Remembering the Hillsborough Disaster: 35 Years Later
On 15 April 1989, during an FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield's Hillsborough Stadium, a tragic crush killed 97 and left hundreds injured.
The causes of the Hillsborough tragedy are deeply rooted in a series of systemic failures and poor decisions. Overcrowding, inadequate stadium design and a lack of effective crowd control measures contributed to the fatal crush in the Leppings Lane end of the stadium.
The aftermath saw a prolonged battle for justice as families of the victims sought accountability and truth, challenging the initial narrative falsified by South Yorkshire Police which blamed Liverpool supporters for the tragedy.
Debbie Caine, of The Hillsborough Law Now Campaign, said: “The pain and suffering of the past 35 years have not diminished. Today, we pay tribute to all 97 supporters, they will never be forgotten, and we fight on in their memory and for all those who have suffered such injustice at the hands of the state."
Investigations and inquiries revealed a pattern of negligence, cover-ups, and scapegoating, highlighting the failures of authorities, including the police and emergency services.
In 2016, a jury finally concluded that the 97 (96 at the time) victims were unlawfully killed, and subsequent inquiries have led to criminal charges against individuals and organisations responsible for safety and security at Hillsborough Stadium.
Ms Caine said: “The truth of what really happened on that dreadful day was not revealed for decades because public authorities and officials concealed the truth in their own interests.
"Yet, 35 years on, the experiences of Hillsborough families have been repeated countless times, currently with the Post Office scandal. Little has changed.”
This week Labour Party leader Keir Starmer confirmed a Labour government would prioritise bringing The Hillsborough Law into being a parliamentary bill.
This would introduce a legally enforceable, positive “duty of candour” for police and all public authorities to assist investigations into a major incident, and equal public funding for legal representation of bereaved families at inquiries and inquests.
The bill, drafted after the 2016 verdict, is aimed at ensuring that other people do not suffer police cover-ups and mistreatment, as the Hillsborough families did.
Pete Weatherby, the solicitor who represents 22 of the affected families and co-writer of the first draft of the proposed Hillsborough Law, said: “The fact that he [Keir Starmer] has come out publicly in support to the bill is good news.
“Hillsborough Law is the legacy project of the Hillsborough families after establishing their loved ones have been unlawfully killed.”
Mr Weatherby compared Hillsborough to other tragedies that has struck the nation in more recent years. He said: “You can substitute Grenfell, COVID, the post office, whatever you like, for Hillsborough. It is an issue that goes on in every single investigation and inquiry.
“The Hillsborough Law is an attempt to make practical and effective changes to the law to prevent public servants and others from covering up wrongdoing or hiding error.”
As we honour the memory of the 97 lives lost in the Hillsborough disaster, let us reaffirm our commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of fans at sporting events. May their legacy serve as a reminder of the ongoing pursuit of justice, accountability, and solidarity in the football community and beyond.
World mourns 35 years since the Hillsborough Disaster
Today marks the 35th anniversary of one of football’s greatest tragedies - the Hillsborough Disaster - when 97 people were unlawfully killed attending an FA Cup semi-final tie between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
The tragedy unfolded primarily due to overcrowding in the Leppings Lane stand, which led to a crush of fans in one of the standing terraces.
The situation was exacerbated by inadequate crowd control measures, poor stadium design, and the failure of police to properly manage the influx of fans.
As fans entered the stadium, many were directed towards the already congested central pens, rather than the less crowded side pens. This led to crushing as the central pens became overcrowded.
Despite pleas from fans, the match was not halted. The response from emergency services further contributed to the severity of the disaster.
Over the past 35 years, multiple investigations and inquiries unravelled a series of conspiracies and cover-ups.
This led to a second inquiry being ordered which concluded gross negligence by police and ambulance services resulted in 97 unlawful deaths.
The incident led to significant changes in stadium safety regulations in the UK, including the introduction of all-seater stadiums for top-flight football matches and improved crowd control measures.
Labour leader Keir Starmer took to X [formerly Twitter] to express his condolences to the victims and their families.
He said: "Today on the 35th anniversary of Hillsborough, I'll be thinking about those lost, their families, and their enduring courage and determination to pursue justice.
"Making the Hillsborough Law a reality would be a priority of my Labour government."
The Owls will host the annual memorial service to remember the 97 Liverpool supporters who lost their lives in 1989.
The service will commence at 2:55pm at the permanent memorial site adjacent to the South Stand bridge and run for approximately 20 minutes, during which time Parkside Road traffic will be suspended.
Hillsborough Stadium will be open to all visitors wishing to pay their respects throughout the day from 10am to 4pm.
Second Sheffield man charged with attempted murder after alleged stabbing in Darnall
A second man from Sheffield appeared in court today after being charged in connection with a reported stabbing in Darnall last week.
Adil Mohammed, 24, of Acres Hill Road, Sheffield, appeared before Sheffield Magistrates' Court earlier today after being charged with attempted murder.
Mr Mohammed pleaded not guilty today and is the second man charged in connection with the alleged assault last week.
It comes following an alleged stabbing on Staniforth Road on Tuesday evening left a 21-year-old man with serious injuries which are now thought to be life-changing.
The man had multiple suspected stab wounds and remains in hospital.
Mr Mohammed has been remanded in custody and is next due to appear before Sheffield Crown Court on 13 May.
Sheffield man hopes to fundraise £40k for human trafficking victims
A Sheffield YMCA worker is aiming to raise £40,000 for human trafficking victims before his 40th birthday by running four half marathons in a month.
The Snowdrop Project is a Sheffield-based charity which provides long-term support to survivors of modern slavery and exploitation.
Jonathan Buckley, 39, decided to fundraise for the organisation after he volunteered to drive trafficking victims to safe houses for the Salvation Army.
He said: “For us, these weren’t just people you saw on the news in boats crossing the channel, or on trucks. They were real people with real stories and real lives too.
“You always think, what happens to them next? Do they just get lost in the system, do they go back to their home countries, what happens to them?”
He discovered the Snowdrop Project through friends who volunteered there, and decided to raise money for long-term support of human trafficking victims.
So far, including gift aid, Jonathan has raised £2,000 of his £40,000 target. He admits raising £4,000 is more realistic than £40,000, but he is determined to raise as much money as possible.
He said: “Encouraging people to part with their cash has always been a gift I have had.”
Jonathan aims to completes the Sheffield Half Marathon, which took place on April 7, Rugeley Half Marathon, which took place yesterday, and the upcoming Roche Abbey Half Marathon and East Yorkshire (Hull) Half Marathon.
He said: “Carrying the Olympic torch last Sunday was hard. I’ve not carried it since I carried it in 2012, and that was only 300 metres, rather than 13 miles. My arm muscles hurt quite a bit on Sunday night.
“The torch has been behind the TV for the last ten years, so it was good to get it out again!”
Jonathan said doing back-to-back races is a challenge, but he has friends and family members joining him on the way to cheer him on.
“Having planned this for the past five or six years, it’s good to actually do it. Come May, I think I will be at a loose end and wondering what is next!”
The Snowdrop Project said: "As a small charity, we rely on the generosity of supporters like Jonathan to fund the work we do.
"We're lucky to have an incredible community of people who fundraise and donate to enable survivors to rebuild their lives after exploitation."
You can donate to Jonathan Buckley’s Just Giving fundraiser here, or donate directly to the Snowdrop Project by visiting their website.
Friends band together to run the Sheffield Half Marathon in memory of an ‘inspirational’ racing driver
The death of an "inspirational" Rotherham racing driver by suicide has led a group of friends from Sheffield to raise money for mental health in his memory.
Jake Cook, a father of two, had competed in a variety of competitions, including the Formula Ford EuroCup and British Formula Renault Championship. His death led to 14 of his school friends coming together to honour his memory by raising money for the mental health charity, MIND.
His friend Jojo Quattrocchi, 32, said: "It's been something so tragic but we've managed to try and spin that into something positive by running for Jake's family, for MIND, and just sharing our solidarity for mental health and how we can maybe break these stigmas."
When asked about their memories with Mr Cook, the friends had an abundance of experiences they wanted to share. James Brodie, 30, bonded with Mr Cook over their joint love of auto racing.
He said: “He was just the sweetest guy. Even though I live down in London now and he was living up in Sheffield, we would stay in contact and we sometimes messaged each other about F1.
“He was just someone who I really enjoyed that world with.”
Olivia Parker, 30, spoke about what Mr Cook was like in school. She said: “He was very hard-working. He was very determined because not only was he incredible at sport and at such a high level, but he was also very intelligent.
“He was also very humble. He was never someone to particularly brag or rub it in your face.”
Miss Parker detailed why they had chosen a marathon to raise money and pay tribute to their friend: “He had competed as a Formula racing driver for his whole life. He was an extremely sporty and inspirational person and I think we thought what more could we do in his honour than a sporting challenge?”
The group decided to start a fundraiser for the mental health charity, MIND, to help increase awareness of men’s mental health. Men make up 80% of suicides that happen in the UK each year.
Originally, the group had set their fundraising target at £5,000 but after receiving generous donations, they decided to double it to £10,000.
Miss Parker said: “It’s really been quite amazing to see the generosity of people coming together. I think people really understand that MIND is a charity that they want to contribute to.”
MIND puts 83 pence from every pound they receive directly into helping people with mental health difficulties.
In spite of the progress made by mental health charities in the past few years, there is still a stigma around being open about mental health, especially for men.
The group are all taking a different approach to training for the marathon but are updating each other along the way.
Mr Quattrocchi, who is starting his own mental health charity, has found the process challenging but enjoyable. He said: “I’ve never run 10K in my life. I've gone years without running and it has been really good, personally, to get back to feeling the benefits of running, and then obviously the end goal is to finish it, all in honour of Jake."
The group will be running the half-marathon on 7 April.
You can donate to their fundraiser here.
Owls Glide by Millers in South Yorkshire Derby
The Owls made it three in a row after a comfortable 1-0 away win against Rotherham United.
Sheffield Wednesday needed three points against out-of-form Rotherham United to keep their survival dreams alive.
Pre-match, Wednesday boss Danny Rohl said: “We know the situation is still serious and it goes very quickly in this league in the other direction.
“But at the moment, we are going in the right direction.”
Although only seven miles and one league position separate the clubs, the gulf in class between the two sides was evident at the New York Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Wednesday spent the majority of the first half camped inside the Millers’ final third but lacked composure in and around the box.
This was evidenced after 21 minutes when Owl’s winger Poveda flashed a shot around the post after a positive run, cutting inside from the right.
The visitors did have the ball in the net from Akin Famewo but it was disallowed for offside in a questionable decision by the officials.
The goal didn’t come for Wednesday in the first half, but they were certainly on top, boasting 60% possession and 11 shots to Rotherham’s solitary effort.
Leam Richardson’s side started the second half with more intensity during the first ten minutes and had a few flurries around the away side’s area, but they didn’t create any clear opportunities.
The lack of quality in the Millers’ attack was met by a collective groan from the home fans on the 64th minute, when a seemingly promising counterattack culminated in a 30 yard back pass to their goalkeeper, Viktor Johansson.
Danny Rohl’s men finally broke the deadlock in the 66th minute when Ike Ugbo swept the ball in from close range after a quick passing exchange from the Owl’s on the edge of the box.
The last half an hour was fairly straightforward for the Owls, despite Barry Bannan clearing an effort off the line to keep the clean sheet intact.
Second half substitute Mallik Wilks also hit the post for the visitors with a headed effort in added time.
After the match, Rohl said: "From the beginning we were on the front foot, and we created a lot of chances and at half-time I had a clear message.
I said to my team it was great what we were doing, but it was about what we did in the box.”
The win for Wednesday was crucial and has pushed the Owls to within three points of safety.
When Rohl took the helm in December, they were struggling on 13 points at the foot of the table.
Wednesday play host to Plymouth Argyle tomorrow for another ‘six pointer’ in the relegation scrap.
From Sheffield to Sydney: 40 years of Rock and Roll photography with Tony Mott
A former Lowedges chef who became one of the most esteemed photographers in rock and roll, working with over 3,000 musicians including The Arctic Monkeys and Madonna, talks about his 40 years in the industry.
From touring with The Rolling Stones to having dinner on Paul McCartney's yacht, and being forced to shoot Blink-182 in a bathtub, Tony Mott reminisces about his time shooting some of the world's most famous bands.
