The Queen’s diamond jubilee Blue Peter competition

Posted by on Oct 31, 2010 in News | 4 comments The Queen has asked young Blue Peter viewers to design the official logo for her diamond jubilee in 2012.  It’s a canny way of engaging with today’s young people who may not have strong royalist views. And it made me think of my husband’s Blue Peter moment which nearly ended in disaster. Perhaps Her Majesty is keen to be presented with her own highly coveted Blue Peter badge,...
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The great value of university alumni

Posted by on Oct 30, 2010 in university | 10 comments They say it’s not what you know, but who you know, and never has this been more essential than now for our troubled universities facing huge uncertainties over future funding. It means they actively need the support of any influential and glittering alumni – and preferably very rich ones – to act as their ambassadors and generously support fund-raising campaigns, as well as...
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Crucial parliamentary debate on missing people

Posted by on Oct 25, 2010 in The missing | 13 comments A crucial parliamentary debate is being held tomorrow challenging the government’s decision to axe its charity funding. Missing People is urging as many people as possible to contact their MP and request they attend this debate. The charity has issued a statement saying: “This is a critical time for missing persons. As it stands, government funding cuts mean that, in one blow, the...
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An inspirational woman sold for £20

Posted by on Oct 25, 2010 in university | 4 comments I learned about a very special woman last week during a visit to Girton College, Cambridge.  This was established as the UK’s first woman’s college in 1869 and located two miles north of the city centre to discourage “marauding male” undergraduates and it wasn’t until 1979 that males were admitted. The college has a glittering alumni, including Arianna Huffington,...
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Is Wayne Rooney worth £50 million?

Posted by on Oct 22, 2010 in News | 12 comments Wayne Rooney brilliantly played Alex Ferguson and Manchester United with his sure footed manoeuvres to score his best victory yet - reportedly doubling his £90,000 a week salary following lame threats to join Manchester City. This has been calculated to equate to £936 per hour!!! Rooney’s walk-out threats led to extraordinary scenes outside his home last night by militant United fans who...
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Blood donors and ME update

Posted by on Oct 19, 2010 in updates | 19 comments This is a guest post by Christine Douglas who is updating us on the important issue of blood donors who have ME which she first highlighted in this post three months ago, and it attracted many comments and widespread interest. Christine is actively campaigning for urgent improvements to be made for the screening of blood donors in the UK and has called for an international collaboration of blood...
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A stabbing, uni visit and ferris wheel ride in Sheffield

Posted by on Oct 19, 2010 in university | 2 comments My younger son James wanted to visit Sheffield Hallam University’s open day to have some back-up in case he fails to get into his first choice, which is Nottingham Trent, a firm favourite with many students I speak to, and well oversubscribed. As we approached the university, I found myself driving down a nearby backstreet as I wasn’t sure where my sat nav was directing me – and...
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If you need a helping hand, try a First Direct Buddy

Posted by on Oct 19, 2010 in Sponsored Post, updates | 1 comment First Direct demonstrates its close customer service both inside and outside its bank with the launch of an exciting new Buddy app. You can learn about it in this fun viral video where their specially trained staff are keen to show  they will go the extra mile for anyone who needs a helping hand, that their bank delivers a very personal service in today’s technological era. You first saw...
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The day I met Simon MacCorkindale at Headway Cambridgeshire

Posted by on Oct 15, 2010 in Headway | 5 comments I was stunned to learn of the death of actor Simon MacCorkindale of cancer, aged only 58. He was a great supporter of Headway and was truly fabulous when he visited us at our Cambridge centre two years ago. Simon also had a local connection as he was born in Ely and retained close ties with his mother who lived outside Cambridge. At the time Simon was on tour with a theatre group performing in...
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Made in Dagenham – the real women behind it

Posted by on Oct 15, 2010 in News | 3 comments I was confused when I saw Made in Dagenham last week as at the end it included some black and white news clippings from the 1960s showing older women on strike, while the film used much younger women. The successful and inspiring film is a dramatisation of the 1968 strike at the Ford Dagenham car plant where female workers walked out in protest against sexual discrimination over pay. But how...
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Camp Hope – The Great Escape

Posted by on Oct 13, 2010 in News | 6 comments I had planned to stay up and watch the first Chilean miner being brought to the surface – ending 69 agonising days beneath the earth’s surface. I had wanted to share their exhilaration and see their faces as they were reunited with their loved ones. I’m afraid I nodded off as this didn’t happen until 4am, but I immediately switched on to Sky News first thing this morning...
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Some questions for Lord Browne over soaring university tuition fees

Posted by on Oct 12, 2010 in university, updates | 2 comments The radical review of university tuition fees by Lord Browne will allow universities to charge unlimited fees. It proposes a free market in fees, though universities charging more than £6,000 a year would lose a proportion of the fee to help cover the cost of student borrowing. Not only does this sound complicated, it will also deter many poorer students from applying, and even “middle...
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James Cracknell and Headway

Posted by on Oct 11, 2010 in Headway | 3 comments All charities are very grateful for any celebrity endorsement they can get, though we do not seek it from such tragic circumstances as this. Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell sustained a devastating brain injury this July while cycling in America, and I am pleased to learn that the champion rower has been making good progress since his return to the UK. His stunning wife Beverley Turner, a...
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How did you spend 10/10/10?

