An arcade owner has put toilet roll, soap and hand sanitiser as prizes - in GRABBER machines
Image by: Adam Harnett
An arcade owner has put toilet roll, soap and hand sanitiser as prizes - in GRABBER machines.
Rob Braddick, 48, owns Ho Barts Amusement Arcade and noticed that stocks of toilet roll were running low in his local supermarket.
He then decided to buy as many as he could, and used his stock to replace the toys and teddy bears in his grabbing machines.
Rob said that there were still products available to buy in his area, but hoped that people would flock to his amusement arcade in Westward Ho!, Devon, when they got desperate.
Image by: Adam Harnett
Image by: Adam Harnett
Image by: Adam Harnett
Rob said: "We evicted the character from Frozen and the Peter Rabbit teddy bears and replaced them with hand sanitiser and toilet rolls.
"We also have a large machine that used to have a Spider Man doll, but now there is a large Curex soap in there - that's the Rolls-Royce of hand sanitisers.
"We test it, it's possible to win them but it is hard. We've lad people coming in to have a go but I don't think anyone has won yet.
"It's been a bit quiet so far but I think people will start coming in to have a look.
"There are still some toilet rolls on the shelves around here so I guess people aren't that desperate yet."
Rob also owns the nearby Braddick Holiday Centre, which employs around 100 people.
He said that they are taking the coronavirus scare very seriously, and have implemented a strict hand-washing policy for staff.
Rob continued: "We have a lot of staff at the holiday centre and the arcade, and we've put in measures where people have to wash their hands every half hour.
"So far the effect of the outbreak is unclear, we're still getting people ringing up and booking holidays - but it's early days and things could get worse."
Baker creates a LIFE-SIZED Karl Lagerfeld cake to mark the one-year anniversary of his death
Image by: Matthew Newby SWNS
A British baker has created a LIFE-SIZED cake of German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld to mark the one year anniversary of his death.
Confectionary artist Debbie Wingham, 38, used 195 eggs, 44lbs of sugar paste, 13 bags of flour and over 15,000 baby marshmallows to create the edible sculpture - which stands at 5'10 tall and weighs 287 pounds.
"I made it with all the vital statistics of the late, great Karl Lagerfeld," said Wingham, who spent 11 days building the creation for an unnamed German businesswoman.
“The person who commissioned it shares my passion for this legend in couture,” added Wingham.
The cake was even made to taste like the late Karl's favorite food, toasted corn bread.
"It is a sweet corn bread cake with honey salted butter frosting," said Wingham.
The sugary model depicts Lagerfeld in his signature black sunglasses, monochromatic
suit, fingerless gloves, and starched, detachable collar.
“Every detail in this cake embodies King Karl,” said Wingham who sculpted the legs from rice crispy treats, bonded with butter and marshmallows.
Image by: Matthew Newby SWNS
Image by: Matthew Newby SWNS
Image by: Matthew Newby SWNS
The facial likeness of the former Chanel honcho was achieved with the help of Israeli sculptor Mike Viner, who traditionally works in clay, but turned his hand to modeling chocolate on Wingham’s request.
“Working in modeling chocolate is a little different from what I’m used to, and I was somewhat worried when I accepted the challenge,” said Viner.
Adding: “But the result of both mine and Debbie’s sculpting skills together are the perfect combination.”
Wingham is hailed as one of the top sugar artists in the world, with clients including Drake, Tim Burton and Justin Bieber.
In 2018 she famously made a “cake-a-like of Kim Kardashian.
“
Sculpting Kim Kardashian’s curves in cake was no easy job,” she said.
“But making Karl was even more difficult.
“I have always had much admiration for Karl and every job I do is always important to me, but to date this cake was definitely my most important edible creation.
"I hope Karl would have approved.”
Karl Lagerfeld died in Paris, France on 19 February 2019 at the age of 85 after a battle with cancer.
Video by: Ashley Moran
GARDEN HORROR - A dad-of-two almost died after catching a rare flesh eating bug when he cut his hand GARDENING
Image by: Steve Palmer
A dad-of-two almost died after catching a rare flesh eating bug when he cut his hand GARDENING.
Steve Palmer, 34, nicked the middle finger on his right hand while clearing debris which had swept into his garden from a river during the recent floods.
He thought nothing of it until the next morning when his finger appeared red and swollen.
Steve went to work with his father-in-law but was stunned when his hand ballooned in size and his arm had turned black.
He was rushed to hospital where doctors diagnosed him with necrotising fasciitis, a potentially fatal flesh-eating bacteria.
Image by: Steve Palmer
Image by: Steve Palmer
Image by: Steve Palmer
He was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where surgeons operated to remove the dead and infected tissue from his arm.
A plastic surgeon was able to save his arm from being amputated and Steve is expected to take a year before making a full recovery.