"The reality is that I've shot thousands of bands and musicians," says Tony. "I've only met three a***holes, and that's after more than 40 years experience. They're not great time keepers, nor are they hugely reliable. But they're definitely not all a***holes."
The son of a steelworker, Tony, born in 1956, a loyal Blades fan, was raised in Lowedges. He lived in the city until he was 18, where he studied to become a French Chef in Granville Catering College and can recall clearly the 'buzz' of the Moor on a Saturday morning.
After qualifying as a chef, Tony worked in Surrey, before meeting an Australian girl and moving 'down under', but he soon discovered his real passion, and what would become his true calling in life, was photography.
Tony was introduced to what became his vocation by his childhood friend, Paul Mitchell, from Hackenthorpe, who worked on black and white portraits. He taught Tony how to process and print photographs, and this was the start of his lifelong love of the art.
Despite being born and bred in Sheffield, Tony has spent most of his life in Australia, admitting when he returned to the city in the late 80s, while working with the band U2, he got lost. “That period, when all those steelworks disappeared, Sheffield changed radically. When I left in ’76, people, including my dad, worked in the steelworks. That was the industry. So, it's a hell of a shot to just be wondering around Attercliffe going to myself, ‘where the f**** has everything gone? You’ve got to remember, when I left, there was no Meadowhall or anything like that."
Although Tony moved away from Sheffield almost 50 years ago and may have lost his Yorkshire drawl, he’s never lost that classic, old school Northern sense of humour. The anecdotes he has are endless, and his delivery when telling them is as magnetic and entertaining as the world's best stand-up comedians. Referring to the Arctic Monkeys, he says: "The first time I worked with them, they asked me, ‘are you United or Wednesday then?' As soon as I said United, that was sort of the end of that relationship really - I guess they’re all Wednesday”.
In the early years after moving to Australia, Tony would take his camera into local pubs and photograph local bands. This is how he stumbled across the rock band Divinyls, known for their hit 'I touch myself' and went on to be a big success in Australia and the United States.
"I got lucky that they got famous when I was starting and so I rode their coattails to certain extent", Tony says. “I never really ever meant it to happen, it just happened. Being a chef was bloody hard work, but taking photos of musicians was fun," he added, with a smirk.
In 1987, Tony got his self-confessed 'big break' in the industry, when Mick Jagger landed in Australia on a solo tour and asked him to be his photographer. He toured with The Rolling Stones three times as well as working with Fleetwood Mac, Iggy Pop, Blink-182, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Madonna and Paul McCartney just to name a few.
Tony once spent an afternoon in Sydney harbour with Paul McCartney. "I was told by my management that I had to go and photograph Paul on the harbour in his boat." says Tony, "So you immediately think, 'Oh it's going to be some f***ing great big luxury yacht. But he just loves sailing and I ended up having lunch with him, and he told me how he misses double-decker buses. He was a lovely bloke."
Tony has also witnessed some hilarious behind-the-scenes moments, including finding Travis Barker, the drummer of American punk band, Blink-182, in a bathtub. "I did a front cover for Rolling Stone magazine," he says. "But Travis wasn't answering the door and hadn't come out of his room. He was so hungover in the bathtub of his hotel room that he quite literally couldn't get out of it. He's still, p****d, so I said, 'let's shoot it in there', so I got them all in and just shot them in the bathtub."
Tony reveals, though, sometimes, he was the cause of the mishap, including a time he forgot to put film in his camera during a session with Guns 'n' Roses. The rock group were at the pinnacle of their popularity and Tony spent the entire session disguising his mistake before confessing his rooky error. After the session, Tony had a chat with their manager, forming a cunning lie to save himself, "It worked out alright because the next day, I said to the manager, 'I'm not even gonna show you. They're not good enough'. So I managed to con another session out of them, I suppose!"
After four decades, Tony has now hung up his cameras, and retired from what he calls 'rock and roll photography', and is working in Australian television production.
"I've been doing it for 40 years. The best 40 years of rock and roll photography. It's all been a joy. I feel I've been quite blessed because making money, and good money out of photographing musicians is not something everyone gets to do."
Purchase Tony's book here: Rock N Roll Gallery: A Journey from Sheffield to Sydney 1983-2023: Amazon.co.uk: Mott, Tony: 9781922810748: Books
Ukraine war anniversary: Sheffield’s Ukrainian community gathers for ‘precious’ commemoration
Over 100 people gathered in Sheffield Cathedral last night to commemorate the second anniversary of the war in Ukraine.
The event consisted of an evening eucharist with Ukrainian orthodox prayer and was followed by live traditional Ukrainian music. The cathedral is also hosting an exhibition of artworks created by wounded Ukrainian soldiers.
Organised by the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, the music was performed by Ukrainian refugees and included songs played on the Bandura, an ancient Ukrainian instrument.
Event organiser Tanya Klymenko said: “It means a huge amount to the refugees because despite the warmest welcome we got from locals who opened their hearts and homes, it is still important for people to have a sense of belonging and to speak their own language.”
According to Sheffield City Council, more than 800 refugees have arrived in Sheffield during the past two years as part of the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. Mrs Klymenko, however, estimates that there have been around 1,000 new arrivals, accounting for those with an extended family visa.
Anna Kovalenko, a Ukrainian refugee attending the event, said: “It is unfortunate that this is the second anniversary of the war but this was really precious for us. We try to keep together because it is really important for our people and for our children.”
Mrs Kovalenko came to the UK in 2022 with her two sons and had to leave her husband in Ukraine.
She added: “I think this is the best place for us to be in. I am really grateful to Sheffield and can say that our lives continue here.”
Many women refugees have had to leave their husbands behind and are counting the days until they are able to go back to Ukraine.
“I want to emphasise that the war in Europe is still raging and Ukraine needs your support as much as it did two years ago. Please don’t give up on Ukraine," said Mrs Kovalenko.
The event connected different communities, including the Ukrainian Society at the University of Sheffield.
Founder of the society Roksolana Rohozhynska said: “I loved it. I am so grateful that we now have a big Ukrainian society in Sheffield. It is great to see so much support from people from other countries uniting with us for one purpose.”
‘We won’t go away’ says anti-abortion group holding 40-day vigil outside hospital
An anti-abortion group holding a 40-day ‘vigil’ outside of the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield claim they are there to raise awareness, rather than judge women.
40 Days For Life is an international Christian organisation that claims it is ‘helping to end the injustice of abortion’. Its first campaign took place in 2007, and has reached over 1000 cities in 63 countries.
Rachel Wood, who organises the Sheffield vigils, told Sheffield Wire that the group has been in the area for three years and aims to pray outside the hospital from 8 am to 8 pm, seven days a week, which is when abortions are performed in the hospital.
Mrs Wood, who also assists in running two helplines that aim to end abortion, said: “We believe life is a gift. Abortion hurts women – they think it’s a right to choose, but it does hurt women.”
The group do not consider their actions to be a protest, with Mrs Wood stating that 40 Days For Life considers it a “peaceful prayer vigil.”
Another one of the vigil attendees, Andrew, declined to provide his last name due to fears surrounding his safety.
He said: “We’ve had vigils interrupted where we’ve just been praying, people have come along and smashed our signs up.
“An elderly gentleman had his sign ripped out of his hands and stood on and torn into small pieces – it was quite shocking, but it wouldn’t deter him from coming.”
Marie, who also declined to provide her surname, said: “People mention rape making it okay to abort, but it’s still a life.
“We speak up for the babies – they have no voice. We won’t go away.”
The group faces heavy criticism in Sheffield. Alexandra, 23, from Sheffield Solidarity Group, said: “We think that being harassed whilst undertaking one of the most difficult decisions a pregnant person can take is an awful thing and should not happen.”
Sarah, who declined to provide her last name, helped to set up the Facebook group ‘Sheffield Protecting the Right to Choose’ in September 2022, after reading about 40 Days For Life. The group aims to establish counter-protests and figure out how to support people in Sheffield.
Sarah believes there should be more buffer zones in place to protect people using the services.
“Everyone’s got a right to their beliefs, but I think there needs to be better securities and systems in place.
“It’s already such a stressful time, adding that stress and judgement on top – I can’t imagine what that feels like.”
Sarah also added that she doesn’t think there are a massive amount of people in Sheffield who aren’t pro-choice.
Vigil attendee Marie disagreed, saying she knows “plenty of people who are pro-life. Maybe they don’t see that.”
According to BPAS, 1 in 3 women will have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old.
Next month, MPs are expected to get a free vote on decriminalising abortion in England and Wales after 24 weeks.
Homeless people at risk of being criminalised by council plan, charities and public say
A draft proposal which would criminalise begging and loitering in the city centre has been criticised for marginalising the homeless by charities and the public.
The Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) has received backlash that it will drive homelessness into other parts of the city rather than addressing its causes.
The policy, which is open to public consultation, has been pitched by the council to tackle antisocial behaviour.
Benjamin Archer, a law lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University who specialises in anti-social behaviour and public space management, said: “PSPO’s are a tool to deal with symptoms of behaviour rather than addressing its root causes.
“They disproportionately target vulnerable groups through financial penalties and open them up to a cycle of criminality.”
The PSPO is designed to crack down on antisocial activities, but many issues such as drug-taking and public drinking are already covered by other laws.
This has led to the view that the policy’s only purpose is to tackle begging and loitering which are not currently illegal.
As part of the PSPO, temporary structures such as tents would be banned, while anyone sleeping rough could be charged for ‘loitering’.
The Archer Project, a charity for homeless people based at the Cathedral, said: “If people are without accommodation, excluding them from the city centre will only lead to homelessness elsewhere and the city doesn’t want that either.”
The PSPO will be enforced through fixed penalty notices, and would encompass everywhere within the ring road as well as the train station.
Councillor Ben Miskell, Chair of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy Committee, said: “I don’t think there’s necessarily any evidence that introducing PSPO’s moves the issue of antisocial behaviour outside of a city centre.
“We do need to take a very firm line on antisocial behaviour and make sure our city centre is safe for everyone.”
PSPO’s have been introduced in cities such as Doncaster and Barnsley since the government repealed the Vagrancy Act in 2022, which removed begging as a prosecutable offence.
Sheffield previously tried to implement one in 2019, but it was dropped after failing to gain public support and meeting similar criticisms from charities.
The council will be taking public opinions on the policy until 25 March.
Black animals are harder to rehome says Sheffield-based sanctuary
Black animals have a harder time getting adopted due to the superstition surrounding their colour, according to local North Anston animal sanctuary.
Based in south Sheffield, Thornberry Animal Sanctuary was founded in 1988 and rescues animals from abandonment, and neglect.
While the sanctuary have had great adoption success stories, and have strong support from their local community, at times they have struggled to find homes for black animals, specifically cats and dogs.
Dating back to the European witch craze, black cats have often been regarded as an omen of bad luck, deterring people from adopting them.
Cattery and Small Animals Manager, Courtney Berry, said: “They’re a lot like marmite – people either love them or they don’t. We get a lot of them and they are very difficult to rehome.”
Additionally, at this time of year, it is particularly difficult for animals to be rehomed and as Christmas is a high travel period, animals can’t be homed with those who have upcoming trips booked, resulting in animals staying in the centre for longer periods of time.
In the kennels, black Lurchers and black Greyhounds are notorious for sticking around.
Hannah Armes, Thornberry’s Kennel Assistant said: “It's just the colour – people are put off by black dogs. The other colours of Lurchers and Greyhounds usually go quite quickly, but the black ones are less desirable,”
Desirable dogs have also been sent to Thornberry due to owners not foreseeing certain characteristics of their animal, or their medical costs.
A misconception around animal adoption is the underlying costs of taking care of small animals. According to Battersea pets, cat care is roughly £1587 per year, and rabbits at a similar cost of £1550.
Thornberry Animal Sanctuary hopes to hold classes in the new year to educate new pet owners on caring for their animals.
Entirely run on donation, fundraising plays a big part in keeping the centre afloat. Thornberry regularly holds events to entice the local community to support the centre and the animals it houses.
In early November, the sanctuary celebrated its 35th anniversary with a dinner gala. Last weekend, they held their annual Christmas fair, where they promoted local businesses.
