has never recovered from the death of my father who she was happily married to for more than 50 years. A candle is lit each day by his photo at home. Flowers are placed there too,

While her beauty remains undiminished, I’m sorry to say that all is not well on the inside. She has been cursed with the A-word, far crueller in many ways than the C-word as there is no cure, but she is blissfully unaware. Each minute I spend with her now is so very precious before this cruel disease becomes totally devastating. She is a strong woman and always says she is a fighter. Sadly, this is one fight she will not be able to win.

Happy Mother’s Day to my beautiful and inspiring mum.

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