Steve, who worked as an air conditioning engineer, has posted graphic pictures of his blackened arm on Facebook in a bid to warn others.
He said: “It was terrifying, it was like something from a horror movie. I could literally see my entire arm turning black.
“When the surgeon looked at my hand all the blood vessels in my knuckles had turned to mush.
“I just want to warn people to be careful and to wear gloves while gardening, particularly now that people will probably be spending more time in their gardens due to the coronavirus lockdown."
Steve was gardening with his wife Laura, 34, at their home in Polesworth, Warks., on March 7 when he cut his finger.
He said: "Me and my wife were in the garden tidying up.
“We live on the back of the River Anker which had flooded a couple of weeks earlier and messed the garden up a bit.
“We’d waited for the weather to get better so we could clean up.
"While I was clearing reeds which had been swept into the garden from the river I got a
little nick on my finger.
“I didn’t even notice it, I get little cuts all the time at work and just cracked on but there must have been all sorts of bacteria from the floods which got into the cut.
"The next morning I was meant to help my father-in-law do some cementing at his farm but when I looked at my middle finger it had swelled up and was red.
“I felt a bit soft for saying I couldn’t help him but went round anyway and played with the kids and on the piano but I could hardly move my finger.
“I said to Laura 'that starting to look a bit infected'.
"When I got home my knuckles were swollen and the infection had started to spread up my arm."
Image by: Steve Palmer
Image by: Steve Palmer
The next day Steve was taken to Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, West Mids., by his friend and was told to wait in A&E.
Steve, who is dad to three-year-old Jacob and seven-year-old Charlie, said: “The doctor said he thought it might be sepsis and cellulitis so put me on a saline drip overnight
and gave me paracetamol because my temperature was very high.
“The next day I was transferred to hand specialists at the QE in Birmingham where a surgeon told me again he thought it was sepsis.
“I was taken down to surgery and was operated on for four-and-a-half hours.
“When I came round doctors told me that they discovered it was actually necrotising fasciitis which is quite rare.
“The blood vessels under my knuckles were mush so the surgeons had to wash all of the infection away and pull down skin from my forearm onto the tendons before taking a skin graft from my leg onto my arm.
“I was very lucky and could easily have died. The surgeons saved my life and my arm.
“I’m back home but I’ve been told it’ll take 10 to 12 months before I can hold tools again. I’ve got two per cent use of my hand at the moment.
“It’s going to be a long long journey back to recovery. I just want to warn everyone now to wear gloves in the garden.
“It was a tiny cut I had on my hand but it was enough to let the bacteria in which almost killed me.”He was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where surgeons operated to remove the dead and infected tissue from his arm.
A plastic surgeon was able to save his arm from being amputated and Steve is expected to take a year before making a full recovery.
Steve, who worked as an air conditioning engineer, has posted graphic pictures of his blackened arm on Facebook in a bid to warn others.
He said: “It was terrifying, it was like something from a horror movie. I could literally see my entire arm turning black.
“When the surgeon looked at my hand all the blood vessels in my knuckles had turned to mush.
“I just want to warn people to be careful and to wear gloves while gardening, particularly now that people will probably be spending more time in their gardens due to the coronavirus lockdown."
Steve was gardening with his wife Laura, 34, at their home in Polesworth, Warks., on March 7 when he cut his finger.
He said: "Me and my wife were in the garden tidying up.
“We live on the back of the River Anker which had flooded a couple of weeks earlier and messed the garden up a bit.
“We’d waited for the weather to get better so we could clean up.
"While I was clearing reeds which had been swept into the garden from the river I got a
little nick on my finger.
“I didn’t even notice it, I get little cuts all the time at work and just cracked on but there must have been all sorts of bacteria from the floods which got into the cut.
"The next morning I was meant to help my father-in-law do some cementing at his farm but when I looked at my middle finger it had swelled up and was red.
“I felt a bit soft for saying I couldn’t help him but went round anyway and played with the kids and on the piano but I could hardly move my finger.
“I said to Laura 'that starting to look a bit infected'.
"When I got home my knuckles were swollen and the infection had started to spread up my arm."
Image by: Steve Palmer
Image by: Steve Palmer
The next day Steve was taken to Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield, West Mids., by his friend and was told to wait in A&E.
Steve, who is dad to three-year-old Jacob and seven-year-old Charlie, said: “The doctor said he thought it might be sepsis and cellulitis so put me on a saline drip overnight
and gave me paracetamol because my temperature was very high.
“The next day I was transferred to hand specialists at the QE in Birmingham where a surgeon told me again he thought it was sepsis.
“I was taken down to surgery and was operated on for four-and-a-half hours.
“When I came round doctors told me that they discovered it was actually necrotising fasciitis which is quite rare.
“The blood vessels under my knuckles were mush so the surgeons had to wash all of the infection away and pull down skin from my forearm onto the tendons before taking a skin graft from my leg onto my arm.