Thornberry invites the local community to volunteer to help them day-to-day. Anyone is welcome to volunteer and can find an online application form on their website.
Thornberry Animal Sanctuary will soon open up a charity shop in Crystal Peaks Shopping Centre.
Maddy Cusack “broken by football”: the women’s game in the UK remains an afterthought
Former Sheffield United player Maddy Cusack’s early death at 27 has spotlighted the ongoing struggle which still dominates women in football. The pressure of the game is growing but the money in the game is not.
Maddy’s family have criticised the “half-baked” nature of the women’s game. Players have no choice but to work multiple jobs due to the lack of funding for salaries, equipment and facilities.
There has been an increasing demand for the women’s game after the 2022 Euros, but the lack of commitment from clubs for the women’s game, shows the stark contrast between the women and men’s game.
Maddy’s brother, Richard Cusack, 29, spoke out on the pressures his sister faced during her career. He said: “Women don't get paid enough for the effort they put in. They've got to find a way of making the balance work in women's football.
“What you're asking players to do at the moment is live as a full-time, elite, professional athlete by eating, training, and then playing on a Sunday. You’re going out all day Sunday and then players have got to get up for work on a Monday morning and with some away games it’s a weekend-long event as well.
“We have got to find a way of making this work for everyone. At the moment, it feels a little bit half-baked.”
Mr Cusack emphasised the difficulty for players to fully commit to playing football when a risk of injury one game could impact their full-time job.
Maddy’s mum, Deborah Cusack, 55, claims her daughter, who also played for the Lionesses, was “broken by football”. She told the BBC: “Maddy worried about her career in football. Because football, to her, was everything.
“At Sheffield United, last year their players were part-time, which means that they all had full-time jobs and trained three times a week. They often travelled on a Saturday to play on a Sunday, for minimal amounts of money. I think Madeline was on £6,000 a year, last year, to play football.”
Mrs Cusack, from Horsley, Derbyshire, spoke to the Sheffield Wire about a campaign for Maddy to participate in the FA mixed gender trials held across the country, while she was still in secondary school. Unfortunately for Maddy the campaign was unsuccessful despite backing from “every manager and every team”.
Olivia Cusack, 24, explained her sister had a huge ambition to develop opportunities for young women who were pursuing football careers.
She said: “I remember at clubs she'd been in, some female clubs were completely separate from the men's and she could never get her head around why they weren't working together. It wasn’t just funding, but equipment too, and even general relationships between the men and the women. Why was it not more merged?”
After moving to Sheffield United, Maddy noted men and women were gradually integrated which Ms Cusack explained was good for Maddy as the absence of a gendered hierarchy allowed all the players to learn and progress more.
She said: “I think she wanted a level playing field for both men and women. She wanted young girls to be able to achieve what the men have in a way, or even, the females that are in the Euros now. I think she just wanted to make it not so difficult for women to be able to achieve in football and get as much out of the sport.”
The Sheffield Wire’s campaign last May on the retention of teenage girls in football showed a large spike in girl’s interest in football as well as the challenges the girls faced.
Data from Sports England showed that 777,000 girls at the end of the 2021 school year played organised football and a 200,000 increase in the numbers of girls playing informally.
According to FIFA, there are over 29 million women and girls playing football globally, which will be expected to increase to 60 million by 2026.
In school, Maddy participated in the Sports England’s ‘This Girl Can’ campaign, which aimed to challenge stereotypes of girls in sport.
Maddy became known as “Miss Sheffield United” and continued to encourage girls to play football. Throughout her career she participated in various events including multiple visits to Charnock Ridgeway Girls FC.
Olivia, social media manager for Derby Runner, who lives in Horsley, said: “The young girls and parents I spoke to, they believe it's really difficult for girls teams to actually have access to equipment or places where they can carry out training sessions.
“A lot of the time, it's already kind of reserved or bought for boys, men’s, teams. The priority is not the same for females.”
Hana Bhatia, 14, saw Maddy Cusack as a role model for her own pursuit into a football career.
She said: “There’s still stereotypes. I feel like getting on to a team is a lot more difficult for a girl than a boy, because there's so many more divisions for the boys than for girls. I feel like boys don't understand that girls know how to play football”.
Hana also pointed out discrepancies at a professional level. “The women only get one shirt for the entire season and the men get one every single game.”
Rachel Iball, Hana’s mother, explained: “There's a lot more opportunities for the boys to develop and be scouted and we've looked for more teams for Hana. It's just been really difficult to try and go to the next step.
“One of Hana's friends got scouted just so easily. Whereas for girls, it's a lot harder. And there's less teams around. So we end up travelling all over the place to go to matches for a Doncaster, Barnsley, all over.”
Brett Hawke, Barnsley Ladies FC Chairman for the Junior and Development teams, 43, explained that there is an increased pressure from clubs investing in the women’s game for teenage girl players to be elite despite the lack of funding.
“The problem I’ve got with it is, if you read the press, you’d think there’d be a lot of money going to the women’s game because they go on about how much funding has gone into it and how it’s going to improve it”, he said.
“But when you dig into it you’ll find that the funding’s there for already established men's clubs to bring women’s football in. So they go after that funding, bring one women’s team in, and spend the rest of the money on the men's team.”
Mr Hawke has been involved in the women's game for seven years but was originally from the men’s football background.
The financial constraint and overshadowing of the women’s game, as Mr Hawke explained, has risen with the introduction of the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations to clubs which has further limited their spending.
He said: “For me there should be a special kind of fund that is specifically for the women’s game and it shouldn’t be included in men’s Financial Fair Play Regulations, it should be rolled out to the women’s game and it’s got to start out at the grassroots.
“Because some of the facilities that we have to play on, if it were boys they would not be playing on that.”
As the number of women in football continues to grow, so does the financial pressure. This reinforces the importance of The Maddy Cusack Foundation that aims to provide funding and opportunities for young girls in their football careers.
#MarkedbyMaddy: The impact of Maddy Cusack on the next generation of players
"She helped so many young people. I was always really shy because I thought that if I said something wrong, then I would regret it but I think I should have spoke to her more because now I can't."
As soon as Hana Bhatia, 14, saw Maddy Cusack play the Sheffield United midfielder became her favourite player. Her passion on the pitch was mirrored in the generosity she gave to younger players.
Hana, who plays for Hallam Rangers Junior FC, recalled: "Anyone who came across Maddy could just tell that she was a really nice person, on the pitch and off the pitch. She treated me more like a friend than a fan."
Rachel Iball, Hana's mother, said: "Hana's dream was to play with Maddy on the pitch so to be able to talk to her and have a relationship was really meaningful. She was a really good role model.
Maddy gave so much time to her supporters. Every time Hana plays football now, she writes MC 8 on her hand and when she scores, she points up and says that was for Maddy."
Hana isn't the only young player or fan who has been impacted by the much loved player. The Maddy Cusack Foundation has been sharing stories using #markedbymaddy and highlighting her impact.
It's evident Maddy has inspired so many young players to want to go on to have a career just like her. However, it can be a hard path to follow.
Ms Iball explained the cost of playing football can make it difficult. She said: "I'm a single mother ferrying Hana around. I love that she's a footballer but the costs can add up."
With the lack of local teams girls have to travel miles to play matches. When they do get to play it's often with less facilities than boys teams.
It's these and many other barriers that The Maddy Cusack Foundation, created by Maddy’s family in October, seeks to address. Their hope is to continue Maddy’s inspirational legacy.
‘It was a privilege to have grown up around such talent’: Cusack family reflect on the fierce woman Maddy became.
Maddy as an adult mirrored her much loved childhood personality, she was fierce, determined and spirited – three words that would eventually become the slogan for The Maddy Cusack Foundation.
Her passion and enthusiasm on and off the pitch inspired many. During the footballer’s childhood, she crafted her talents under the guidance of her beloved teachers, including Anne Cox, and the support of her family.
After completing her A Levels Maddy enrolled at Derby University, so she could stay near her family, and was awarded a first-class honours degree in Marketing, Advertising and PR. By this point, Maddy was working part-time, studying full-time, and playing at Aston Villa on the weekends.
As Olivia entered adulthood, the bond between herself and her older sister strengthened. Maddy helped Olivia gain a job in marketing at Derby Runner, where she still works today.
“Towards the end of our teenage years, into adult life, we were always super close – we came together a lot more. I think it was because there were four years between us and during that time, you go on similar journeys,” she says. “We found a lot of similarities between us as we could open up more, and could relate to each other. I'd do her makeup. I think she liked to humour me in that way because it could bring us closer. At the beginning, she’d say ‘You’re making me look completely different,’ and I’d say ‘Maddy that’s the point in makeup so sit down and let me do your eyelashes!’”
It was the friendship of her family Maddy cherished above all else. “When Maddy had down days from football or work, she would be with me, my little sister and my mum – she and my mum were best friends. I’d always say to Maddy ‘Don’t you want a group of girls to go out with for a coffee or a night out?’ She’d always be mortified at the idea and say ‘You're my best mate – you, Mum, and Felicia are. I don't need friends,’” the social media manager recalled.
Maddy juggled a lot during her adult life. She had a full-time job as a Marketing Executive for Sheffield United, in which she would work Monday to Friday. On Sundays, she would swap the office for the pitch and turn her focus to her career as a semi-professional footballer.
The COVID-19 lockdown forced Maddy to break from her hectic lifestyle. She immediately moved back to Horsley and back into her childhood bedroom. “For the first time in 18 years, her fast-paced lifestyle had slowed down – not stopped because she was still working. I think she was quite annoyed she wasn't furloughed like everyone else,” says Olivia.
“Everything slowed down and that was really nice for her because we got to just spend time together – we were all just locked in the house together. We did a lot of walking, playing games and just messing about. She liked the simple things, I think because it wasn't an option for her all the time.”
Although Maddy loved being at home with her family, she was also eager to move back to Sheffield, with her flatmate and football captain, Sophie Barker. The Yorkshire city was not only home to her beloved football team, but also home to her father’s family.
Maddy’s brother, Richard, 29, recalls, “She instantly fell in love with the city – moving to Sheffield was quite a big deal for Maddy because that's where my dad's side of the family is from and all his relatives are up there. My dad was very proud of her for doing that. She always said the city felt so warm to her – just home away from home.”
During the footballer’s time in Sheffield, the siblings would often visit her and take a trip down Ecclesall Road to grab a drink from Pom Kitchen. Other times they’ve opted for a bite to eat at Kelham Island’s Cutlery Works.
Despite her love for a caramel latte, and obsession with Greek wraps, Maddy was strict with herself when it came to training, diet and work ethic. When she wasn’t working, a lot of the time she could either be found at the gym or training.
“She was like a manager's dream,” Richard says, “She was professional, she trained well, ate well. She was always on time. Last year, we had a Christmas dinner around my house and she bought her own – weighed out. She had football the next day and said ‘look, this is what I'm going to have to do’, but even that shows that she was so dedicated to football, and to her family as well. She wouldn't have missed out on the Christmas meal, she just had to make a few adjustments. She really was a marvel – an example of how to conduct yourself.”
Richard works as a sports journalist for Football London, and is based in Birmingham with his partner, Emily, who was also very close to Maddy. “She always welcomed me with open arms. We were quite different, but that didn’t stop us from having a brilliant connection. We got on so well. She'd always take the time to talk to you and get to know you. And she was like that with everyone.”
Emily witnessed the bond between Maddy and her siblings, as well as the mischief they caused. “They would always play football in the house. They'd break something, but no one would ever admit to it. Deborah was always finding something that was broken because they had kicked a ball around the house.”
Maddy never lost her cheekiness, nor did she ever lose the love and affection of her friends and family. “We're so lucky that we know how much she loved us, and she knew we loved her. I think that's very lucky because sometimes you can fall out with people and you might regret things. In this family, there was no question,” Emily says.
For the Cusacks, the festive season remains a very special time of year. Emily recalls a moment from their final. “It's so vivid. We were all just opening presents and Maddy disappeared, we thought she'd just gone to the toilet. Eventually, she came back down and was head-to-toe in a full Santa suit. She put on this funny voice, and she gave out all her presents. We were all laughing, and she was so happy. It was a really happy time,” the primary school teacher says.
