Singer Lily Allen, 41, is another. She claims her ‘adult ADHD’ is why she limits her time on social media – because ‘as soon as I look at it, it can be hours of my day gone’.
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Have you ever really thought about a certain walk that you’ve taken regularly or perhaps even your whole life? There must be a walk that seems very familiar to you, but when you think about it, do you really know anything about it at all?
Francis Gooding’s routine, half-mile clifftop walk along the Gower Peninsula, near Swansea, has culminated in this fantastic piece of work. The Script Of The Stones transforms a modest walk enjoyed by thousands over the years into a sweeping, multi-dimensional voyage across time and human history.
The narrative expertly sets the tiniest elements of nature – from fragile banded snails and local plant life to ancient limestone laid down 350 million years ago – against the heavy, overlapping shadows of the human past. Caves holding prehistoric mammoth bones sit starkly beside the darker, tangled roots of modern ecological damage.
It weaves the scientific accuracy of geological history with the raw, intimate vulnerability of personal experience. The pacing of the book follows the steady, deliberate cadence of a wanderer who has chosen to finally stop and look down. Gooding forces the reader to confront how climate change destabilises our historical relationship with the natural world largely avoiding romanticism, choosing instead brutal honesty and scientific fact. Part environmental elegy and part intimate love letter to a single patch of south-west Wales, The Script Of The Stones challenges us to rethink what it costs to truly pay attention to the spaces we inhabit whilst indulging in Gooding’s deep affinity to this part of the world.
Kelly has experienced wobbles with her mental health since her breakdown in October 2022 (Image: PA Real Life)
A woman whose debilitating anxiety left her signed off work for over three months following a nervous breakdown has revealed that up to 100 hours of therapy helped her grasp “how much pressure” she had been placing on herself. Kelly Jeffery, 41, a business operations manager based in Hampshire, said that a combination of a broken relationship and a missed career opportunity in 2022 triggered what she describes as a “full mechanical breakdown”.
In the aftermath, Kelly found herself bedridden and unable to wash, brush her teeth or “even look after” her son. She initially received six sessions of therapy through her employer, which she said only “scratched the very tip of the iceberg” before she turned to private treatment.
Kelly credited her private therapist with transforming her outlook, taking her from believing she was “unlovable, unworthy, not good enough and ugly” to now recognising that her “core beliefs” are “completely different” almost four years later. She feels strongly that anxiety is an underestimated mental health condition capable of causing serious harm, adding that it is “probably more prominent than we think”.
Casting her mind back to her breakdown in October 2022, Kelly told PA Real Life: “I call it that because I’m an anxious creature by nature, but I had never before reached a point in my life where I couldn’t function. Maybe there’s the odd day where you don’t sleep, or a day where you don’t quite feel well enough to go to work because you’re a bit jumbly in the nerves.
“But I could barely even look after my child and I could barely even get out of bed to wash or brush my teeth. It was a full mechanical breakdown of a human being and it shocked the life out of me.”, reports MyLondon.
Kelly is ‘really proud’ of how far she has come (Image: PA Real Life)
Kelly revealed she has battled anxiety throughout her entire life, yet had assumed everybody else experienced the same and simply “just dealt with it”. For Kelly, it manifested as “imaginary scenarios” in which she attempted to predict what others thought of her and would then agonise over those concerns.
She said: “It was reading every situation that you’re in, with your guard up in every moment, and comparing yourself to every person.”
Kelly explained that anxiety in academic and workplace environments appeared manageable during her younger years, yet personal romantic relationships were “much harder” as she would find herself “stressing over where they are, what they’re doing or who they’re talking to”. As a result, Kelly was frequently branded a “very emotional person” or a “cry-baby”, which would trigger physical symptoms of anxiety as well.
Kelly said: “I suffered physically with a feeling of dread, trembling hands, cold sweats, a heaviness in my stomach, feeling sick and actually sometimes physically being ill.”
When her relationship came to an end in 2022, Kelly described the split as “largely amicable”, yet she required “a couple of weeks off from work” to deal with practical matters such as the mortgage and furniture while her former partner moved out. As a newly single mother, Kelly felt a mounting pressure to perform at her best professionally in order to support her son financially.