“I was very lucky and could easily have died. The surgeons saved my life and my arm.
“I’m back home but I’ve been told it’ll take 10 to 12 months before I can hold tools again. I’ve got two per cent use of my hand at the moment.
“It’s going to be a long long journey back to recovery. I just want to warn everyone now to wear gloves in the garden.
“It was a tiny cut I had on my hand but it was enough to let the bacteria in which almost killed me.”
A space engineer has built her own cell phone with a ROTARY DIAL because she hates smartphones and texting
Image by: Adam Gray SWNS
A space engineer has built her own cell phone with a ROTARY DIAL because she despises smartphones and texting.
Justine Haupt, 34, spent three years creating the old school device which fits into her pocket with a battery that lasts up to 30 hours.
When she wrote about the retro cell phone on her website, so many people visited the post that her site crashed.
Justine has since been inundated with requests from fellow smartphone haters begging for their own version of the phone and she is now offering build-it-yourself kits.
The astronomy instrumentation engineer, at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, was inspired to make the phone because she dislikes the culture of smartphones and has never even owned one.
“I work in technology but I don’t like the culture around smartphones,” she said.
“I don’t like the hyper connected thing.
“I don’t like the idea of being at someone’s beck and call every moment and I don’t need to have that level of access to the internet.
“Whenever I want to look something up, I’m more than happy to do so when I am at my computer.
“I’ve never texted and building this phone was in part so that I would have a good excuse for not texting.
“Now I can hold up this phone and say, ‘No, I can’t text.’”
While Justine did once buy a Samsung Galaxy smartphone for her mother and played around on it herself, she said she got rid of the device after a month.
“I thought I would give it a try but I lasted less than a month with it.
“I went back to my flip phone.
“I’m an engineer, I love technology, but the phone is not the way I want to do it.”
She is also not a fan of the interface on a smartphone or the touch screen.
“The interface is absolutely horrible,” she said.
“When you open an application and then you want it to go away but you don’t know if it is closed - that grates against the fibre of my being.”
Justine’s appreciation of rotary dials inspired her project.
“Rotary dials are neat and I wanted to include them in a project.
“I had had a flip phone for a long time and it can technically text so I wanted an even more dumbed down phone.
“I thought: ‘why not make a rotary dial phone?’
“I wanted it to fit in my pocket, be sleek, something I could actually use.”
The project was stop-start until two months ago when she decided to finally finish the device.
“I had the idea three years ago.
“I started putting it together and then I lost interest and it was in a box in the closet for a while.
“It was only about two months ago that I said: ‘I’m going to finish this thing’.”
Image by: Adam Gray SWNS
Image by: Adam Gray SWNS
Image by: Adam Gray SWNS
Image by: Adam Gray SWNS
Image by: Adam Gray SWNS
Justine sourced a rotary dial from an old Trimline telephone, making sure the dial was small enough to fit on a phone which would slip into her pocket.
“I was particular about getting one that could be as compact as possible.”
She bought a cell phone radio development board from hardware company Adafruit and the first cell phone prototype was very basic with wires showing.
“I did it just to prove it could work,” she said.
“I then designed my own circuitry.”
Justine used a 3D printer to create the cell phone case and added speed dialing buttons so she could call her husband, David Van Popering, 57, and her mother, Lorraine Labate, 60, at the click of a button.
The button for David is labelled ‘Da’ and Lorraine’s button is ‘La’, an abbreviation of Llama, Justine’s nickname for her mother.
“If I want to call my husband, I can call him by pushing a single button. I can call people more quickly on this phone than on my old phone.
“In rare cases when I want to call a new number, I do use the rotary dial and it is a fun, tactile experience.”
Justine added an e-paper display to the phone so that she could see messages and missed calls.
“It’s actual e-paper, the same material that you find on Kindles.
“Those kinds of displays are cool and are under utilised in technology.”
The phone takes an AT&T prepaid sim card which is compatible with the cell phone radio.
The device is 4 inches tall, 3 inches wide and 1 inch thick - easily fitting into Justine’s pocket.
“The battery lasts for a solid 24 hours, maybe 30 hours.
“It is actually my phone - I don’t carry my flip phone with me anymore.
“It fits into my pocket and, in total bulk, I don’t think it is much bigger than a large smartphone with a protective case on it.”
Justine published a post about the cell phone on her website on February 10 and so many people visited her site that it crashed under the demand.
“I never expected to go viral with this,” Justine said.
“There was so much demand.
“I didn’t want to sell it at first but everyone was clamoring and I got so many emails from people begging to buy a phone.
“Finally someone suggested I should at least make a kit.
“I very quickly put together a new version of the circuit that would be a little more robust.”
Justine created another version of the cell phone with a turquoise case.
