Lindsey Hill is lying in a hospital bed drifting in and out of a medicine induced sleep. She is also very tired, her body is fighting a serious lung infection.
She is 40 years old. You cannot tell this by looking at her as her blanket is pulled up to her chin and a tumble of brown falls to her shoulders.
You can hardly see Ms Hill’s face. It is obscured by the oxygen mask she needs to breathe.
It is still a struggle. Her breath is short and shallow and her words are barely audible.
I ask Ms Hill: “Is this the first time you’ve been in hospital this winter?”
She replies: “Yes, it is, but I was here three times last year.”
That’s because Ms Hill suffers from multiple chronic conditions and requires complex care.
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Usually she is monitored remotely but nine days ago she was rushed to hospital as a category one emergency.
I ask her if the ongoing crisis in the health service has made her feel anxious because it might impact on her treatment.
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She says: “I have but I feel support for the workers because they deserve the world.”
The demand feels endless
Her consultant Dr Asad Ali says extra community support for patients like Ms Hill helps to ease the pressure. But the demand feels endless.
I ask him: “How do you cope with an ageing population with complex medical problems on the resources that the NHS has?”
Dr Ali tells me: “Resources are limited… and with us all living longer and living with more complex conditions means yes, we do need more resources to provide care, but we also need to do an appraisal of how best we are utilising our resources and whether we can get more value.”
Since the pandemic respiratory services have been flat out. And there’s no end in sight.
I was here in University Hospital Coventry in December 2022, at the height of the flu season. Every bed, in every bay was taken. Since then flu cases have peaked but every bed in every bay is still taken. They’re still at 100% capacity. The winter pressures don’t simply go away.
And these pressures have long-term impacts. More than seven million people are waiting for elective care in England. A list that was too long before the pandemic and has only become longer. Hospitals like Coventry are looking at innovations to help them to cope and make headway on elective backlog.
The hospital’s chief medical officer, Professor Kiran Patel said the pandemic had forced change, some for the good.
“We mustn’t miss the opportunity that a crisis affords to us and one of the benefits is that it will force us to transform the way in which we deliver health care,” he said.
“We will need to get better at knowing where our demand comes from, what it looks like. So we need to move from being a reactive health service to being a responsive health service, and ultimately being a predictive health service.”
Until that time, patients will keep coming. Across England more than 10,000 patients were brought to an NHS A&E by ambulance every day. Handover times are at record highs despite staff doing everything they can to diagnose, admit and treat people quickly.
And doctors like Ed Hartley want long-term solutions, not short-term fixes.
“Short-term projects to put a holding pen for ambulances outside the A&E doesn’t fix the NHS,” he said. “Short-term projects to help buy some hotel rooms for care home patients or patients who need to leave hospital doesn’t fix the NHS.
“Long-term investment in the workforce, long-term investment in the right size of hospitals, and recognising the care sector as a rewarding career with progression, and presumably appropriate pay, will go a long way to helping the NHS.”
Ms Hill hopes she can go home soon. Her needs are long-term, complicated, and challenging. The same as the health service she relies on.
Kris Hallenga, the founder of breast cancer charity CoppaFeel!, has died aged 38.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 23 and lived with the illness for 15 years, tirelessly campaigning for breast cancer awareness in that time.
A statement on the charity’s website said: “She hasn’t lost a battle, she wasn’t in a fight and she certainly wouldn’t want you to see her death as tragic.
“She was simply living. She was 38 and died with fulfilment and a heart full of love.”
Ms Hallenga’s breast cancer was terminal by the time it was diagnosed in 2009.
“Kris’ ambition was for no one else to find themselves in her position and so CoppaFeel! was born, to ensure breast cancers are diagnosed early and accurately,” the charity said.
Describing her as “founder, boob chief, colleague, friend and queen of glittering turds”, CoppaFeel! said she was “the biggest promoter of being ‘alive to do those things'”.
“She approached life in a wildly creative, fun and fearless way, and showed us that it is possible to live life to the full with cancer.”
Last year Ms Hallenga threw a living funeral, where guests were invited to sign a cardboard replica of her coffin and childhood footage was projected around Truro Cathedral in Cornwall.
Dawn French did the eulogy in character as the Vicar of Dibley, while Ms Hallenga gave a speech and sparkled in a glittery jumpsuit.
Afterwards, she posted on Instagram: “I’ve never felt love like it. I’ve never felt joy like it. I’ve never felt such kinship with mortality. I’ve never felt so alive.”
Ms Hallenga campaigned for cancer education to be included in the school curriculum, won the Women of the Year Outstanding Young Campaigner award, received an honorary doctorate from Nottingham Trent University and wrote a memoir titled Glittering a Turd.
A post on her Instagram page announcing the news to her 146,000 followers was signed off by her cat Lady Marmalade.