Kelly was often labelled a ‘very emotional person’ (Image: PA Real Life)
By October 2022, she was due to face an interview panel at work regarding a potential promotion, though she admitted the anxiety had “already started bubbling” several weeks beforehand. Kelly took advantage of six complimentary therapy sessions through an employee assistance programme, but conceded they “didn’t really get much further” than her “offloading everything” that she was struggling with.
She said: “We just scratched the very tip of the iceberg. I don’t know that we really got to do very much actual mending of any of my thought patterns.”
As the six weeks drew to a close, Kelly faced the interview panel, which ultimately decided against progressing with the green light for a pathway towards promotion for her at that time. With the enormous pressure she had heaped upon herself to secure the associated pay rise, Kelly described how this setback folded her “like a deck chair”, triggering a complete nervous breakdown.
She said: “It took the wind out of my sails completely… it just destroyed me. In my mind, I heard, ‘You failed and you’re not good enough’.”
The moment she received the devastating news, Kelly was signed off work and ultimately stayed away for three-and-a-half months. During that period, Kelly admitted she could “barely get out of bed” and she “wasn’t taking care” of herself properly.
She initially attempted to protect her son from the extent of her struggles, explaining: “I’d get him off to school in the morning and then go straight back to bed. I’d stay there for most of the day, then get up just before he came home and try to make everything look normal.”
According to mental health and addiction treatment provider Priory, 46% of women say cost-of-living or financial pressures have impacted their mental health in the last 12 months, while 21% of working-age women say job insecurity or pressure at work has impacted their mental health too. Once her six weeks of complimentary therapy concluded, she transitioned to a private medical scheme.
This is how Kelly came to meet her latest therapist, Paul Regan, whom she describes as the person who “changed (her) life”. Beginning with weekly sessions in November 2022, Kelly revealed: “I went into therapy thinking I was unlovable, unworthy, not good enough and ugly.
“I came out of that now with core beliefs that are completely different and I’m not focusing on my outward appearance. There are so many things that I’ve learnt about myself through this process that I would never have known.”
Kelly revealed that her therapist estimates she has undergone up to 100 hours of online-based therapy since 2022, including moments when she has experienced wobbles with her mental health. These encompass a spell in mid-2023 when she was feeling particularly anxious about a relationship, during which she admitted feeling “frustrated” with herself for falling into old thinking patterns.
Kelly’s anxiety meant she had her ‘guard up’ in every moment (Image: PA Real Life)
Kelly said: “I’d called my therapist (Regan) one day from a service station… and I said, ‘Please help me, I don’t know what to do’. The only thought I had in my head every time I passed a lorry (while driving) was (swerving) and that would be that.”
Kelly explained that therapy has helped her gain perspective and described it as “genuinely the best thing” she has “ever done” owing to how much she has discovered about herself. Reflecting on her remarkable progress, she said she is “really proud” of herself and “very grateful” for the support she has received.
Kelly added: “Therapy will be the best thing you ever do. That’s my message to people – if you really commit, it can make all the difference.”
With anxiety and depression rates continuing to climb across the UK, mental health and addiction treatment provider Priory has unveiled a new campaign, Support to Find your Way, offering free self-care resources and professional support through its website.
Call Samaritans for free on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org.
The Specials Live from the Cathedral spans 24 songs and, according to Golding, includes “all the hits you know and love, but also a fair smattering from the Encore album as well”.
The 2019 gigs were “history in the making,” he added.
The Encore album, their first new material in 37 years, gave the band its first number one album in 2019.
“I think it was our best album,” explained Golding, “you listen to the songs and Terry’s writing, that guy should have been voted the best songwriter in England from years ago.”
The new live album “to me is the most important record coming out this year,” he explained.
The themes were as important today as 40 years ago, such as weapons of mass destruction, nuclear war, gun violence and disaffected youths, he said.
“How many songs are there about teenage pregnancy now, ” Golding added.
“We talked about it yesterday and we’re here with it today, and I think hasn’t anybody learned anything from what we said?”
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“So I move halfway across the globe and it’s right here at my doorstep – yeah, it’s brilliant,” said Monger, who has lived in the UK for more than 15 years.”