Customers can buy the kit, which includes the circuit board and the 3D printed parts, from Justine’s company Sky’s Edge for $170, but they will have to source their own rotary dial.
“Now I’m looking at making a more inclusive kit that will come with everything you need,” Justine added.
“In a week, I’ve had around 30 orders.”
Justine admitted that the phone’s popularity has baffled her.
“I’m not totally sure why people responded to it the way they did.
“Maybe they see it as a hipster gadget which I hate because to me, it’s an actual phone.
“But there’s a surprising number of people who have identified with my philosophy of not liking smartphone culture - I’m pleasantly surprised that those people are out there.”
Video by: Gabriella Petty
A mother lost both FEET after a life-threatening labour ordeal which left her bleeding heavily and infected with sepsis
Image by: Callie Colwick
A mother lost both her FEET after a life-threatening labour ordeal which left her bleeding heavily and infected with sepsis.
Callie Colwick, 30, suffered from a rare condition called placenta accreta while pregnant with her son Quinn.
The serious complication occurs when the placenta detaches from the uterine wall after delivery and causes severe blood loss.
She tragically lost her newborn son and contracted sepsis which left her fighting for her life as her organs failed.
Doctors had no choice but to amputate both of Callie’s legs, her left thumb and forefinger and remove her uterus as the tissue had ‘died’ due to the loss of blood.
The graphic designer, from McKinney, Texas, said: “My limbs started to die.
“My legs were black and shriveled up, my toes looked like raisins.”
When Callie finally returned home after spending over a year in the ICU, her health insurance refused to cover the $11,000 custom wheelchair she needed to move around freely.
The mother of Kenzi, four, couldn’t push herself around in a standard wheelchair and was forced to wear diapers as she wasn’t able to go to the bathroom alone.
Callie was astounded to receive an Instagram message on December 31 2019 from a kindhearted stranger offering to raise the funds to buy her the special wheelchair.
Amy Bernhard, 32, set up a GoFundMe campaign and within just one day she had raised a staggering $20,980 for Callie’s chair with the extra money going towards installing ramps in her home.
Callie and husband Kevin, 30, a web developer, were delighted to discover that Callie was pregnant with Quinn, their second child, in November 2016.
But when Callie began experiencing heavy bleeding at work when she was 15 weeks pregnant, she went to hospital.
“I’d had light bleeding from day one,” Callie said.
“But what made me go to the doctor was the heavy abdominal bleeding.
“I was passing blood clots.
“I was at work about to go into a meeting and I felt this gush of liquid - my pants were soaked in blood.
“I went straight to hospital and called Kevin.”
Image by: Callie Colwick
Image by: Matthew Newby SWNS
Image by: Callie Colwick
Doctors told Callie that Quinn could be born at any time and that tragically he would not survive the birth.
“They put me in the pregnancy wing.
“Here we were in this room, surrounded by women giving birth and babies crying and we were told that Quinn had no chance of survival and we were just waiting to give birth to him.
“It was a solemn few weeks.”
Callie lay in the Trandelenberg Position with her feet elevated above her head in a last ditch attempt to help her baby survive.
“I hung like a bat trying to keep him inside through gravity,” she said.
“I was afraid of sneezing or going to the restroom in case my waters broke and he was born.
“It was a terrifying few weeks with nothing to do in the hospital but just wait.”
Doctors induced labour on December 26 2016 and little Quinn was stillborn, weighing just half a pound.
“I was fading in and out of consciousness,” Callie said.
“I wasn’t responsive, my eyes would roll to the back of my head and I was burning up.
“My fever had spiked way too high and they were packing ice onto me.
“They broke my waters and he was born.
“Quinn was too tiny to survive; he went straight to heaven.
“My husband was stuck between mourning the loss of his son and making all these medical decisions.”
During the delivery Callie lost so much blood that a trauma doctor was flown in from Dallas.
“My uterus was hemorrhaging blood.
“Doctors were pumping blood into me as soon as it was flowing out.”
But Callie developed septic shock in her uterus and the infection soon spread leaving doctors no choice but to remove her uterus.
She said: “My world went black.
“That infection overrode my entire body.
“They had to take out my uterus.
“The sepsis shut down my kidneys and my lungs so I was on a breathing machine.”
Two months later, doctors decided that they would have to amputate Callie’s legs below the knee and part of her left hand as the tissue was so damaged due to lack of blood.
“I remember coming to, in extreme pain and confusion.
“My husband had to explain what happened.
“I had everything minus my uterus and my feet.”
Image by: Callie Colwick
Image by: Callie Colwick
Image by: Callie Colwick
Callie spent more than a year in the ICU and finally in March 2018 she was able to return home.
She had been refused prosthetics by her health insurance and struggled to adjust to life as an amputee in a bulky wheelchair that she could not push herself in.
“The wheelchair they sent me home in was a basic chair off of Amazon.
