The UK’s youngest patient to ever be treated using a pioneering NHS cancer therapy right here in Manchester is celebrating a milestone anniversary this week.
Teddy Slade – who lives in Stockport, and has recently celebrated his fourth birthday – was just 18 months old when he was diagnosed with a rare and “terrifying” brain tumour that left his family “devastated”, but after he underwent surgery to remove the tumour, he was given a pioneering form of treatment named proton beam therapy at the then newly-opened centre at The Christie in Manchester for six and half weeks.
Proton beam therapy is a specialist form of radiotherapy that targets cancers very precisely by increasing success rates and reducing side effects, according to NHS England, which makes it an ideal treatment for certain cancers in children who are at risk of lasting damage to organs that are still growing.
The therapy has been funded on the NHS since 2008, but patients previously had to go abroad to get their treatment, and it was only when The Christie’s £125 million centre opened in late 2018, that patients could be treated in the UK.
Teddy was officially the youngest patient in the country to be treated at the UK’s first NHS high energy centre at The Christie.
And now, it’s a very different story.
Now, three years after the groundbreaking therapy was made available on the NHS in England, Teddy only requires regular check-ups to monitor his progress, and is described as being “a funny, little, cheerful character” who is enjoying pre-school, and living a full and normal life.
Teddy was given pioneering proton beam therapy The Christie in Manchester / Credit: The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
Reflecting back on her son’s shocking diagnosis and how far he’s come, Teddy’s mum, Amy Slade, said: “It was a huge shock when Teddy was diagnosed as he was so young and to be told he had a brain tumour was absolutely heartbreaking.
“But the staff at The Christie are amazing [and] the proton beam centre is a place of hope.
“The care that Teddy, and the support our whole family received there, was first-class, and we are so very lucky to have this life-saving medical technology in Manchester”.
Gillian Whitfield – Teddy’s consultant at The Christie – added: “It is great to see Teddy doing so well and we were thrilled to be able to help him here at The Christie.
“Being able to give patients like Teddy this vital proton beam therapy in the UK is fantastic, as it not only reduces the side effects of treatment, but also means families don’t have to travel abroad as many did before the NHS opened the centre here in Manchester”.
Teddy was the youngest patient to be treated at the UK’s first NHS high energy centre at The Christie / Credit: The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
“Since Teddy first received proton beam therapy treatment at The Christie, over 700 patients in the UK, including 300 children, have benefitted from this pioneering treatment in the NHS,” revealed Dame Cally Palmer, NHS England’s National Cancer Director.
“This is a major milestone for the NHS,” she added.
“It marks the completion of our plans to deliver proton beam therapy in the UK and transform cancer treatment across the country”.
The NHS Long Term Plan aims to save thousands more lives each year by dramatically improving diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and by 2028, the NHS hopes that 55,000 more people each year will survive for five years or more following their cancer diagnosis.
Featured Image – The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
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The man saving Manchester’s city pigeons from ‘stringfoot’
Daisy Jackson
A man has been patrolling the streets of Manchester to save our city’s pigeons from a condition known as ‘stringfoot’.
We all walk past hundreds of the birds every day in the city centre and they often get a bad rap – but one now-viral TikTok account is hoping to change all that.
In a series of heartwarming videos, one man has been heading out in his free time to treat pigeons afflicted with the dreaded ‘stringfoot’.
It’s a common sight now to see pigeons missing toes or walking around Manchester on deformed feet, which is often caused when the poor birds become tangled up in foreign matter.
Sometimes this is bits of string, plastic, thread, hair or a number of other things usually dropped by humans.
But with quick intervention from Tom, he can save these pigeons from a life of limping around town.
He’s been heading out armed with bags of seed to lure groups of pigeons close to him, before carefully catching the afflicted animal and carefully cutting away the material around its foot.
He uses things like stitch pickers to remove the thread, before cleaning up the pigeon’s foot with saline spray and antiseptic and gently releasing them again.
Tom said he started helping pigeons ‘sort of by accident’ when a bird with stringfoot came up to his flat.
In one month alone, he was able to catch and treat 15 pigeons, saving them from infection and injury.
And the account is getting lots of love and driving awareness for stringfoot and changing people’s perception of pigeons.
One person wrote on one of Tom’s videos: “We did pigeons so wrong as a society. Thanks for helping!”
Another said: “Pigeons Are NOT TRASH, they are a birds, who need help like cats, dogs and every living animals.”
And someone else commented: “These sort of videos make me cry because we’re so mean to pigeons, this might be the first time someone’s done something kind to them.”
You can find out more on how to help pigeons in your area HERE.
Benjamin Šeško quote resurfaces as Manchester United switch sole focus to pursuit of Slovenia star
Danny Jones
Slovenia striker Benjamin Šeško is now considered the primary transfer target for Manchester United for this summer window, as per multiple reports, and with the links only growing stronger as a quote relating to him and former RB Salzburg forward Erling Haaland has cropped back up.
Now on the books at the franchise club’s German counterpart in Leipzig, Šeško is one of the most highly sought-after talents in Europe at present, showing not only huge potential and a unique profile but already some impressive returns when it comes to goal contributions.
Although Haaland is ahead in terms of numbers, they do bear some resemblance in terms of height, physicality and speed for their size, and while they barely came across each other in the Red Bull setup – Šeško being loaned out to fellow Austrian side Liefering – they have drawn plenty of comparisons.
In fact, according to the 22-year-old himself, some feel he might just be “better” than the Norwegian phenomenon. At least that’s what some teammates and former colleagues are claimed to have said.
The retired defensive midfielder elaborated that Šeško was arguably the more natural all-round athlete, detailing that he has always been “smooth with the ball, very good technique, good finishing, and he jumps so high; very, very good with the head – it’s unbelievable.”
Aufhauser went on to add, however: “Erling was mentally a monster and better at the same age. This is the last five, 10 per cent that Benji has to get.”
It was also noted that while the emerging prospect may have just edged out the now fully-fledged Manchester City superstar in some departments at an early age, the big number nine always managed to find the back of the net more often.
He’s certainly kept that up in the years since then…
A 2022 quote from Šeško is all well and good, but Haaland has proved plenty of paper in just a few short years at the Etihad.
It’s also worth noting that the two attackers are not just pretty equally quick in a straight line, but both as tall as each other, clocking in at exactly 6ft 4in, with the Man City man barely three years his senior.
On the other hand, Šeško is known for keeping up multiple sports besides just football (basketball, in particular),
Besides their position, he told Amazon Prime Video Sport that he believes there is a lot of value not just in being sized up against the likes of Haaland but in trying to take cues from other pros in training, having also named a previous Red Devil himself as a key role model: one Zlatan Ibrahimović.
Most of this talk probably sounds all well and good to most United fans, but another key stumbling block in terms of a move for the budding young goalscorer is RB Leipzig’s supposed asking price, as the Bundesliga outfit is said to value him in the region of £70m.
Nevertheless, The Athletic now writes that INEOS and head coach Ruben Amorim are now solely focused on trying to sign Šeško, having previously narrowed it down to him and Premier League-proven Ollie Watkins.
Even if they get it done, the question is, will the confident forward suit English football as much as Watkins or dare we say Haaland – and furthermore, if they do, what might this mean for Manchester United’s current centre forwards?
Emily Sergeant -
4th February 2022 