“Star Wars is just all over the place, especially where I grew up.
Since the film crews left, the location has become a magnet for fans thanks to Monger and her fellow Blackpool-based fan Neil Trickett.
Trickett, 41, said the pair teamed up on a social media after realising they live near each other and agreed to meet at the filming location in Cleveleys.
He added: “We very quickly put a plan together for some kind of free public event.”
Four years later, hundreds of devotees, some from as far away as eastern Europe, come to meet like-minded fans, take photos, buy merchandise and talk all things Star Wars.
Losing vast amounts of weight quickly might sound like an attractive prospect, but it can leave you with folds of loose, saggy skin.
And as an estimated 3.3million adults in the UK are expected to use weight-loss injections this year, many of whom can expect to lose around 20 per cent of their body weight within a year, this is a growing problem.
The approval of a pill form of Wegovy by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) last month, will likely add to the numbers affected.
The drugs work by mimicking the GLP-1 hormone in our gut that tells the brain we are full. ‘People rapidly lose a lot of weight with GLP-1 medications,’ says Dr Rakesh Anand, a consultant dermatologist at Skin Associates, a private clinic in London, and a spokesman for the British Skin Foundation.
‘But if you think of your skin as an envelope, if you lose a lot of fat and potentially muscle too, then the envelope can’t catch up with what’s inside,’ he adds.
‘If the skin has been stretched beyond its ability to recoil, it may not fully adapt to the body’s new shape, leaving excess skin behind.’
And, he adds, ‘The longer and more significantly skin has been stretched, the less likely it is to fully recoil.’
It is mainly the proteins collagen and elastin within the dermis (the middle layer of the skin) which help skin stay tight – and it’s not only weight loss that has an impact on this.
After the use of weight-loss jabs, skin is often stretched beyond its ability to recoil and so may struggle adapt to the body’s new shape, leaving saggy excess skin behind
‘We know that collagen levels naturally fall after your 30s, and that there’s another dip for women when they hit menopause,’ says Dr Anand.
‘That’s why if you rapidly lost weight in your 20s, you might not get the same kind of sagging of the skin as someone in their 50s or 60s because your collagen levels will be higher.
‘Sun damage makes saggy skin more likely generally and after weight loss, as UV radiation damages collagen and elastin fibres over time, making skin thinner and less elastic’, he adds. ‘Smoking also promotes the breakdown of collagen and elastin and impairs the skin’s ability to repair itself, resulting in thinner, less resilient skin.’
Dr Anand says limiting weight loss to roughly two pounds per week and ensuring your diet includes protein foods such as eggs, fish and meat, – ideally at every meal – prevents loss of muscle and supports the production of collagen, so boosting skin elasticity and helping to prevent saggy skin.
The gold standard treatment for saggy skin is surgery to remove it, but most rely instead on over-the-counter products that promise to help.
But can skin creams and home treatments really banish the aftereffects of rapid weight loss on your skin?
Here, Dr Anand gives his verdicts on six products that claim to make a difference.
We then rated them.
1. Elastik Skin system
£225 (for five different skincare products) elastikskin.com
This set includes five different skincare products including creams, serums, oils and gels which are ‘designed to support skin experiencing visible change during GLP-1 weight loss journeys focusing on hydration, elasticity, barrier comfort, texture and the appearance of firmness’.
Made with natural ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, antioxidants, ceramides, peptides and bakuchiol (a plant-based alternative to retinol – a derivative of vitamin A that improves collagen production). You use two every morning and three each evening.
An optional silicone LED face and neck mask – which uses light therapy said to ‘boost collagen and firm skin’ – is available for £299 and can be used morning or night, once or twice a week at first.
Consultant dermatologist Dr Rakesh Anand says this set from Elastik is more likely to result in small changes, such as skin plumping, rather than any meaningful difference in tightening
EXPERT VERDICT: ‘These claim to improve connective tissue support in the skin but essentially the main thing the creams will do is hydrate the skin and support the production of collagen.
‘Creams can only do so much as they primarily affect the outer layers of the skin, whereas loose skin is fundamentally a structural issue, so I doubt you’ll get a meaningful difference in tightening, but you might notice small cosmetic benefits such as plumping of the skin.