Olivia, Maddy’s sister, added, “I remember looking at her and thinking, she was absolutely crazy.” The
Maddy’s love for the season was infamous but in contrast, she wasn’t typically overly sentimental about Christmas, but Olivia still has a card her sister wrote each member of her immediate family two years ago. “To have something that you could actually read and that she took the time to write meant so much. It was just so left-field for her, but it was so amazing.”
During Maddy’s memorial, Olivia read out a part of the note written inside the Christmas card her sister wrote. ‘Thank you for everything you do for me and for always being there for me. I love you so much and I don’t know where I would be without you.’
‘Madeleine displayed a unique spirit, an indomitable spirit’: A glimpse into Maddy Cusack’s childhood
Madeleine Cusack was a star in women’s football – hailed as Miss Sheffield United. Boasting an enviable, professional career, the star midfielder, who hailed from Derbyshire, went on to become vice-captain of Sheffield United.
It is easy for anyone to see why the athlete excelled exponentially in her career: according to her teammates and clubs, she possessed great talent, took any given opportunity to improve, and had unconditional love and support from her family.
But where did Maddy come from? At one point, she was simply a young girl from the small Derbyshire town of Shipley View, Ilkeston. She came from a tight-knit family, close to her parents, Deborah and David, grandmother, Judy, with unbreakable bonds with her siblings, Richard, Olivia and Felicia.
At Scargill Primary School in West Hallam, Maddy was a shining light with a special talent for sport. “She would spend all of her time playing football with the lads. Her school shoes had to be boy shoes, because they were the only ones that would last,” Deborah, 55, says. “Even then, she was very competitive. On sports day she won absolutely every race she ever entered. The school had a little marathon at the end of the year and she'd always win that as well.”
Maddy’s younger sister, Olivia, shared her mother’s sentiments about her competitive nature. “We learned very quickly to just let Maddy win, because she would win anyway,” she says, laughing.
Maddy also enjoyed horse riding and would often ride with her cousins. “When she was a child, her favourite film was Black Beauty and so her fifth birthday present was a horse riding lesson,” Deborah shares dotingly. “We also tried ballet as her grandmother wanted to take her, but that lasted about one week.”
This time of year is particularly hard for the Cusack family, as she loved Christmas. It was a time to spend with her family and take a break from the passions of the pitch. Deborah recalls, “She made an angel at school when she was little, and that goes on top of our tree every year. I've kept all the Christmas decorations from when all the children were five. The others used to get a bit cross when the angel went back up every year.”
Following Scargill Primary School, Maddy moved to Kirk Hallam Academy. Similarly to when she was a younger pupil, the football prodigy spent the ‘majority of her waking hours’ dedicating her time to sports.
“During secondary school, she was a part of the netball team. I went to watch every game she was ever in. On one occasion Maddy nearly went to kick the ball, and I had to shout ‘Don’t boot the ball!’ In netball, she was like a little Jack Russell because she wasn’t tall and lean, she was just on everybody like she was in football so it was funny to watch her play,” Deborah recalls, chuckling at the memory. “I'm very, very proud – I'm proud of everything she's ever done,” Deborah says.
Popularity came easily to Maddy, who was respected by the boys and idolised by the girls. She had a large group of friends throughout her time as a student and was still close to them years later.
She and her boyfriend of the time were crowned prom queen and king in her final year of school. Her ‘prom queen’ sash still remains in her childhood bedroom. It was the first, but by no means the last time she would be celebrated for her popularity and excellence. On the day, there were group pictures of Maddy and her friends taken outside West Hallam Community Centre. The park in the centre is the starting location for the foundation fundraiser, Miles for Maddy, on December 10.
At school, she impressed many of her teachers with her talents and fierce personality. One in particular was Anne Cox, her PE teacher and Key Stage 4 Head of Year.
She worked closely with Maddy on and off the pitch and recalls, as an athlete, she was impressed with her dedication and determination to her interests. As a pupil, she was also in awe of her selflessness, confidence and optimism.
“As a PE student in year seven, she was part of a very talented group of girls,” the retired teacher says fondly. “However, Maddy always just stood out that little bit more. You shouldn’t have favourites in school as a teacher – never. Having said that, there was a group of girls in that year, along with Maddy that were just outstanding beyond belief.”
Branded a ‘cheeky monkey’ by her former teacher, Maddy would often lead the group into mischievous fun which always left a smile on everyone’s face.
“In the early years, the children would perform dances to each other, Anne says. “Maddy would try to break into fits of laughter with her dancing. We once performed a dance to West Side Story and she loved that because it was full of strong, confident movements.”
When the athletic powerhouse wasn’t dominating her way through sport, her focus moved to her studies. Maddy received all A*s, As and Bs in her GCSE subjects, including Psychology and PE, and retook maths three times to secure an A. After GCSEs, she then went on to study English, Biology and PE for her A Levels. It appeared as though she shone as much when reciting Shakespeare, as she did when dribbling on the pitch.
A standout memory for Anne was when the school football team made it to the national finals. “Maddy led the girl’s football team to the National Finals. We had never made the finals before, and this was the only team to have ever done it. She was an integral part of that team with regard to raising motivation and getting everybody to train. She was an absolute star.”
It was while Maddy was at secondary school, the Cusack family moved from Shipley View to Horsley and moved next door to Zoe Stannard, who went to school with Olivia. “I was in year four at the primary school in the village when Olivia started,” Zoe says. “We became best friends that same day. Liv introduced me to Maddy and from then on, we were either always at my house, or theirs. Because I was best friends with Olivia, I always saw Maddy as a big sister. I was an only child and so I felt as though Olivia, Maddy, Felicia and Richard were like my siblings. She was the first person who bought me makeup, the first person to straighten my hair – she was a big sister. We looked up to her so so much.”
During separate conversations, both Zoe and Olivia agreed that once somebody befriended one of the Cusacks, that person automatically became friends with the entire family. Living within a close bubble of family and friends, the entrance to the Cusack house was a revolving door.
Zoe was present for many milestones of Maddy’s life, such as getting her first job as a waitress at the Horsley Lodge Hotel. During Maddy’s exam period, Zoe remembered watching Maddy revise so intently, that it inspired her to mimic her friend’s work ethic when it was time to revise herself.
By this point, Maddy was playing for Aston Villa and would have to drive from Derbyshire to Birmingham three times a week for training sessions. As her father drove her back and forth along the A38, Maddy’s head was in her books, revising for her next exam. Her dedication to ‘being the best’ is something that inspired all those around her.
“She achieved everything she set out to do. She did everything first and set the benchmark for the rest of us: GSCEs, Sixth Form, and even her driving test – She was the first one out of all of us to pass driving,” Zoe, a deputy safeguarding lead, recalls.
Some of her favourite memories of her time with Maddy centre around simplicity: whether it be going for walks with their mums, or going for long drives with Maddy and Olivia. “As she got older, she loved being in her car – she loved listening to R&B, and would literally blast songs in her car as loud as she could.”
Like Deborah, Zoe also cherished the memory of seeing Maddy at her secondary school prom. “It is probably one of my favourite memories. I just remember thinking, she looked amazing. Everyone thought she looked the best.”
Legendary Golf Club Closes After 122 Years
Renishaw Park Golf Club, established in 1911, is set to cease trading after ongoing financial hardship.
Despite club members raising a substantial fee of £20,000, it was not enough to keep the club open during the upcoming winter months when trade is slow.
Renishaw Park Golf Club has also confirmed that multiple donators have come forward to offer further payment, but they will be declining.
The club released a statement to members that said: "We are respectfully declining the very kind offers made and will not be using your money to prop up the club for the next couple of months with no future beyond."
Despite the situation, Renishaw Park Golf Club have stated that they will be exploring options so that a club may continue to operate on location, "in whatever form that may be."
On Sunday 3 December at 4.30pm, the club is scheduled to shut its doors for the last time.
Sheffield FC and Eagles RLC Join For Stadium Move
For the first time in over 20 years Sheffield FC are returning to the city with a brand new state of the art stadium.
The oldest football club in the country will share the site with Sheffield Eagles RLC.
The proposed stadium, which is aiming to be ready for autumn 2025, boasts a capacity of 5,000 and will be located in Meadowhead, on the same site as the former Sheffield Transport Sports Club. The proposal also includes a plan to include a club museum for Sheffield FC.
Richard Tims, Sheffield FC's chairman, said: “This is about being proud of the region’s sporting heritage and making it a hub for sporting excellence and community engagement in Sheffield and the South Yorkshire region."
Sheffield FC have been forced to postpone matches due to bad weather at their current ground in Dronfield, including a game yesterday, against Ashington AFC, following a waterlogged pitch.
Fan, Philip Staton, 70, of High Street, said: “The ground is always flooded. You wouldn't believe the amount of games that are called off."
The proposal for the new Home Of Football Stadium features artificial turf, which would make the pitch resistant to wet weather conditions.
The current ground is just south of Sheffield’s county border with Derbyshire.
Sheffield FC fan and club historian, Andrew Dixon, highlighted the importance of bringing the club north into Meadowhead, and back to the city.
He said: “Crucially, we will be back in Sheffield. I love Dronfield but it doesn't feel right for Sheffield Football Club to be playing in Derbyshire.”
Mr Dixon also compared the similarities between this stadium switch and a previous one made by the club, leaving their old site on East Bank Road.
“For well over a century, the club led a nomadic existence, playing at several grounds. So securing our own home was essential to the survival of the world's oldest club and I hope that the next move will see some success on the pitch. We're definitely due some after the last few years,” he said.
Sheffield Eagles will celebrate their 40th anniversary in 2024 which will coincide with the new stadium project.
The Eagles currently play in the Rugby League Championship, the tier below The Super League, which is the pinnacle of professional Rugby League and a division they haven't played in since 1999.
“There will be more facilities, a gym for players, an indoor supporters club and bar, the ground will be developed and it’ll allow us to push for the Super League. For us, there are no negatives. We’re beyond excited. It's something we've wanted for a very long time,” said Eagles fans, Kate Peat, 54 and her husband, Alan, 52.
Despite the plans for the Meadowhead site exciting some fans, others are worried about the travelling implications.
Mark Webster, 41, of Ellenbro Road, who believes having a ‘Super League standard’ stadium is essential, said: “There’s one negative and it's a strong one. The lack of public transport links to Meadowhead.
"As a non-motorist, it's going to be difficult to get home after games. It's ideal for motorists, and there are buses from the city centre, but they’re not very frequent, but I'm sure this is something the developers will address."
Sheffield FC and Sheffield Eagles have announced that full planning permission will be submitted early next year.
They have also invited the public to two meetings in which they will discuss the plans in more detail. The first on Tuesday, 28 November, and the second on Wednesday, 6 December: IMPORTANT: PUBLIC CONSULTATION EVENTS | Sheffield FC
Kameron Kielly Leaves Sheffield Steelers For More Ice Time
Sheffield Steelers player Kameron Kielly has left the team to return to North America after a short stint in South Yorkshire.
Kielly began his career in 2012 at the Gatineau Olympiques before spending time at the Charlottetown Islanders, Atlanta Gladiators, and eventually the Sheffield Steelers.
Kielly joined the Steelers in the summer of this year, making it his first season overseas.
After his initial signing, head coach Aaron Fox was sure of Kielly’s future success on the team.
He said: “Kam will start off in a bottom 6 role, but I feel he will be one of those guys that will be pushing that internal competition in our group for a bigger role as the season goes on.”
While playing with the Steelers, forward, Kielly, made six appearances and scored one goal on October 21 against the Nottingham Panthers.
The Steelers media manager, David Simms, confirmed that the Charlottetown native would be moving back to North America to secure ice time.
Kielly will be expected to pick up a new side in the East Coast League. It hasn’t yet been confirmed which team he will play for.
Following his departure, fans have shared words of support on X:
Other Steelers fans connected his lack of ice time to his reason for departure.
Kielly has not made a public statement, although he did repost the Steelers’ official announcement on X.
Barnsley apologise following FA Cup removal
Barnsley have apologised to everyone associated with the club following their surprise expulsion from this season’s FA Cup.
It was announced on Wednesday that Neill Collins’s side had fielded an ineligible player in their First Round Replay clash against Horsham last Tuesday.
In a statement released on the club’s website, the Tykes said: "We would like to apologise to our fans, players and staff for this regrettable error."
The player was not named, and the club are not expected to appeal the decision.
