A Tameside woman who has been diagnosed with five different types of cancer in the past 35 years has thanked the doctors and researchers who have “given her hope”.
71-year-old Irene North was first diagnosed with breast cancer back in 1987, and has been under the care of The Christie in Manchester ever since.
The retired NHS phlebotomist – who has a daughter, two sons, and six grandchildren – said she was most worried about her family when she was first diagnosed, because her mum had died of cancer at the age of 41 when Irene was just six years old.
“Because mum died so young, it was always at the back of my mind that I might get cancer,” Irene admitted.
Over the past three and half decades, not only has Irene been diagnosed with breast cancer and secondary breast cancer, but she has also been treated for cervical cancer, skin cancer, and a routine scan in 2014 detected the very early stages of pancreatic cancer – which was successfully treated without her requiring major surgery.
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Following treatment during 1987 and 1988, Irene was declared cancer free.
Along with her husband Jack, Irene threw herself into fundraising for cancer-related causes, and also helped to set up the local Withington/Christie breast cancer care group.
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Now, Irene has decided to pay tribute to the doctors and researchers who have “given her hope” throughout her cancer journey, explaining: “When I first got cancer, I was terrified.
“I was told I needed to go to The Christie and back then, just the name of the hospital felt like a death sentence… [but] once I was through the door and started to talk to people, I realised that it wasn’t the place I or my family feared.
“The staff are so caring and compassionate, and their expertise is always plain to see.”
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Irene North was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, and has been under the care of The Christie ever since / Credit: The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
Two of the doctors at The Christie that Irene has paid a special thank you to is father and son consultants, Tony and Sasha Howell.
“Tony and I became friends, and he supported the [Withington/Christie breast cancer care group] frequently,” said Irene. “He came along to talk to us as cancer patients about the challenges and developments of breast cancer treatments [and] over the years, I got to know most of the breast care team at The Christie and many of them joined us to share their expertise with the group.”
She continued: “In 2008, I walked through the door into a consulting room with my daughter Tracy and was surprised to see a spitting image of Tony Howell. It was surreal. Sacha explained that Tony was his dad.
“They are both very similar in how they treat patients. They both really listen to what you have to say, and I always felt like they had my best interests at heart.”
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Irene admits that coping with cancer is “hard” and living with it for 35 years has been tough, but she says she feels “very lucky” that many of the cancer treatments she has been given over the years have worked for longer than anticipated.
“The doctors have helped me maintain hope [and] that’s why the work The Christie does to discover new treatments is so important for patients like me,” said Irene.
Irene has also benefited from having some of her care delivered at home via The Christie outreach team.
“A lot of my treatment can be given by The Christie staff in local health facilities or even in the comfort of my own home with the nurses coming to me [and] that has made a huge difference to me, particularly during the pandemic and I’m very grateful.
“This team is another example of the wonderful work The Christie does.”
Featured Image – The Christie
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Musical comedian Morgan Jay is coming to Manchester on his biggest ever UK tour
Danny Jones
Viral music-driven comedian Morgan Jay is returning to Manchester and the UK for his biggest ever transatlantic tour.
The crowd work specialist and social media star is coming back to our fair city once again early next year, having not long ago performed for a maiden Manc crowd.
That’s right: the bloke best known for performing silly improv songs on a ukulele for the majority of the set, not to mention being a little bit cheeky with his audience throughout, is coming to the AO Arena.
Entitled La Dolce Vita, this new tour – set to be the follow-up to his ongoing ‘Goofy Guy’ show – will be just his second performance here in 0161.
Have already got his current tour underway across North America, with more gigs coming up across Asia and Oceania later this year.
As for his next European leg, it kicks off early next year, and do you want to guess where he’s coming first? Yep, straight to us.