‘One of the products contains peptides, to increase collagen, elastin and other structural proteins. But there’s limited research on whether peptides can get to where they need to go through skincare.
‘As for LED light, it can moderately increase collagen production and reduce inflammation, but these masks are quite expensive and the return for what you achieve is relatively small.’
RATING: 5/10
2. Masderm RF Body Flaccidity Treatment
£114, masderm.com
This small, handheld radiofrequency device comes with a body firming cream (containing among other things horsetail, a vegan alternative to retinol) which needs to be used morning and night.
Said to ‘promote the formation of collagen and elastin, helping to improve skin firmness,’ the device should be used at least three times a week for ten minutes on each affected area of the body.
This hand-held radiofrequency device, which comes with a body firming cream, helps improve the skin’s strength and elasticity
EXPERT VERDICT: ‘Essentially the radiofrequency targets the middle layer of the skin, and the heat energy given off is meant to encourage collagen production. It also encourages cells, such as fibroblasts, the main cells responsible for producing collagen and elastin, which provide strength, support and elasticity to the skin to keep it firm and prevent it sagging.
‘There are similar more powerful radiofrequency devices used in clinics (where they’re used by a trained specialist). At-home devices like this one are much less powerful and could plausibly help it’s difficult to know by how much.’
RATING: 8/10
3. Absolute Collagen Sculpt Pro Total GLP-1 Supplement Support
£99.98 for a 28-day supply, absolutecollagen.com
This claims to be the first supplement in the UK designed to support people taking GLP-1 medications and promises to help with side-effects, including improving skin elasticity.
Its key ingredient for this is 8,000mg marine collagen that comes as a sachet to be mixed with water and is taken in the morning.
The main ingredient in this supplement is marine collagen, which is meant to be mixed in with water and taken each morning
EXPERT VERDICT: ‘There isn’t a huge amount of evidence that collagen taken orally supports the skin as it is broken down into amino acids and peptides during digestion, but there’s no evidence that these will specifically be directed towards collagen production in the skin rather than being used elsewhere in the body.
‘This product also contains creatine which has been shown to support muscle growth and increased muscle mass may improve body contouring, even if it does not directly tighten excess skin.
‘It’s quite an expensive option.’
RATING: 6/10
4. Vol.U.Lift GLP-1 4D Skin Rebound Complex
£93.50 for 57g, cheshirelasers-shop.co.uk
A cream said to combat deflation or ‘hollow skin’ – deep wrinkles resulting from dramatic weight loss, specifically in the face and neck.
Active ingredients include L-ornithine amino acid, bakuchiol (a type of plant retinol), plant collagen fragments and kangaroo paw flower, which contains rutin, a compound said to increase skin elasticity.
Although this cream would certainly improve hydration, Dr Anand says it cannot guarantee to make up for the skin’s lost fat volume after weight-loss jabs
EXPERT VERDICT: ‘Fat loss sometimes results in a hollow-looking face from weight-loss injections and skincare products cannot replace the lost fat volume.
‘While this cream would improve hydration and make the skin look a bit plumper, the amino acids listed in the ingredients won’t do much for the skin.
There is less evidence for the effectiveness of bakuchiol, a (plant-based retinol) compared with standard retinol, which is made from vitamin A.’
RATING: 4/10
5. Paula’s Choice Skin-Smoothing Retinol Body Treatment
£34 for 118ml, paulaschoice.co.uk
A lotion made with 0.1 per cent of retinol, as well as antioxidants and emollients, such as shea butter, it claims to ‘deliver softer, firmer, more radiant-looking skin all over’.
The retinoids in this treatment from Paula’s Choice will improve the skin’s texture, smoothness and overall quality
EXPERT VERDICT: ‘Retinoids, made from vitamin A, are the gold standard in skincare. We know that they improve the texture of skin, stimulate collagen production and improve skin texture when used regularly. I don’t think it’s going to make a big difference to very saggy skin, but it will improve texture, quality and smoothness of skin.