Barnsley cruised to a 3-0 victory against Horsham in front of the ITV4 cameras after a dramatic 3-3 draw at Oakwell earlier this month.
However, it is the Isthmian Premier League side who will now face Sutton United in the tournament’s Second Round next weekend.
Photo credit: 19andy76 (Flickr)
Sotona Loan Exit Confirmed
Doncaster Rovers winger Deji Sotona has joined non-league side Boston United on loan until January.
The Irishman joined the club in the summer from Burnley but has struggled to find his feet in Grant McCann’s side.
A product of the Manchester United academy, a 16-year-old Sotona was the fastest player at the Red Devils in 2019. He clocked a top speed of nearly 23mph, more than 1.2mph faster than the previous record holder Diogo Dalot according to the Daily Mail.
Sotona has featured six times under McCann this season, scoring on only one occasion. The Rovers boss confirmed a first-team player would be leaving the club at his press conference yesterday.
Photo credit: David Dixon
Emboldened Blades host Bournemouth in attempt to break free of relegation zone
Sheffield United host AFC Bournemouth at Bramall Lane tomorrow in a match that could see them finally break free of the relegation zone following Everton's points deduction.
After a disappointing start to the season, the Blades have been emboldened by a draw against Brighton and a win over Wolves in their past two fixtures.
With these four points and Everton’s 10-point deduction last week for breaching financial fair play rules, Sheffield United have climbed into 18th place in the table.
At yesterday’s press conference, manager Paul Heckingbottom said: “In terms of where we are, we want to keep momentum going.
“The message hasn’t changed. We’re going to have difficult moments but we have to ride them out and capitalise when we’ve got good momentum.”
Heckingbottom confirmed both Oliver McBurnie and Anel Ahmedhodzic have recovered from recent injuries and will be in contention for starting positions on Saturday, news that will bolster many fans’ expectations of success.
However, Bournemouth is riding its own resurgent wave after a shock 2-0 victory over Newcastle before the international break, paving the way for an exciting basement battle between the sides.
Sheffield’s propulsion out of the danger zone also relies on Crystal Palace beating or drawing to Luton at Kenilworth Road.
On the topic of Everton’s points deduction being to his advantage, Heckingbottom refused to be distracted, and said: “It’s not going to help us get the points we need.”
But he did fire a warning shot towards the Premier League over its investigations into other clubs, such as Manchester City and Chelsea: “You can’t punish one team and not others. There has to be consistency.”
The match will be played on the two year anniversary of Heckingbottom taking over as club manager, an appointment which saw the Blades dominate the Championship and regain their place in the Premier League.
It also follows an international break which saw several impressive performances for members of the squad, including midfielder James McAttee netting a superb brace for England in the U21 Euro Qualifiers against Serbia to help them claim a 3-0 victory.
Supporters have been invited to join a minute’s applause in the 37th minute of the game in memory of Blades fan Matt Hardy, who died aged 37 after a two-year battle with cancer.
Sheffield United v. AFC Bournemouth kicks off at 3pm tomorrow at Bramall Lane.
Bereaved families of students who died by suicide to give evidence at Parliamentary committee
Grieving parents are preparing to tell their stories to the nation’s MPs at a government committee next week in a fight to get a duty of care enshrined in law.
The evidence will be given to the Petition Committee, a parliamentary group which will go over the contents of a petition submitted by campaign groups #ForThe100 and The LEARN Network.
This is ahead of a debate at Westminster Hall on June 5 which MPs will attend and voice their support in order for it to be passed to the next stage of the legal process.
One of the families attending is Dr Mark Shanahan who lost his 22-year old son Rory while he was studying at the University of Sheffield in 2018.
“We want the law to have teeth,” Dr Shanahan said. “This is not something that is going to finish on June 5. Think of Everest. We've got to base camp so there is a long way to go.”
MPs who have spoken in support of the petition include Helen Grant, the MP for Maidstone and the Wield who joined The Learn Network in delivering the petition to Downing Street ahead of the debate next month. Conservative MP Caroline Nokes was also present.
Other MPs such as Darren Henry for Broxtowe, attended the event after the petition was handed in where the families of those who had lost their loved ones to suicide at university read out testimonials.
Sheffield MPs, Olivia Blake and Paul Blomfield as well as Andrew Western for Stretford and Urmston were also at the event.
A spokesperson for Matthew Western, the Labour MP for Warwick and Leamington, said: “Matt is aware of the campaign and has met both campaign groups in Parliament and elsewhere. He will be the Shadow Minister responsible for responding to the debate on 5 June.”
Professor Edward Peck, the government’s first Student Support Champion, said in relation to the time it would take to put the duty of care into legislation: “18 months to two years to do all of what is in training around student mental health, some changes much sooner.”
In response to the petition, the government said: “Higher education providers do have a general duty of care to deliver educational and pastoral services to the standard of an ordinarily competent institution and, in carrying out these services, they are expected to act reasonably to protect the health, safety and welfare of their students.”
Ahead of a debate next month, the Petitions Committee will hear from those involved in the petition, and representatives from charities such as PAPYRUS, Student Minds and Universities UK.
They have received more than 128,000 signatures for their joint petition which concerns the introduction of a statutory duty of care to be made a legal requirement in higher education.
Duty of care is defined by #ForThe100 as protecting students from reasonably foreseeable harm, caused either by direct injury or failing to act. It is already in place in employment law in the UK.
“We can’t sit around for ten years”: father of student who took her own life on the battle for a legal duty of care in universities
“Why is nobody listening? Why is nobody understanding? Perhaps it’s too simple and so fundamental no one believes we’re asking for it.”
These are the words of Bob Abrahart, the 67-year-old father of Natasha, a university student who tragically took her own life while studying at the University of Bristol in 2018. A member of Lived Experience for Action Right Now (the LEARN Network), he is campaigning alongside #ForThe100 for universities to have a legal duty of care.
Bob believes the whole campaign comes down to a fundamental concept: people should be cared about.
The LEARN Network and #ForThe100 are two campaign groups, set up by bereaved families, fighting for the introduction of a statutory duty of care to be made a legal requirement in higher education.
Their joint petition has received more than 128,000 signatures and debated at Westminster Hall on June 5.
The campaign groups estimate 100 university students a year take their own lives, with an estimated 319 in the period between 2017-2020 in England and Wales according to a Freedom of Information request.
Duty of care is defined by #ForThe100 as protecting students from reasonably foreseeable harm, caused either by direct injury or failing to act. It is already in place in employment law in the UK.
Natasha’s story
“We discovered after Natasha’s death that, in a second-year physics module, the students had interviews. All we know from the first one-on-one interview is that she ran out of the room,” Bob, a former university lecturer said. “We have never had any more detail on exactly what happened. That was followed by another failed attempt at an interview. We don't know what happened there either.
“Natasha was diagnosed as having social anxiety disorder. At home and amongst her friends, you wouldn't have noticed it. It's only when she was put in some stressful, performance situation such as a one-on-one presentation in class, when she went shopping, when she went out for a meal, that’s when it caused a problem.
“She only managed to be marked on two laboratory assessments. One at the beginning, which she ran out of and one just before she died. That did not go well either. For the rest, she just got zeroes because they failed to address the problem. Did they fail her? The judge ruled they caused her death. So yes.”
20-year-old Natasha took her own life on the day she was expected to participate in an oral presentation which would have taken place in front of 40 staff and students.
“They should not have subjected her to six months of non-stop, that was in effect for her, torture. It is this torture which caused her to become depressed and it's the depression that led to the suicide and they still did nothing. They carried on regardless.
“So why did they? The answer is that they didn’t have to stop.”
A civil court ruled that the University of Bristol failed to make reasonable adjustments for Natasha under the Equality Act 2010 and the Abrahart family won £50,000 in damages.
However, the judge refused to accept that the university was negligent under a duty of care - because Bristol University successfully argued that none existed.
Natasha’s father argues that if a duty of care had existed, the university wouldn’t have subjected her to the distress associated with the oral assessments that she was struggling with.
“Natasha was a wonderful daughter. She was methodical in everything she did,” the former associate professor at the University of Nottingham said. “She loved computer programming and was musical. She played piano and cello.
“She had one thing holding her back: her social anxiety disorder.”
The Abrahart family are prepared to go all the way to the Supreme Court, if that is required, to get justice for Natasha. This could take up to ten years and they believe other families should not have to go through the same process.
The University of Bristol declined to comment on the matter.
UUK response
Professor Steve West CBE, the President of Universities UK and Vice-Chancellor of UWE Bristol said every life lost to suicide is a tragedy but “although universities are investing in student support and developing partnerships with NHS services, their primary role is as settings for adult learning not health care.”
“We do not believe the proposed additional statutory duty of care, beyond the existing duties that already apply to universities, would be practical, proportionate, or the best approach to supporting students.
“We question whether a compliance-led approach will drive the cultural changes needed to promote awareness and disclosure, conversations, and co-production – all of which are needed to act on prevention and early intervention.
“We continue to work with the government, and its Student Support Champion Professor Edward Peck, on proposals to improve outcomes for students.”
Government response
In response to the petition, the Government released a statement that says higher education providers already have a general duty of care.
“This can be summed up as providers owing a duty of care to not cause harm to their students through the university’s own actions.
“Over the last decade, higher education providers have devoted considerable resources to their student support services, and a good deal of support is now widely provided to students who struggle with their mental health.”
They point to Office for National Statistics data that shows a significantly lower rate of suicide in Higher Education students compared to other people of similiar age.
Looking forward
#ForThe100 and Learn Network met with MPs in Parliament after handing in their petition to Downing Street last month.
Bob said the debate in Westminster Hall in June will need backing from them in order to get promoted through to the House of Commons.
“I think people are starting to understand that we’re not going anywhere. We’re only going forward.”
You can find out more about The Learn Network here and #ForThe100's campaign here.
Why Queer people turn to alcohol to cope
The Queer community uses alcohol to escape stigma and rejection according to an expert.
Societal factors which lead to alienation can cause higher alcohol dependency for people who identify as LGBTQ+ says Dr Elena Dimova, researcher and lecturer of Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University.
She said: “Traditionally gay clubs and bars are considered to be a safe space but although they offer a non-judgmental space everything centres around alcohol and normalises it.
“For a lot of young LGBTQ+ individuals, their first introduction to these spaces is through the commercial scene which centres around alcohol.”
Dr Dimova believes normalisation of alcohol advertising in the UK encourages people to indulge in drinking.
“We see alcohol companies using the pride flag and posing as allies to sell alcohol,” she said.
Although there are several alcohol treatment services in the UK, Dr Dimova says they often serve a misconception of mainly catering to middle-aged men, making other communities feel like outcasts while accessing support.
She adds building trust becomes especially difficult for those who are queer and from small towns due to concerns about confidentiality. Dr Dimova explains health professionals often lack training when it comes to co-relating gender identity and alcohol misuse.
She says another barrier relates to service providers lacking knowledge of dealing with sexual or gender identity, also tying in to existing practices of data collection within the Queer demographic.
“Having interactions about gender or sexuality whether or not it is linked with alcohol needs to be practiced by professionals,” said Dr Dimova.
She believes transgender communities are especially concerned that revealing their experiences with alcohol misuse or dependency might affect other treatments, making them hesitant to tell their service providers.
“Services need to be advertised in a way that makes them welcoming while highlighting confidentiality,” said Dr Dimova.
Rising costs lead more women to work in the sex industry
The cost of living crisis and spiralling expenses have had far-reaching effects on society - including a rise in women taking on sex work.
Evidence submitted to parliament revealed 74% of female sex workers citing poverty and the need to support their families as the main motivation for starting in the industry.
The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) explained that “Most sex workers are mothers trying to do the best for their children.”
One woman told The Poverty Alliance why she works as an escort.
“It’s because I’m poor," she said. “I can’t live off of benefits.”
Through her work as an escort she says she is able to provide her children with the basic essentials including food, clothes, warmth and safety.
A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in the run-up to the 2024 General Election estimated that one in five people in the UK were living in poverty - a total of 14.3 million people.
And an article for Science Direct explained that “poverty and prostitution are inextricably connected.”
Data from the ECP predicts that there are around 100,000 sex workers currently in the UK, compared to 72,800 in 2021, although numbers are difficult to determine due to it typically being a hidden population.
These figures suggest that the number of sex workers in the UK has increased by approximately 37% since the beginning of the cost of living crisis.