“Kevin had to dress my wounds every day.”
Callie was finally able to stand on her knees for the first time on January 15 2019.
“Until then, Kevin had been picking me up and putting me in my chair.”
In April 2019 she was finally approved for prosthetics and she applied for a custom chair in October.
“My doctor put in the order and they denied my chair.
“It is just insane.
“I don’t have feet and I can’t put my prosthetics on by myself.”
She shared her frustration on Instagram where Amy, a business coach, from Lafayette, Louisiana, came across her story.
“I glanced at Callie’s page and as I watched her videos, I had tears come down my face,” Amy said.
“I had trouble sleeping because I could not stop thinking about what this woman had gone through.”
She reached out to Callie and offered to start a GoFundMe campaign for her chair, but Callie at first turned down the offer.
Callie explained: “I messaged her back and said: ‘No thanks’.
“I was still hoping that my insurance would approve it.
“But she just kept messaging me and then when my request was declined again for the chair, I agreed.
“I said: ‘Yes, do what you think is best’.”
The next morning Amy launched the fundraising campaign and Callie was amazed to see how quickly people donated.
“It was shared like wild fire,” she said.
“This generous gift from a complete stranger gives me the ability to make my home completely accessible.
“It’s a lightweight custom built chair so I can pick it up by myself.
“I can actually wheel myself around in it.
“Imagine being trapped in a chair - for me, this chair is the difference between a chair that has wheels and one that doesn’t.”
The two women met in person for the first time on January 24 when Amy flew to Dallas for work.
They bonded over a sushi dinner where Callie told Amy just how big a difference the baby pink chair had made to her life.
“She shared with me what that wheelchair would actually do for her,” Amy said.
“She told me that it was the first time in three years that she was able to go to the bathroom herself.”
Callie added: “I felt like I had known Amy my whole life.”
Despite all her health struggles, Callie says she is keen to make the most of her life.
She said: “My hope is to help and inspire others.
“I was 27 when this happened - no one expects a 27-year-old mom to die.
“I truly feel like I am living on borrowed time now.”
Video by: Callie Colwick
HEARTBREAKING DANCE - Dad has shared a heartbreaking video showing the final dance he shared with his four-year-old girl before she suddenly passed away
Image by: John Newton
A grieving dad has shared a heartbreaking video showing the final dance he shared with his four-year-old daughter before she suddenly passed away last week.
Doting John Newton, 39, can be seen dancing around the room with his poorly daughter, Charlotte Grace, laughing and smiling in his arms.
The emotional footage was captured before Charlotte, who suffered from several medical issues, died on Wednesday evening (April 22).
John, from Barnsley, South Yorks., said despite the problems Charlotte faced, she never let them hold her back and always lived life to the fullest.
The video, John added, shows his daughter as he would like her to be remembered and taken a few months before she died.
He said: "She was such a happy little girl who woke up each day with a love for life, a beautiful little girl who brought joy into the lives of everyone she encountered in life.
"The video of us dancing shows what an amazing girl she was, always smiling."
Charlotte battled numerous health issues from birth, including stage five kidney disease, liver disease, a rare genetic disorder and heart problems.
Last Wednesday she was at home with her family, including mum Rachel, 37, and sister Emily, seven, when her condition drastically deteriorated and she suddenly died from complications relating to her various illnesses.
John said only five minutes before Charlotte she fell ill and was rushed to hospital she was speaking to her grandparents on FaceTime.
Image by: John Newton
Image by: John Newton
Image by: John Newton
At the time of her death the four-year-old girl, who loved Disney films and Spiderman, was on the transplant list for a combined liver and kidney transplant.
The potentially life-changing operation would have taken place at Birmingham Children's Hospital.
John said: "The sudden loss of our baby girl has been devastating and heartbreaking for us and has left us in complete bits.
"We knew from the time Charlotte was born that every minute with her would be precious, we tried to remain positive and look to the future.
"We had always hoped that she would be one of those miracle cases, who lives a long and happy life but it wasn't to be."
John, who is training to be a teacher, said he broke the news to his other daughter Emily, who is autistic and deaf, this week.
He added: "We told her Charlotte isn't hurting anymore and that she is a star up in the sky.
"The two of them had such a wonderful bond so we will have to see how Emily is affected."
John said he shared the dancing video to show the world what kind of girl Charlotte was.
He added: "We would like everyone to know how beautiful and loved she was."
A fundraising page has been set up in memory of Charlotte, to help support the Newton family through the tragedy.
Donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/charlottes-go-fund-me
Video by: John Newton
WHAT THE DUCK? Family awake to find their cat has dragged a live DUCK through the catflap
Image by: Marcus Elliott-Square
This video captures the moment a family awoke to discover their cat had dragged a live DUCK onto the landing - and had to shoo the startled animal out the window.
