A driver who had workmen paint a disabled zone around his car after he parked it has said he thought he was the victim of a television prank. And to make matters worse, John Junk found he had also been issued with a £30 fine for parking illegally. Mr Junk said the space on Castlereagh Street in east Belfast had not been specially designated when he left his vehicle.
Campaigners have urged the Royal Welsh Show to provide electric scooters for visitors with disabilities. Disability Wales and a sister group in Powys said the show was one of the few major events not to hire them out. Manual wheelchairs are only available at the moment, but the size of the show and its steep hills prove a challenge for those pushing them, claim users.
People who significantly cut their cholesterol levels with statins may raise the risk of cancer, a study says. The study of 40,000 people found those with little of the "bad" cholesterol LDL saw one more cancer case per 1,000 than those with higher levels. The Boston-based researchers could not say if this was a side-effect of the statin or due to the low cholesterol. They also write in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology that the benefits of statins outweigh the risks.
Two thousand people from across Orkney are being recruited to take part in a major study into osteoporosis. The bone thinning condition affects about three million people across Britain. Families are being recruited for the £500,000 Edinburgh University run project, to help identify the genes that cause the disease.
Hospices are struggling with debts as funding promised by the government has failed to materialise, campaigners say. More than one in four hospices is now in deficit, a study of 186 of the UK's 194 charitable hospices showed. It comes after the government promised in its 2005 manifesto that funding for palliative care would be doubled. But the Help the Hospices charity said charity hospice money had remained largely static. The government said funding was now being looked at.
Hospices are struggling with debts as funding promised by the government has failed to materialise, campaigners say. More than one in four hospices is now in deficit, a study of 186 of the UK's 194 charitable hospices showed. It comes after the government promised in its 2005 manifesto that funding for palliative care would be doubled. But the Help the Hospices charity said charity hospice money had remained largely static. The government said funding was now being looked at.