‘But you can experience irritation from using retinoids on your skin, particularly if you have dry, eczema-prone or sensitive skin, so some people may want to use it two or three times a week rather than every day. It should be avoided when you’re pregnant, planning to get pregnant or breastfeeding.
‘People should be aware that retinoids can increase sensitivity to UV rays from the sun.’
RATING: 8/10
6. Sera Vacuum Body Contour Device
£189, projectebeauty.com
This handheld device with a suction cup to place on the skin delivers vacuum therapy said to ‘improve circulation, as well as electro-muscle stimulation (EMS), and red-light therapy to boost collagen and tighten the skin’.
Dr Anand says this suction device could tighten the skin temporarily but is unlikely to deliver long-term results
EXPERT VERDICT: ‘Vacuum therapy can create a suction, and we know that suction can help to improve circulation. So it might temporarily tighten and firm the skin and reduce swelling and puffiness, but I think it’s impact would be limited and is unlikely to achieve long-term benefits.’
RATING: 5/10
A walk of fame celebrating Harlesden’s reggae heritage has been launched in north-west London.
The Harlesden Walk of Music’s commemorative discs pay homage to musicians, producers and record shops that made the area the reggae capital of the UK, from the arrival of the Windrush generation onwards.
Inspired by the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the project was created by community group Harlesden Bassline in partnership with Brent Council, using £70,000 of funding from the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
It launched on International Reggae Day, 1 July, honouring artists with links to the area including Janet Kay, Aswad, General Levy, and The Cimarons.
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Robert Fisk says he may stop taking his lifeline (Image: Daily Express)
How often do you pay attention to the little leaflet inside a packet of medicine? Do you throw it away or just get annoyed because it always seems to be located at the end of the box that you’ve opened? I used to do the same, but now discussions with my doctors involve trying to work out which drugs will be the least dangerous. Yes, instead of simply thinking about what’s the best medicine for my health issue, they have to think about which combination is least likely to kill me.
This is especially true as my major health issue is incurable bowel cancer and, following on from recent scan results, I’ve learned that the cancer is growing. It’s only growing in the areas where it has been present for the past three years, but there is a danger that some of these cells may split off and start multiplying in other parts of the body.
If this happens, there’s a chance my plan to go to Wimbledon next year (the tennis tournament, not just the town) would be impossible, as I’d be dead.
This definitely wouldn’t be a good look, so my cancer doctors have represcribed a chemotherapy drug called oxaliplatin, which would come with a massive leaflet if it were something you could get from a high street pharmacy.
Instead, it comes with a lengthy information session with a nurse before the first treatment. This includes being told that you may feel your throat is closing up and leaving you feeling unable to breathe.
I’ve seen people surrounded by medical staff and worried relatives after the emergency button gets pressed, when they are given this drug for the first time.
This isn’t my first rodeo with the drug, as it was part of my treatment plan for the first year of cancer. The maximum number of times it’s recommended to be given to patients is 12 because the side effects can be completely devastating. I had it 20 times, and then one more time when it was incorrectly prescribed last year.
And, by the time you read this, I will have just had my 22nd dose of the drug. It’s been effective inside me before and helped reduce my initial massive tumour into a much smaller mass in my bowel.
But, this isn’t without its risks, as the long-term side effects can be devastating.
I was lucky last time as the tingling in my hands only lasted six to eight hours afterwards, and the pain when touching cold things wore off after a few days. And I know all the tips of the trade, like wearing gloves when getting things out of the freezer and getting drinks from the fridge.
But I’ve also seen how badly it can affect people, leaving them unable to walk or grip things properly – so effectively helpless in their own lives.
It is a massive worry that this will happen to me too. I’ll do my best to prevent it by keeping a side effects diary to show my medical team just how much it is affecting me. And, if necessary, I’ll refuse to have the treatment.
I’ll also do my best not to let the worries about the side effects and about the cancer progressing define me. The easiest way to do this is by having as much fun as I can.
This included just an hour after getting the scan results when I roped in my mum to be my photographer at a lavender farm.
It was nice to just be completely away from hospital life, and it was the closest I’ve got to a holiday so far this year (especially as there was an Italian man in the cafe afterwards).
Maybe I’ll get further afield one day, if the chemotherapy side-effects don’t finish me off.