We’re almost certain he’ll be bringing that tiny little guitar and a healthy dose of autotune along with him, but you never quite know what you’re going to get…
Can you believe he grabbed her neck like that in public? not going to lie I kind of liked it. The Nashville show went crazy people were horny and having a good time. Tour dates below. 6/5 – Atlanta, GA 6/6 – Hollywood, FL 6/12 – Milwaukee, WI 6/14 – Prior Lake, MN 6/19 – Cherokee, NC 6/20 – Charleston, SC 7/2 – Ledyard, CT 9/12 – Los Angeles 9/17 – Los Angeles 9/25 – Maui 9/26 – Oahu October 3 – Tokyo October 5 – Taipei October 8 – Hong Kong October 11 – Abu Dhabi October 14 – Manila, PH October 17 – Sydney October 21- Auckland, NZ October 25 – Melbourne, AU October 29 – Brisbane, AU November 1- Adelaide, AU November 6 – Perth, AU November 11 – Jakarta, ID November 13 – Singapore, SG November 18 – Kuala Lumpur, MY November 21- Bangkok, TH November 27 – Mumbai, IN November 29 – Bengaluru, IN
You can see his full list of upcoming dates over here down below.
Morgan Jay UK tour dates – 2027
Thu 25 Feb – Manchester, AO Arena Sat 27 Feb – London, OVO Arena Wembley Sat 27 Mar – Glasgow, SEC Armadillo Thu 1 Apr – Birmingham, Utilita Arena Birmingham Sat 3 Apr – Cardiff, Utilita Arena Cardiff
As you can see, there’s only a handful of dates across Great Britain and Ireland, so we’ll consider it an honour not only to be on the schedule but to be first on the call sheet.
Tickets will be available for pre-sale starting on Wednesday, 27 May at 10am; meanwhile, general admission goes live this coming Friday, 29 May, also at 10am BST. You can get ready to grab yours HERE.
If you’ve not come across him before and you’re wondering whether his stuff is your cup of tea, you can watch his special shot in LA, among others, for free on YouTube.
Featured Images — Press shots (supplied via Live Nation)
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Bernardo Silva shares hilarious X-rated clash with John Stones before they were teammates
Danny Jones
This long weekend not only saw Man City manager and sporting legend Pep Guardiola bid goodbye to the club after a decade, but so did John Stones and Bernardo Silva, and the latter shared a hilarious story about an encounter before their bromance in blue.
Can’t lie, this one nearly made us spit out our tea when we first watched it…
Following the trio’s respective final games, this late May bank holiday Monday saw yet another City parade pass through Manchester, and as the party continued over at the Etihad Campus and Co-op Live for the afterparty, the boys got up on stage to say some parting words.
In Silva’s case, he chose to share, rather fittingly, some very choice words indeed, as he talked about his time playing against Stones when he was still in France.
From ‘little soft c**t’ to brothers lifting trebles together… football heritage.
Safe to say no one was expecting that particular expletive to come out of his mouth – we reckon not even most of the squad themselves.
During the Yorkshireman‘s first season at Manchester City, he came up against the creative midfielder in the Champions League when he was still playing at Ligue 1 side AS Monaco.
As you can see in the clip above, while it wasn’t the friendliest of exchanges back then, they soon buried the hatchet and chalked it off as nothing more than football.
Both fierce competitors in their own right, they look to be plenty soft with each other off the pitch ever since they became teammates.
So much so, in fact, that the duo ended up being the face of a pop-up Man City pub earlier this month, recreating the famous photo of the Gallagher brothers wearing the 1993/94 kits.
Credit: Manchester City FC (publicity pictures)
It’s plain to see in the clip how much love there is between the two, all these years later, and the story itself got a rapturous reaction from their peers and the crowd alike.
Silva has plenty of fans across Europe, both as a player and purely as a character; you only have to look at how Jack Grealish often reiterates his love for the Portuguese playmaker as a person and Premier League character, or even how pundits aligned with rival clubs like Gary Neville waxes lyrical about him.
And then we come to Pep himself.
Guardiola was rightfully given a fantastic guard of honour at the stadium itself on Sunday, with his speech making for an emotional moment for all those in the stands and watching at home, and City supporters at the parade made sure to give him a proper send-off.
Emily Sergeant -
2nd August 2022 