Posted by on Oct 10, 2010 in Personal | 15 comments Today is 10/10/10 and is meant to be incredibly lucky for some. I spent the day visiting a stunning garden which is only open three times a year to the public. It is close to where I live and I can’t understand why I have never visited it before. I can thank one of my blog readers for alerting me to today’s open day, and I took my friend Wendy with me, an art conservator and...
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Did you meet the underground strike buddies in Covent Garden?

Posted by on Oct 9, 2010 in Sponsored Post, UnrulyMedia, updates | 3 comments Who brightened up the day for frustrated London commuters when they faced more chaos and severe disruption caused by the latest underground strike action? Were you one of the commuters in Covent Garden cheered up by a random act of kindness from a mystery team of buddies? Just check these videos to see if you can identify which company sprang into action to live up to its name – from...
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The Eagles have landed!

Posted by on Oct 8, 2010 in Uncategorized | 3 comments Besides the surprise of seeing the considerable lead Yvette Cooper had with 232 votes in a Shadow Cabinet ballot – what would have happened if she had entered the Labour leadership contest instead of her husband? – I was not expecting such strong support for twin sisters Maria and Angela Eagle, neither of whom are household names. Maria Eagle, 49, (left) is the new Shadow Transport...
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Johnny Depp school visit – if you don’t ask, you don’t get!

Posted by on Oct 8, 2010 in News | 5 comments The surprise visit of Hollywood hearthrob Johnny Depp to a primary school after being sent a letter by a nine-year-old schoolgirl asking him to help her classmates “mutiny” against the teachers just proves that if you don’t ask, you don’t get, and nothing is impossible. Shocked staff at the school in Greenwich had only 10 minutes notice that the world’s most famous...
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The complexities of international adoption

Posted by on Oct 8, 2010 in updates | 2 comments International adoptions should not just be accessible for celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Madonna. I’ve heard of two stories about about these adoptions recently – one is inspiring, and the other is tragic, denying a young boy left disfigured after being thrown face down on a fire, the chance of a loving home. I’ll tell you about 10year-old Kevin Wafula first who was flown...
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Dating 2.0, create your perfect man

Posted by on Oct 7, 2010 in Sponsored Post | 12 comments Hand picking the perfect man, bit by bit. This video should put a smile on your face Why not use one the social network tabs and share this with your friends too, put a smile on their face as well ...
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UK agency axed which helps find missing people

Posted by on Oct 7, 2010 in The missing | 1 comment The families of missing people are devastated to learn that the National Policing Improvement Agency which helps find missing people in the UK is to be axed to save government funding. The NPIA maintains a database of 44,000 people listed on its Missing Persons’ Bureau, and it also has a database of unidentified bodies. It provides funding and operational support for police to conduct cold...
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Damien Nettles, missing 14 years, and his heartbroken mother’s search continues

Posted by on Oct 7, 2010 in The missing | 0 comments This is the heartbreaking story of Valerie Nettles, whose lovely son Damien has been missing for 14 years next month, and whose search still continues: We were an ordinary family, doing ordinary everyday things as life hummed along in a comfortable hum-drum way.  Then one night, my 16 year old son went out with his friends one wet windy cold night in November in Cowes on the Isle of Wight and he...
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Conservative child benefit cuts

Posted by on Oct 6, 2010 in Conservative Party Conference | 13 comments What a wonderful picture of David and Samantha Cameron with their new baby daughter. And families, of course, was the hot topic at this week’s Conservative Party Conference. I am also confused at government plans that from 2013, will remove child benefit from families with at least one parent earning more than about £44,000 a year, but it will not affect families where two parents earn...
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Chilean miners could be free within days

Posted by on Oct 6, 2010 in News | 4 comments The countdown has begun for the release of 33 Chilean miners trapped 2,300ft in a tunnel since 5 August – everybody’s worst nightmare. It is hoped that rescuers will reach the trapped men with the next two days, and that they could be free within days. Just last week, rescuers estimated a late-October pullout from the shelter. Now President Sebastian Pinera has changed the expected ...
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Did Onassis have Bobby Kennedy killed?

Posted by on Oct 5, 2010 in News, updates | 2 comments I’ve booked  tickets to see the new West End play Onassis starring Robert Lindsay. But I am perturbed that the storyline is based on a book which essentially claims that the Greek shipping magnate arranged the murder of  Bobby Kennedy which has never been proven. But then neither has the writer Peter Evans been gagged from making these astonishing allegations in his book Nemesis,...
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Congratulations to Nobel Prize winner Prof Robert Edwards

Posted by on Oct 4, 2010 in News, updates | 7 comments Congratulations to scientist Prof Robert Edwards on being awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine. But why has it taken so long for him to achieve this worldwide recognition? The pioneering IVF treatment he developed with  Dr Patrick Steptoe at Bourn Hall Clinic, near Cambridge (he died in 1988) – resulted in test tube babies as we know them – and more than 4 million babies have been...
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