Two-year-old Slippers managed to pull the bird through the cat flap of the family home in Carshalton, South London, and drag it up the stairs.
Dad Marcus Elliot-Square, 47, was downstairs getting ready for work at 6.30am when his startled wife Claire phoned him from the landing.
At first it appears the duck is dead - but it suddenly bursts into life and flaps into the bedroom as Claire shrieks in panic.
Marcus, an operations director, then calmly opens the window and the lucky duck hops out to freedom.
Image by: Marcus Elliott-Square
Image by: Marcus Elliott-Square
Image by: Marcus Elliott-Square
He said: "I was downstairs early doors getting ready for another work day whilst in isolation.
"I received a phone call from my wife who was upstairs saying that she thought our cat Slippers had caught a duck.
"Now, Slippers has got previous for pigeon rustling and catches on average a mouse every two days.
"So, in light of this I picked up my phone thinking that if this was indeed the case, I needed evidence.
"I still thought it was a wind up as I started up the stairs. The rest is history."
Marcus' daughters Charlotte, 12, and Georgina, 10, were in their beds at the time and were woken by the drama.
He hopes the video - shot on Thursday March 26 - will bring some light relief during the coronavirus crisis.
Marcus added: "I'd like to donate some of the proceeds (after slippers has been treated to something more appropriate) to charity to support the Emergency Workers who are doing so much for us and need a bit of cheering up."
Video by: Marcus Elliott-Square
Meet the mum who became so fed-up with her messy teens she forced them to sign a 'cleaning contract' and fines them £5 for every rule broken
Image by: Tony Kershaw SWNS
Meet the mum who became so fed-up with her messy teens she forced them to sign a 'cleaning contract' - and fines them £5 for every rule broken.
Frustrated Katrina Neathey, 36, fines her kids for failing to make their bed, drinking fizzy drinks in their room or leaving litter on their bedroom floor.
She had spent the last two decades cleaning up after her kids - and is a cleaner by trade.
But the mum-of-three got to the end of her tether when she found mud on her new £1,200 carpet, within a few weeks of a complete upstairs refurb.
She called kids Hayden, 19, Joshua, 18, and Olivia, 13, to the dining table and presented them with tailor made ten-point contacts to sign.
The eldest pair agreed they will get fined £5 per rule break - while Olivia has her phone taken away for a day per infringement.
The mum from Horsham, West Sussex, said her "harsh but fair" parenting has whipped the kids into shape - and she has only pocketed £20.
Katrina, who runs a cleaning business with her twin sister Natalie, said: "My kids are all teenagers so in my eyes they are all capable of keeping to simple rules.
"I tried to set up some basic ground rules after we did up the bedrooms but after a few days they were falling back into old habits.
"They'd hide dirty clothes or plates at the back of their wardrobe when I told them to tidy up. It's as if they forget I'm a cleaner. I know exactly where to find things.
"I know the boys are only on apprenticeships and don't earn that much so they'll notice when £5 has gone out their pocket.
"We had a talk during the family meeting and I knew something needed to be done.
"When I first mentioned it to them they just thought it was hilarious.
"But I thought the only way they will listen is if I fine the older boys with money as they work and for Olivia to lose her phone."
Katrina and husband Gareth, 41, carpenter, completed a massive £4,000 refurb on their 4 bed semi-detached home in Horsham.
All the bedrooms were redecorated and got new furniture, and Katrina told the kids it was time to step up and clean up their act.
But she said within a few days they fell into old habits, so she introduced the new rules at the start of the year.
The were given contracts demanding they put all plates in the dishwasher, only drink water in their bedrooms and put dirty washing in the laundry basket.
She said she has looked after them all their lives and it is time for them to give back.
"It might sound heavy but I just think it's time they learn the hard way," said Katrina, who runs Instagram page with her twin sister Twinklecleaningduo.
"When they started school they were really good because I encouraged them to put all their toys away in their rooms.
"They never ate upstairs because I was controlling that as the adult.
"It was when I started the business and begun working longer hours that things started to creep in.
"They started getting into football and dance so all of us were rushing in and out of the door.
"As they grew older and technology and phones came into play, they would just prioritising chatting to their mates than helping out with the housework.
"Plus I started doing it for them.
"Countless time I've told them I wasn't their slave but that was always short lived and they would hide things instead.
Image by: Tony Kershaw SWNS
Image by: Tony Kershaw SWNS
Image by: Tony Kershaw SWNS
Image by: Tony Kershaw SWNS
"The worst was when I found a used chopping board in the wardrobe.
"I've also found other things like forks, bowls and milk bottles left to go off, all tucked away somewhere in the hope I wouldn't find it.
"Pizza boxes were great as they kindly left the crumbs for me to follow them.
"To be honest the only one benefiting from their hidden gem was the dog."