Dr Fiona Vera-Gray, one of the UK’s leading feminist academics, said: “Economic inequality is a driver for violence against women and girls and it's a driver for women entering prostitution.”
For some women who start working in the sex industry, they can make more money than they would from a minimum wage paying profession.
One sex worker told the Open Democracy: “As sex workers we earn at least double the minimum wage. We make enough to support five other adults in our families.”
The average annual salary for a sex worker is around £33,020, compared to the National Living Wage which is approximately £25,374 per year.
Although many individuals are starting sex work as a means to make money during this crisis, much like most other industries, it too is impacted by the decline in spending.
Research by National Ugly Mugs, a national organisation providing greater access to justice and protection for sex workers, found that seven out of 10 workers were directly experiencing negative impacts as a result of the cost of living crisis.
This was not limited to the expense of work supplies and a decrease in clients, but a problematic power imbalance as clients demand more services for less money.
Dr Vera-Gray explained the bias of this transaction in the industry, she said: “It definitely comes from a place of ‘I’ve bought you, now you have to do all of these things'.
“To actually make a difference, we need to go right back to root causes and that's around value.
“It's around valuing people as people.”
Minorities and women have less chance of surviving heart attacks says report
Women and people from ethnic and lower-class backgrounds may be less likely to survive a heart attack outside of hospital, according to a wide-ranging report.
Less than one in 10 people in the UK survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest - a proportion lower than “comparable countries” - and a number of factors were found to reduce this rate even further for communities with limited access to defibrillators and a lack of CPR training.
The Every Second Counts report, published last year, also suggested that bystanders were less likely to come to the aid of women and provide life-saving support.
The report has put forward a number of recommendations aimed at addressing ethnic, socio-economic, gender and geographical disparities in the survival rate from out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
Last month, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Defibrillators launched a National Call to Action and echoed one of the report’s recommendations.
The group, chaired by the Liberal Democrat parliamentarian Steve Darling, called on the Government to expand CPR training by mandating “age-appropriate first aid training in schools”.
The MP for Torbay said: “By ensuring every child learns CPR and defibrillator use, we can create a generation equipped to save lives. The Government must seize this opportunity to make lifesaving education a reality."
Since 2022, the Department for Education has encouraged the roll-out of defibrillators in schools, especially near sports facilities, some of which are also rented out by community groups.
Whether the defibrillators are made accessible to the wider public remains at each school’s discretion, although the Resuscitation Council has argued that more should place theirs in part of the premises that can be publicly accessible.
The impact of the roll-out was highlighted during one recent incident involving Meadowhead School in Sheffield, when a defibrillator located there was taken to a nearby house where it was used on a patient.
The school was also one among many which participated in the Restart A Heart campaign to increase survival rates among people who experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, and last month, the Resuscitation Council launched a petition to "ensure every student leaves school with CPR training".
Kevin Elliott, Meadowhead School’s business manager, said: “An elderly gentleman had collapsed and needed the help from the defib. We sent a couple of our first aid trained staff who took the defib and supported the individual.
“They stayed with him until the ambulance arrived. Luckily, he survived.”
Such instances were helped by registration drives to add defibrillator locations to The Circuit’s national database, so that ambulance crews can direct 999 callers to their nearest equipment.
Being predominantly located in residential areas, school-based defibrillators may go some way in addressing the imbalance identified in research, whereby devices are more likely to be located near urban workplaces with lower residential population density.
Research published by the European Resuscitation Council also notes that the UK does not have a “clear strategy” on the location of defibrillators, and that many installations are the result of “local ad-hoc initiatives” and “somewhat arbitrary”.
Data has also shown that the availability of defibrillators varies widely across the country, with the London borough of Waltham Forest hosting only four devices per 10,000 people, compared to the Outer Hebrides district of Na h-Eileanan Siar with an average of 56.3 defibrillators.
It also highlighted that 38 per cent of the most deprived areas have no registered defibrillators at all, as is the case in 56 per cent of the areas where non-white ethnic groups make up a majority of inhabitants.
That compares with 31 per cent of white-majority areas.
Part of the strategy to narrow the health inequality gap is to bring defibrillators and CPR training to local community groups, including places of worship and sports clubs.
The Community Grant Scheme is run by the Resuscitation Council and offers up to £1,500 for small organisations to teach about resuscitation in “underserved areas, where bystander CPR rates are lower, and cardiac arrest incidences are higher”.
One beneficiary of this was the Leeds-based charity, Purple Patch Arts, which put on a week-long programme of workshops last year to help tackle the "shortage of accessible information for learning-disabled people around cardiac emergencies".
Project manager Hannah Greenwood explained how the grant "enabled us to develop our participants' knowledge and confidence", which was an area for improvement also highlighted in the 2024 report.
"Through body percussion, electric circuits and relay races, our participants learnt how the heart works and what causes a cardiac arrest," she said.
"Participants sang along with ‘Help!’ by the Beatles to learn about calling for help, danced to songs which had the same beats per minute as recommended CPR compressions, and practiced deep breathing and mindfulness activities to remember to stay calm during an emergency."
Closets and cocktails: How fear shaped queer spaces in the UK
Historically, gay bars and nightclubs have been safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people, a space where the lights are dark, their fears appeased, often with the help of alcohol.
“A lot of our spaces began life as pubs, as nightclubs, because there was no other place to go, really,” says CJ De Barra, a non-binary, Irish, neurodivergent author, journalist and historian.
CJ, originally from West Cork but now lives in Nottingham, refers to themself as an accidental historian – not a trained one. They credit their 20-year journalistic career in helping them collect Nottingham’s diverse queer history.
Their work which is stored on the Notts Queer History Archive, consists of over 170 interviews spanning three years.
"I've interviewed some incredible people," says CJ. “From gay men in the sixties, trans activists in the seventies, all the way up to the lesbians of the 2020s – I’ve kept it really open. If you’ve experienced any of Nottingham’s LGBT scene, that’s it – regardless of what your gender or sexuality is.”
CJ documents the Notts Queer History archive on Instagram, with a separate page dedicated solely to the archive.
CJ believes historically, pubs and clubs that were open to queer communities weren’t as bold and brazen as they are today.
“There was no giant, great, big, rainbow flag out the front of a bar that said 'This is where you go'," they say.
“It was all word of mouth. You’d have a signifier that you were part of the community – you would rely on someone else to tell you where to go.”
Usually, CJ says, these places would be a back room, a side room, a pub or a club, with a manager or landlord who was either sympathetic to the queer community or recognised the fact that these were people with money, and they had nowhere to spend it.
They believe that this was the reason the LGBTQ+ community got so accustomed to having bars and nightclubs be the spaces that they met in. “That never went away over the years, because there were so many [failed] attempts at getting LGBT community centres – certainly in the case of Nottingham – up and off the ground," they say.
“An attempt ran from the mid-eighties to about 2005, where the community got as far as having a building and renovating it, only to realise that it wasn’t viable, eventually dropping it.”
CJ believes this is one of the reasons the community hasn’t gotten out of the nightclub and drinking culture embedded into the lives of queer individuals. “If you are in that setting, you are very much exposed to, and at the mercy of, the alcohol industry – because you have to buy something to stay,” they say.
The author also believes the drinking culture in the UK and in Ireland is largely inspired by the way the two countries interact with alcohol. As an Irish person growing up in a rural area of Cork, CJ was isolated in their queerness and drinking gave them the Dutch courage they needed.
They also spoke to a lot of people who mentioned that they had to do several laps of the street where the gay bar or establishment existed, just because they were too scared to go in.
“I remember going to my first pub, which was Taboo in Cork – it took me several attempts to go in as I was alone, as I didn’t know anyone else who was gay to go in with me," says CJ. "I would have felt so much more confident had that been the case.”
CJ believes that alcohol is being pushed on queer individuals even more now, with Big Alcohol sponsoring Pride events and other LGBTQ+ spaces – targeting people who might feel nervous or shy at these events.
They say: "In that moment, a pressure to drink, just to take the edge off, is present, and that is the alcoholic shadow that looms over the queer community."
Mum thought she would die in ‘horror movie’ birth
A woman who described the birth of her daughter as a “horror movie” after she watched herself being cut open is now too scared to have another baby.
Bethanie Tuff, 26, who says she has been left with PTSD after she was left in pain and vomiting black fluid for hours in hospital, said she needed therapy to help her recover from the trauma.
The former healthcare assistant from the north of England, was 36 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to hospital to have her baby in November 2022.
Bethanie had gestational diabetes and was told that she would have to be put on a drip to induce labour as her baby was so big. But her body reacted badly and she into uterine hyperstimulation, causing excessive and sustained contractions.
“It was so painful. I wasn't progressing but they didn’t want to stop the drip so I endured it for hours," Bethanie says. “The midwife was supposed to be in the room with me at all times but she kept disappearing.”
Eventually Bethanie made the decision to have a C-section. She was given an epidural and left for a further five hours before being taken into the theatre. To her horror Bethanie could see her own reflection in the metallic lights above her and not long afterwards the epidural started to wear off.
“I started screaming because I could feel everything," says Bethanie. "But they didn’t believe me. They [the medical staff] were very short with me.
“It felt like I was in a Saw movie, laid there, seeing myself getting cut open with no anaesthetic.”
At the point her daughter, Lena, was delivered Bethanie began haemorrhaging. She was only able to hold her new baby girl, Lena, for seconds before being placed under general anaesthetic.
“When I woke up I was covered in blood," says Bethanie. "My partner, Filip, had to help me wash.”
A few hours later, hospital staff told Bethanie she had to 'get walking' and her catheter needed to be removed.
“I told them I didn’t feel ready," she says. "With my background in healthcare I knew that they shouldn't have taken it out yet, but they weren’t listening to me. They put in five catheters altogether because they kept taking them out before I was ready.”
Two days after giving birth Bethanie started vomiting black fluid. “Filip kept going to tell the midwives and nobody was listening or doing anything about it," she says. “When I eventually went for a CT scan they found that my bowels weren’t working properly and I had to have tubes inserted to drain the fluid.
“I literally thought I was going to die. The professionals around weren’t compassionate or reassuring, and the whole time I was petrified."
A week after Bethanie was first admitted to hospital, despite being unable to walk, staff told her she was ready to go home.
Bethanie claims this was down to the fact the maternity ward was understaffed.
"The midwives would even say ‘it’s impossible to do our jobs right now’,” says Bethanie.
The new mum spent the next six months unable to walk more than a few metres at a time. She was in and out of hospital, and prescribed several different antibiotics to treat infections to her wound.
“At one point they wanted to readmit me but I was so scared of the hospital I refused," says Bethanie. "I didn’t want to go back there.”
When the community midwife visited Bethanie at her house shortly after the birth, she advised her to get therapy, which the NHS offers to people who have had traumatic births.
Bethanie hoped she would get over the trauma on her own so only self-referred herself after two years.
"It got to the stage where I was struggling to live every day not knowing how to deal with it."
The 12 therapy sessions helped Bethanie and she is now able to talk about her experience without crying.
Bethanie arranged a debrief with the hospital to try and understand what went wrong. Initially she says the hospital claimed they couldn’t find her notes, and during the eventual meeting she felt "everything she said was contradicted".
“It’s put me off having another baby”, says Bethanie. “I’d like to have one but I’m absolutely petrified."
Bethanie has considered legal action and making a formal against but was worried about the effect it could have on her mental health.
“I don’t want to keep reliving my experiences over and over again, possibly for no outcome,” she says.
Dr Kim Thomas, CEO of the Birth Trauma Association, says: “Hospitals will often fight legal cases aggressively and do everything they can to make it difficult for you. It can be quite brutalising.”
According to Dr Thomas it is common for hospitals to claim to have lost notes, among other "dirty tricks".
She authored the 2024 report of the parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma, which found “a pattern of really poor care” and repeats many of Bethanie's experiences.
“Women often had an idea that something had gone wrong in the labour but were ridiculed or had their concerns dismissed", says Dr Thomas.
“We need a change in the culture so that women are being listened to. There needs to be better teamwork amongst midwives and obstetricians, and consent should be properly obtained before carrying out a procedure. A lot of women tell us that even after a traumatic birth, there's no compassion from the hospital staff.”