She said Josh, a carpenter apprentice, has had three fines so far - all in one day for two food wrappers hidden in a shoebox and down the side of his bed, and clothes thrown into his wardrobe.
"Olivia has only lost her phone once after I found a wrapper in her room," she added.
"She still got to take it to school for safety reasons so I just banned it for two evenings in a row."
Hayden, plumber apprentice, got a fine for not making his bed.
"Again I think he was testing his luck because I was going to London for the day which means I'm usually back really late but on this occasion I actually got home before him!" she said.
"Gareth and I work hard to give them the best we can be as parents and sometimes it can become easy for them to take advantage of our generosity.
"Part of growing up is learning to respect property and those you look after you. And I think the contract will help do that.
"I've spent years cleaning up after them.
"Since I've introduced them it's been great.
"I'm really pleased with how it's going and it's making my life so much easier.
"I don't have to nag either which is great for everyone.
"I'm not looking for perfect bed making and things like that.
"It's just knowing that they are trying and for me to see evidence that they have respect for their rooms, new furniture and me."
Olivia's contract
- No make-up in bedroom
- No eating in bedroom
- No juice or fizzy drink in bedroom - only water
- Make bed everyday
- All clothes must be hung up or put away
- Put dirty washing in wash basket
- Keep room tidy
- Put your washing up from downstairs in the dishwasher (empty if full)
- Put shoes/trainers away
- Put bag away
Failure to follow this contract will result in your phone being taken away...for days!
Josh and Hayden 's contract (two separate but identical)
- No eating in bedroom
- No juice or fizzy drink in bedroom - only water
- Make bed
- All clothes must be hung up or put away
- Put dirty washing in wash basket
- Keep room tidy
- Put your washing up from downstairs in the dishwasher (empty if full)
- Put shows/trainers away
- Put bag away
Katrina and Natalie's business can be followed on Instagram at @twinklecleaningduo.
Video by: Ashley Moran
Mum who gave birth to world’s tiniest twins reveals that one of her sons has died
Image by: Tom Wren SWNS
A mum who gave birth to the world’s tiniest twins has revealed that one of her "miracle" sons has died.
Talia Keates, 33, gave birth to twin brothers Ashley and Joe on April 16th, 2019 - with the little boys weighing in at just 403g and 429g respectively.
Aready a mum-of-four, Talia went into labour 17 weeks early before welcoming the twins, who were so premature their eyes were still fused shut.
Talia and husband Oliver, 35, were warned the babies were so small they might not survive.
But the pair seemed to have beaten the odds when they returned to their home in Trowbridge, Wilts., at four-and-a-half months.
Tragically, Ashley was diagnosed with incurable pulmonary hypertension in November 2019, as a result of chronic lung disease that both twins suffered due to their prematurity.
Little Ashley passed away in January, aged just nine months, in the arms of his devastated mum.
Talia, a nurse, said: “It just doesn’t seem fair.
"They’d already been through so much and beaten the odds as a pair.
“At the time Ashley passed away, Joe woke up screaming in his cot at home. It breaks my heart they won’t get to grow up side by side.”
Image by: Tom Wren SWNS
Image by: Talia Keates
Talia and Oliver, a business owner, found out they were having twins in November 2018.
They ‘already had their hands full’ with four kids at home - Imogen, eight, Jacob, seven, Theo, six, and Sebastian, aged three - but were so excited to expand their happy family.
When they discovered they were twin boys at a later scan, they decided to name them Joe and Ashley, and set about buying matching baby grows for the pair.
But Talia began to bleed heavily at 17 weeks and was rushed to Royal United Hospital in Bath, Somerset.
Doctors couldn’t work out what was wrong so sent her home - but just three weeks later Talia’s waters broke in one of the amniotic sacs which contained Joe.
Although a termination was suggested, Talia held on until 23 weeks, when she finally went into labour and was warned that Joe, the larger of the two twins, would not survive.
Despite the odds, Joe and Ashley were delivered safely on April 16th 2019, at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, weighing just 403g and 429g respectively - each less than an iPad.
Both were rushed into critical care where they remained for a few months - and Talia couldn't even touch her newborns until they were five-weeks-old.
Talia said: "They were taken straight to the neonatal unit.
"It was awful, you never know if you are going to get a call to say they haven’t made it - if they are going to survive.
“Their skin was so fragile that our touch could have broken in - and their little eyes were fused shut as they were so underdeveloped.”
The babies spent 129 days in the unit, battling sepsis and various other complications, before being transferred to Royal United Hospital Bath, and then finally being allowed home in August 2019 when they were four-and-a-half months old.
The pair remained on oxygen as both been diagnosed with chronic lung disease due to their prematurity and under-developed organs.
But doctors assured that as the twins got bigger, their lungs would grow and they should beat the disease.
Image by: Talia Keates
Image by: Talia Keates
Talia added: “Joe was such a placid little baby, while Ashley had more of a temper.