Research suggests that four to five per cent of people develop PTSD after giving birth, equivalent to approximately 25,000-30,000 every year in the UK. Studies have also found that as many as one in three people find some aspects of their birth experience traumatic.
Despite its prevalence, people with birth trauma so often feel alone, said Dr Thomas.
“There's this kind of assumption that birth is a happy thing and that as long as your baby's born healthy you shouldn't complain," says Dr Thomas. "Nobody's listening to you, nobody's nurturing you, nobody's taking care of you. And all you want is for somebody to say ‘I'm really sorry that happened to you’, which isn’t a difficult thing to say but it’s very rare for women to hear that.
“We have women coming to us who gave birth 40 years ago and they're still traumatized by what happened. So if you don't get treatment or support it might never go away.”
The Birth Trauma Association offers support, including WhatsApp groups and email-based peer support for people who may struggle face-to-face.
Earlier this week, former MP Theo Clarke publisher her memoir ‘Breaking the Taboo: Why We Need To Talk About Birth Trauma’.
On the brighter side, Dr Thomas says that people generally, though not without exception, have good experiences with the NHS therapy.
“They're going from a point where their PTSD has completely taken over their lives, to a point where they're almost back to their normal selves."
But accessing help isn’t always easy, according to Dr Thomas. She said there are long waiting lists, and sometimes people who need therapy don’t meet the threshold. It can also be difficult for people struggling with their mental health to take that first step.
The sex industry should be abolished: a radical feminist perspective
A radical feminist is calling for the complete abolition of sex work following years research revealing how men talk about the women they buy sex from.
Elly Arrow, an activist, never set out to campaign against the sex industry but her perspective hardened after hearing the derogatory and explicit language used against women.
Her involvement with the Invisible Men Project exposesd her to the attitudes and language of men who create the demand for sex work.
“What they say about women, how they talk, it’s quite disturbing stuff that I find hard to justify," said Arrow. The Invisible Men Project unearths that men speak of girls as young as 13 and describe women as, “fresh meat”, “prey” and “submissive”.
Arrow said: “Once you learn all these different things, it’s like you feel like you have to do something about it."
In April this year, the Crime and Policing Bill proposed the implementation of a Nordic-style model in the UK, which decriminalises the sale of sex but criminalises the purchase of it. It aims to reduce the demand and shift the legal burden away from sex workers.
“Society really, really despises women in the sex industry," said Arrow, who has her own YouTube channel. She feels the Nordic model challenges that rhetoric and acknowledges that the women have nothing to be blamed for, "They’re just trying to make ends meet," she said.
Arrow's work has exposed her to the experiences of sex work under a legalised model. Although she believes at the minimum, a Nordic-model should be introduced, Arrow said: “An abyss opens when you get into what happens in a legal brothel.
"The idea of a safe, sane, consensual sex industry is not possible in my opinion.”
Arrow acknowledges the need for reform and revision of areas of the Nordic model, arguing it does not provide a stable income or a functional marketplace for those currently working.
Though Arrow said: “If people are looking for a stable market where every woman makes a good liveable income, it doesn’t exist."
She is co-founder of the Red Light Expose, a podcast run by a group of exploitation survivors and allies which highlights the issues inside the sex work industry. She has worked with sex workers in Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia.
In Germany, sex work is legal and regulated by the government. Sex workers must register and obtain a license to work but Arrow believes the system fails to challenge the deeper structures of power and control in the industry.
The same concerns apply to online sex work. The rise of OnlyFans, and other digital or custom pornography that is often described as safer. Often it is viewed as a form of empowerment through self-employment and financial independence.
However, Arrow feels it is important to acknowledge the danger in a space that has been perpetuated as safe or glamourised by popular culture.
She explained the sex industry used to be populated by impoverished women and marginalised women but new forms of online sex work are even starting to endanger middle class women.
Arrow, who has concerns about Only Fans, live camming, and custom pornography, said: “You think it’s just you and a camera. No one can hurt you. And that’s absolutely not true.”
She described it as “personalised pornography”, where men now expect direct access and bespoke content which can be accompanied by parasocial relationships that border on obsession and danger.
Elly said that women in the sex industry use aliases not only because they are subject to public shame and stigma but also because there’s so many stalkers.
She said: “So many men think, “I’ve poured this money into you, why won’t you meet me in person?”
‘It was devastating to make a trip to hospital’: three women open up about their home birth experiences
Jennie Nash wanted to have a home birth. She had set up a birthing pool and made all the preparations. Sadly, she didn’t get the experience she had wanted.
“Unfortunately, they were understaffed, and we couldn’t get a midwife to actually come. It was devastating to make a trip to hospital,” says Jennie, 39 (pictured above).
The mum-of-one, from Leeds, said it meant her labour was probably longer than it would’ve been if she could have stayed at home.
“It was really upsetting when we got home and walked past the room where we had the pool and the fairy lights and the music set up, after having quite a long, complicated birth. It was hard to see what could have been,” says Jennie.
Jennie explained that one of her friends, who lives a couple of streets away from her had a home birth on the Monday, two days before she went into labour. “I wonder if the time of year I gave birth was particularly busy for the midwives and that’s why we couldn’t get one,” she says.
She says she decided to have a home birth because hospitals make her feel uncomfortable and she wanted to be in an environment that was natural.
Jennie said her baby was in an awkward position so she thinks that may be why her birth was longer than expected. When she initially entered the hospital, she had to wait in the corridor while she was having contractions as there wasn’t a spot available in the maternity assessment unit.
“Then I was moved into a west ward and there was somebody having a suspected miscarriage in one bed, then someone else being violently sick across from me on the same ward. It was quite different from the calm environment we had created at home.
“It changed the way my body reacted. My adrenaline started kicking in, rather than the oxytocin that you need to make you dilated. It took a long time to get painkillers as well. It just wasn’t what I wanted,” she says.
Jennie explained how she didn’t have one midwife with her throughout her birth, she thinks she was in labour through three different shifts in hospital. She says, “When I was moved onto a hormone drip, another midwife started her shift. Then another midwife and a student midwife. At the last part of your labour, having a different face changes the atmosphere a lot.
"It’s a personal thing, you develop a bit of a relationship with one midwife, and then for it to switch felt quite odd. The midwives were saying they rarely get to see the full birth.”
She says she felt a lack of autonomy in hospital and that she was pressured into having medication and pushed to do things she didn’t want to.
“I think pretty much everything that I didn’t want to do ended up being quite close to an option. Had my partner not advocated for me so well, I think it would have been really easy for it to have gone down a path that I didn’t want.
“It’s constantly a battle, rather than it being your choice,” she says.
About 2% of births are home births in the UK. Yet, Jennie thinks that they are becoming more popular and awareness is increasing. “For the pregnant people I knew, three out of 10 of them were either considering it or actually had a home birth. Unfortunately, only one of them actually managed to have a home birth. Everyone else was in the same situation as me where they couldn’t access a midwife.”
Hayley Cook, 33, from Leeds, had a very different experience for her second birth. She was able to have a home birth.
“My home birth was so healing and empowering. It was one of the best days of my life and feels like such a huge achievement. I felt really in control, supported, safe and loved.”
She did, however, have her first birth in hospital during the November 2020 Covid lockdown. “I had a tough experience; it felt very out of control. I was encouraged to have an induction which led to further interventions I really wanted to try and avoid.
“I wasn’t aware at the time of the rollercoaster this was putting me on. I really struggled to understand what happened and afterwards I was very upset by the experience.”
She says the main reason she opted for a home birth was because of her experience with her first birth. “I realised during that second pregnancy that home birth have me back everything I needed. The more I read the more I understood what happened negatively the first time around and what I could do to avoid the same happening again. I found the solution that fitted me best,” she says.
Hayley explains she had total autonomy throughout her home birth. She choose where to move around her house and she wasn’t made to push and felt she was allowed to follow her body.
She knows people who have been unable to have home births due to midwives not being able to attend due to staffing issues. She says, “I was concerned about this myself when I was pregnant. It makes me sad that services being suspended mean somebody could miss the opportunity to experience birth the way they want.”
Natalie Young, 34, a banking consultant from Leeds, had her first two births in hospital and her third at home.
“It was amazing and so much more straightforward than I ever could have imagined. It was such an intimate experience that I only wish I had experienced it with my other children too,” she says.
She says she was totally in control of what happened and her husband helped with this. “I wanted to have the first hour in the water [birth pool] to breastfeed, have skin to skin and relax after the birth. I did all of that and it felt so special and amazing. Just having that time to look at him [the baby] and him look back at me for us to take each other in was just beautiful. My favourite moment of my birth.”
Natalie says it was a huge contrast to her first birth, in which she had an epidural, episiotomy and forceps delivery, followed by six nights in hospital on antibiotics for a suspected infection.
During her second birth, she says, “I quickly asked for the epidural but was told the doctor was in surgery and they wanted to examine me. I was examined and was told that I was 4cm dilated, however no longer than 25 minutes later my baby was born with no pain relief.
“I also experienced foetal ejection reflex with this birth and my waters broke while my baby was already on its way out.”
Natalie says, “I truly believe my second birth could have been a home birth and I wish I had explored that option more.”
She says the midwives listened to her wishes and her birth plan during her home birth. “I decided not to have any cervical examinations and my midwife respected that right away and it was a bit of a surprise to me to not have to explain myself or fight for what I wanted.
“If I had any more children I’d love to have another home birth.”
Mistrust and misunderstandings: LGBTQ+ community faces struggle to access addiction treatment
Queer people face greater obstacles than the general population when accessing alcohol treatment, experts have warned.
Mistrust of healthcare providers, a lack of specialist services and communication problems all make it more difficult for LGBTQ+ individuals to access substance abuse treatment, despite the fact that members of the community have higher rates of drug and alcohol use than the general population.
“When someone doesn’t speak the language metaphorically or physically, it’s really quite difficult for people to be understood when they walk through the front door of a service,” said Ben Kaye, a counsellor specialising in substance misuse within the LGBTQ+ community.
He pointed out that NHS forms often list gender options as man, woman and other, making it difficult for transgender or non-binary individuals to accurately express their identity.
He also explained that many doctors are unable to provide adequate treatment and advice because they are not familiar with popular drugs within the LGBTQ+ community.
An example of this is GHB/GBL, an addictive substance commonly used in chemsex but that the NHS does not have a specific code for in their system.
Shannon Murray, a researcher at the University of South Wales, has found that one in eight LGBTQ+ individuals still report receiving unequal healthcare, with this figure rising to 32 per cent for transgender people.
She said accessing drug and alcohol treatment was a particular issue for transgender individuals because medical professionals might misunderstand their needs or attribute their substance use issues to their gender identity.
She noted that previous negative experiences with healthcare services may lead people to avoid formal treatment altogether, and to rely on informal support networks or attempt to self-manage their substance use issues instead.
While there are many LGBTQ+ specific drug and alcohol support services in London, disparities across the country are a major issue.
Ben said: “It’s a real postcode lottery. The kind of service you are going to be receiving really does depend on where you are located. London is awash with LGBTQ services, but when I was in Dorset there was hardly any."
He said strengthening support networks would be critical to improving access to treatment as hostilities towards the LGBTQ+ community increase with the recent Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of ‘sex’ in UK law.
“Taking on the system is a very difficult thing to do. What we can do on the ground is services can be better when people need help.”
‘Alcohol killed my dad and I didn’t want that to happen to me’
A former political campaigner has opened a space for Queer and sober communities after finding no support for people who want to reduce their alcohol intake by themselves.
Laura Willoughby, 50, from London co-founded ‘Club Soda’, a safe haven for sober and Queer people to practice mindful drinking. Laura quit drinking 13 years ago after noticing a similar behavioural pattern to her father.
“I ended up in a job I wasn’t enjoying and so my drinking went up and I decided that I really needed to knock it on the head. Alcohol killed my dad, and I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to me,” she says.
Photo credit: Club Soda
For generations we have been taught to deal with trauma and feelings of being different through alcohol leading to higher harmful and dependent drinking in the queer community
According to her, behavioural patterns often feed into alcohol misuse as well as mental and social factors. She says that seeing parents drink makes it a “normalised” activity rather than something that is hereditary.
"For generations we have been taught to deal with trauma and feelings of being different through alcohol leading to higher harmful and dependent drinking in the queer community," she says.
She explains, “Ultimately, alcohol is an addictive substance and that is the reason why most queer people are alcohol dependent other than mental and familial factors.”
With the creation of Club Soda in Covent Garden, and the ‘Queers without Beers’ event, the founders aim to support those on all paths of alcohol consumption.
She says: “We’re very goal agnostic. If people want to take a break or cut down on their drinking, that's fine by us.”
Club Soda offers a wide range of alcohol-free and low alcohol drinks for those aiming to quit or reduce their alcohol consumption. Laura thinks that it is vital to educate the alcohol trade as well to see a systemic change in society.
“People don’t want alcohol free spaces only. They just want to be able to drink something non-alcoholic which is not coke and lemonade in every space out there,” she says.
Laura thinks that although there are support services like Alcoholics Anonymous in the country for alcohol misuse, there aren’t many sober spaces which cater to quitting alcohol by yourself, with adequate support online.
She says: “I felt that there wasn’t anything that supported a self-guided journey for people to change their drinking.”
As someone who was heavily involved in local government, Laura recognised that as much as there is an individual change needed, there is also societal change necessary to tackle alcohol dependency within the Queer community.
She mentions that her generation was taught that drinking is a cure to anxiety - which led to alcohol being a widely available tool for “self-medication”.
She says: “Alcohol is a social drug. It is widely available and it’s cheap, you could make it in your kitchen if you wanted to.
“We’ve got generations and generations using alcohol socially, so it is very ingrained in our society and western cultures."
‘We’re used as free labour’: student midwives’ anguish over tickbox care
With some student midwives looking after 20 mums and babies at one time, and academics saying they are underpaid, under-recognised and understaffed, many are rethinking whether they want to continue in the profession at the end of their studies.
When Phoebe Gregory started training as a midwife she wanted to create families, support people and advocate for women. Now, after three years of training and placements at NHS trusts around the north of England, she is no longer sure. “Last year I was questioning if I still wanted to be a midwife,” she says.
Over the course of their degrees, student midwives undertake 2,300 hours of placements at NHS trusts where they are supposed to be shadowing more qualified staff and learning key skills. Instead, all the student midwives we spoke to said they felt like free labour.
“We do thousands hours of unpaid work for these trusts and then don't get a guaranteed a job at the end of it,” says Phoebe, who studies at Sheffield Hallam University.
Another midwifery undergraduate, who was too scared to be named, said even as first years, students were filling the gaps in staffing on critical wards.
“I was on a full postnatal ward, so that’s 20 women and 20 babies. It was me as a first year and one qualified midwife. That was it,” she says. “It was just horrendous.”
Shockingly, this is a common experience among student and qualified midwives. According to data from the RCM, 87 per cent of midwives they surveyed said they had worked on wards so understaffed they felt unsafe.
Independent investigations into maternity wards have raised concerns about staffing levels and their impact on patient safety, but as well as these practical implications, understaffing is eroding the essential relationships between midwives and patients.
“I’ve delivered babies before where I’ve put a baby on their chest and actually introduced myself then for the first time”, says student midwife Annie (not her real name).
Another undergraduate midwife, Lara, says: "Its a domino effect of third years being thrown into rooms, which we all hate because you can’t have a relationship with patients. You just catch their baby and don't even know their name and then you’re off to the next delivery."
This depersonalisation can have tragic consequences for mothers. According to Delivering Better, a campaign group who are calling for safer and more compassionate maternity care, one in four mothers have a negative birth experience. Among these, continuity of care was something many mothers felt would have improved their experience.
“There's no substitute for a relationship between a mother and a midwife," says Jo Cruse, founder of Delivering Better.
"Where many women are seeing a different midwife at every appointment, there are risks in terms of information being lost," she adds.
In recent years midwives have been expected to document every decision made and score women on factors such as their BMI and risk factors.
However, rather than improving care for women, the student midwives we spoke to said 'scoring' women in this way can diminish their voices and lead to issues being missed.
“If you know something's abnormal for a specific person, but it doesn't score on the clinical factors, you can't really escalate it very easily,” says Phoebe.
Furthermore, guidelines determine when it is recommended for people to have certain interventions.
Patients are meant to be able to decide to go ahead with birth plans outside these guidelines. However, midwives' fears around repercussions if something goes wrong are influencing the choices available to women.
"If someone wants to give birth outside of guidelines, some midwives don't even want to go to that home," says Phoebe.
"They don't want to be there. They don't want to document anything, because they're scared of being outside the guidelines. So if someone advocates for themselves for something outside the guidelines, they're seen as a problem. They're seen as tricky."
Midwife notes can be recalled for court cases for up to 25 years after an incident and midwifery undergraduate courses like those at Sheffield Hallam University have even begun to include mock court cases as part of their training.
The Ockenden inquiry was a independent investigation into maternity care at Shrewsbury and and Telford NHS Trust which found that at least nine women and 201 babies, if given a better standard of care, could have survived.
Despite seminal impact of the following report, the student midwives say some of its key recording recommendations are still not being implemented.
One central recommendation was that after every major incident, midwives and other staff involved are supposed to discuss what went wrong, both for the mental health of staff and so they can learn from the mistakes.
Despite this, none of the student midwives we spoke to had ever had what they would describe as a formal debrief in their three years of placements.
One student midwife said: “I have been to a debrief, but it was literally having a cup of coffee 20 minutes later and saying 'Oh, should we say this was a debrief?', and they had ticked the box.
“That was the debrief after a woman had a hysterectomy because of her haemorrhage - a major, major incident.”
This is not because midwives do not want to learn from mistakes but that they simply do not have time to do them, says Phoebe.
Professor Hora Soltani, who teaches midwifery at Sheffield Hallam says: “Student midwives come in with so much hope and so much positivity but then they just face so many challenges: they’re underpaid, they’re under-recognised, they’re understaffed.”
She says this is leading to many questioning whether to stay in the profession.
The student midwives we spoke to are coming towards the end of their course but even those who want to stay in midwifery are struggling to find jobs.
Annie says: "I've applied to every single job in a 50 mile radius from my house. In two months there were about four jobs, so no one's recruiting.
"So they say there’s no jobs because the trusts can’t afford to recruit new staff, but actually I have never stepped foot in a hospital that’s fully staffed."
Even if they do manage find jobs, the student midwives are adamant that something has to change for them to remain in the NHS long term. Increasing caesareans and medical intervention in birth is leading to declining numbers of midwifery-led births.
Experts believe midwives will soon act more as obstetrics nurses, supporting doctor-led deliveries.
For Annie, that is not an option. "I want to help as many people as possible have a beautiful delivery," she says.
"I don't want to be just stood at the side, you know, putting a gown on a woman, shoving stockings on her legs without her knowing what's going on. That’s not what I want to be a part of.”
“The essence of care seems lost”: UK doulas call out the over-medicalisation of birth
As maternal deaths remain at a 20-year-high and midwives feel increasingly disillusioned, women training as doulas is on the rise.
Victoria Gordon ,a former nurse, trained to become doula two years ago, after receiving different levels of care when she gave birth to her own three children.
"My own three births (and two losses) have all been completely different experiences. The one constant theme, was the lack of continuity in care and the medicalised approach to, what should be in most cases, a perfectly ‘normal’ event," Victoria, from Warwickshire, says.
Victoria, who also works part time in clinical research, and trained in hypnobirthing and infant feeding, believes home births empower women and means they can have more control over their births.
“As women, we’re told just to be good girls, ‘do as you’re told’, ‘doctors are always right’, but to ask why, or to say ‘no is empowering," she says.
Victoria believes having the option for a home birth is a postcode lottery. “It really depends on where you live," she says. "Some women can’t access midwives at home in their area. There are some areas I’ve heard of that have amazing home birth teams, but then there’s areas where there’s real pushback."
Recent maternity scandals are another reason why women choose home births, believes Victoria. “The number of people that are coming out of the system, so traumatised for not being listened to. Obstetric violence, it’s very real. That’s why people are opting out of the system altogether,” she says.
Victoria is trained in alternative child birth options, which she believes can be beneficial. “Hypnobirthing is a state of deep relaxation to help birth," she says. "Being relaxed is absolutely essential for your birth to progress. Hypnobirthing taps into the subconscious to know that birth is safe and to create a sense of calm so the birth can be smoother.”
As opposed to medicalising birth, doulas, including Victoria use the BRAIN acronym. She says: "The woman should ask: what are the benefits of this? What are the risks of this? What are the alternatives? To listen to their intuition. What happens if I do nothing now? To be able to balance up the choices so they have informed decisions and can have informed consent.
“This is where trauma comes in, where people are forced into doing things when they don’t really know why they’re being forced into it.”
Leanne Clark, 38, from Derbyshire, was inspired to train as a doula a year ago after giving birth to her own four children.
“I met resistance in the birth room and it made me feel like I didn’t know my own body,” says Leanne, who felt her birthing decisions were ignored.
On Leanne’s Doula UK page, she states: “My aim is to provide you with practical and emotional care that has you [the mother] at the centre… a feature that is recently all too frequently lacking within the NHS.”
She trained with the Doula Training Foundation, taking part in their four-day intensive course, led by two experienced doulas., alongside an additional module.
Leanne also believes births are becoming over-medicalised. “Unfortunately, the model that we’re dealing with at the moment is mostly medicalised and birth is something that only occasionally happens naturally," she says. "We have to ask as a country, why are we in that situation? Why are we the only mammal that isn’t being left to its own devices?
“I think we need to get the trust back that women’s bodies know what they are doing. They are designed to birth babies.”
“We’re intervening to make sure things go smoothly, and yet, birth trauma rates have risen massively in the UK," Leanne says. "Something needs to change.”
She feels there’s a stigma around home births and that a lot of women who say it’s not safe to give birth at home, but a study published in The Lancet revealed that low risk pregnant women were no more at risk of their baby dying whether they have their birth at home or in hospital and says people need to look at the evidence.
“A lot of women feel like they’re being brave if they decide to have a home birth," says Leanne. "I don’t think these women are. I think it’s present in this culture that it’s seen as unusual to give birth at home.”
Leanne has encountered mixed experiences when working with midwives, which she feels is commonplace.
“When I hear of hostilities from midwives towards doulas, it’s such a shame because it immediately changes the atmosphere in the room and that’s not acceptable,” says Leanne. “But there are great midwives out there who realise that having a doula makes their job easier, as they will have spent many hours with that family up until that point. The midwife may not have even met that family before, so they can be assured that they’ve [the mother] had a good amount of care and support.
“It’s a shame if there is resistance because if a woman has chosen a doula to come and support her, that’s then also disrespectful to the woman’s choice.”
Leanne said a lot of women who want home births are being pushed to consider freebirths due to a lack of NHS midwives being available to attend the home birth.
“I can offer the continuity of care for the family that the midwife unfortunately cannot," says Leanne. "I know many midwives that would say they wish that they could offer that. A lot of the time, women just don’t feel listened to or have someone there who knows them intimately and has spent time with them.
“I am in a privileged position of being able to get to know the woman and listen to her more than the midwives can. I see them more than the midwives do.”
Sheffield Sharks: basketball team says new venue is ready for any medical emergency
Sheffield's professional basketball team says it is prepared for every medical eventuality at its purpose-built venue which opened two years ago.
The Sheffield Sharks, who are based at the Canon Medical Arena, also provide access to heart screenings for its first team but it is unclear whether these tests are available for younger players.
Ex-Sharks player Mike Tuck recalled times in the past of players in the NBA and the NBL of players suddenly collapsing due to heart problems and is in favour for young people to have access to any medical tests that they feel they may need.
The Sharks' longest serving player and the current marketing manager as well as Head Coach for the University of Sheffield's basketball team said:
“I know every senior player gets a full medical ahead of a season, but I am unsure how far that goes down into the club. It is something I will be looking into.
“It is better to be safe than sorry. Why would you limit yourself out of fear? You might as well find out. It’s better to be safe than sorry for sure.”
Mr Tuck said making cardiac screenings available for young players was something that should be discussed.
Sharks captain Drake Jefferies also outlined the importance of heart health and explained that the facilities they have at Sheffield are top-notch to make sure everyone is fit and healthy and ready to play.
“It’s huge to make sure everything is working as it should," he said. "I have had a screening at every club I have been in. You may have to sit out but in the long run it could save your life.”