“But the pair of them were like two peas in a pod, and it was magical to watch them and have them home.”
The family thought they were ‘out of the woods’ and on the way to a full recovery - but unfortunately that was not quite the case.
Talia and Oliver began to worry about Ashley, as he wasn’t putting on as much weight as Joe, and had always needed more oxygen than his brother.
They took him to Bristol Children’s Hospital in November 2019, and were given the devastating news that Ashley had pulmonary hypertension - a serious condition that can damage the heart and lead to heart failure.
It had been caused by the chronic lung disease the twins had had since birth, and the family were told it was incurable.
Just a short while later, Ashley was ventilated, until January 16th when doctors took the parents aside and told them that their little boy wasn't going to make it.
His lungs were too weak and they were told he would never breathe on his own.
That night, a nurse switched off the ventilator and placed Ashley in Talia’s arms.
“Oliver and I sobbed uncontrollably as we told Ashley how much we loved him,” Talia said.
“We cuddled him for 40 minutes, before our tiny boy passed away in my arms. He was only nine months old, and I will never get over the heartbreak.”
Talia’s mum, Linzey, 56, had stayed with their other children that night, and said that Joe had ‘felt it’ when Ashley passed away.
Talia added: “Mum told us that at the exact time Ashley left us, Joe had woken up in his cot, screaming. He knew his brother was gone.”
The family held Ashley's funeral on February 14th at their local church and carried him in a little white coffin draped in white flowers.
“The pain of losing him is with me every day, but I'm glad Ashley is no longer suffering,” Talia said.
“It feels so cruel - most of his life he was traumatised by invasive procedures, and for what?
“It’s horrible to say, but sometimes I wonder if it would have been better for him to have died at birth or for us to have gone ahead with the termination - but then we would have lost Joe too.
“You can’t let those decisions get you down though - we made them all for the right reasons.”
Joe is now one and weighs 11lb and is finally big enough to fit into the babygrow that Talia bought before he was born.
Talia keeps Ashley's outfit safely in a memory box given to her by a friend, which the family are filling with keepsakes for Joe to open when he turns 18 in memory of his lost twin.
“I know he misses his twin - we all do,” said Talia.
“They both fought so hard, and I will always be proud of that. Ashley may have lost his battle, but he will always be in our hearts.”
The world's oldest man is spending his 112th birthday alone after celebrations were cancelled due to Covid-19
Image by: Simon Galloway
The world’s oldest man is celebrating his 112th birthday today (29) - but he'll be doing it alone thanks to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Bob Weighton’s birthday is always a joyous occasion as pupils from a local school come to sing him songs and the mayor even pays him a visit at his care home.
But celebrations were cancelled this year after the rapid spread of coronavirus put the entire country on lockdown.
The great-grandfather-of-25 became the oldest man in the world last month after the death of the previous record holder, Chitetsu Watanabe from Japan.
Retired lecturer Bob, from Alton, Hampshire, said: “There are no birthday celebrations, they have all been cancelled. I’m in isolation.
“I love meeting new people so that hasn’t been ideal, but I’m not too bothered about the birthday itself.”
Bob was 10 when the Spanish Flu swept around the world in 1918, killing between 50 and 100 million people.
But despite having a “very good memory”, he only remembers the pandemic through history books he read later in life.
He worked as an English teacher but spent most his life as a lecturer in marine engineering.
He previously said he was worried about the the coronavirus outbreak and has been taking extra care of his cleanliness and washes his hands more frequently.
Image by: Simon Galloway
Image by: Simon Galloway
Bob’s grandson Magnus, 48, said he’s not worried about Bob’s health but that he would get bored in isolation as he’s a “very sociable person”.
The retail specialist bought Bob an iPad so that he can still stay in touch with the family through Facetime in these testing times.
The dad-of-two said: “Originally Brendoncare wanted to organise a birthday party like they do for him every year.
“Children from the local school come and sing songs for him and it’s just a wonderful and joyous occasion.
“But now there are no plans for any kind of celebration, we’ll be ringing him throughout the day but that’s it.
“He’s in isolation but he’s doing alright.
“I’m not too worried about Bob, even during these times, because he’s healthy, he’s not had visitors and he’s a resilient man.
“He’s a very sociable person, which I think is the most difficult part for him, because he loves being around people and having a chat.
“But the care home also does a phenomenal job as well making him feel comfortable.”
He added: “I got him an iPad so we can all Facetime him and he can stay in touch with the family.
“But I haven’t gotten him a birthday present because you can’t get a man like him a gift. He’s seen it all.
“But he’s also very ecologically conscious so he doesn’t want anything he doesn’t need.”
Bob was born in Hull on March 29 1908, the same day as the UK’s oldest woman, Joan Hocquard.
He is a father-of-three and has 10 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.