It said: “Her final message from her to you would be one that probably involved checking your chest, getting in some cold water, talking more about death and dying, that even the turdiest of turds are glitterable, that you should always see the silly side of life, that she LOVED her life and that giving Neighbours 2.0 is worth another chance.”
The result meant Ipswich will return to the Premier League for the first time since 2002.
Saturday’s victory secured the Suffolk club back-to-back promotions as they became the first team since Southampton in 2011 and 2012 to win successive promotions to the top flight from League One.
On Monday the team rode through Ipswich on an open-top bus, with thousands of fans turning out to celebrate.
Speaking to Sky News, fans described feelings of euphoria amid the celebrations, as others were enjoying a long weekend of non-stop celebrating.
“It’s been a really really long time coming,” one fan said.
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Paul Smith, who like many was on his second day of celebrating, said: “I’ve been lucky enough to live through an era of seeing the great times at Ipswich, but I dragged him [his son] along for many many years and I’m grateful his generation gets to see some great times as well.
“When you realise the teams we’re going to be playing it’s incredible.”
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Paul’s son Arthur said it was “euphoric” seeing his side promoted but admitted to feeling quite “jaded” from the celebrations.
It was also quite an emotional moment for some who shared a bond with the club with family members.
Adam Conuel, another fan, described the promotion in one word: “Unbelievable”.
He added: “My grandad passed away last year, we were quite close, he was a supporter all his life too, like my dad.”
He described the celebrations as “emotional” and said “look how many people are here, it’s crazy, I never thought in my lifetime… every conversation I’ve had with my grandpa used to be ‘we were rubbish weren’t we’ and he’s missed the past two years of us being unbelievable so it’s quite emotional to watch us.”
Again and again one name surfaced from fans out celebrating – their coach McKenna.
The 37-year-old Northern Irish manager has taken the English football league by storm in recent years, charging up to the Premier League.
A former Manchester United assistant manager, McKenna was praised repeatedly by fans for his handling of the club and his brand of attacking, and successful, football.
When he took charge of Ipswich, they were languishing in League One and now within three years he has catapulted them to the Premier League.
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Speaking on board the bus, McKenna told Sky Sports News: “It’s an incredible turnout, amazing seeing so much joy.
“Everyone deserves it, the whole town deserves it, the players … for how hard they’ve worked. And the supporters, who’ve followed so loyally for years and have been waiting for a day like this.
“We just set out to be as good as we could possibly be.
“The closer you get to the end you know you’re within reach of an amazing achievement and we’re so glad we were able to finish off well.”
A Scottish singer plucked from obscurity at the last minute to replace Olly Murs as the opening act for Take That in Glasgow has told Sky News he thought the life-changing opportunity was a “joke”.
Daniel Rooney, 26, was playing at the Radisson Red hotel opposite the OVO Hydro when news broke that Murs was forced to cancel his support act on Friday due to transport issues.
TV presenter Ross King, who was enjoying a family dinner at the hotel, was impressed with Mr Rooney’s vocals and recommended the singer to his friend and Take That frontman Gary Barlow.
With 30 minutes to go before the show was due to start, Mr Rooney was quickly whisked to the arena and opened the festivities with a range of upbeat cover songs.
Barlow later thanked him on Instagram.
Mr Rooney, from Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, told Sky News he thought it was a wind-up at first.
He said: “I was thinking, ‘right, who’s trying to play a wee joke on me here’. But thankfully it wasn’t a joke and Ross King was saying, ‘I’ve got an opportunity of a lifetime here, Danny boy, so are you up for it?’
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“And I was.”
Mr Rooney started to feel a mixture of emotions on his way to the stage. As well as excitement, he began to feel apprehensive about what he was going to play.
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He said: “I was obviously buzzing just to get that news. It was just mental.
“I had a wee discussion with the boys from Take That, who were brilliant and really good with me.
“We just agreed on making it really fun and making the songs nice big singalongs.
“It was just really great. The crowd were brilliant, and they sang to every song and the feedback was magic.”
Mr Rooney paid tribute to Mr King for the opportunity and thanked him for his warm introduction onstage to explain the situation to the crowd.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr King said: “I was listening to [Mr Rooney] while I was having dinner and was very impressed – never thinking that 30 minutes later I’d be saying ‘come with me and support Take That’.
“Gary Barlow is one of my closest pals and I’ve known the band since 1990. When Gary called me and said ‘you’re going to have to go on, Olly is stuck in London’, I thought it was a wind-up. But no.”
Mr King agreed to go on, but then pitched the idea of Mr Rooney.
Mr King added: “Daniel was the coolest guy in the Hydro and played a blinder. I was thrilled to share the stage with him and help out my old mates too.
“I know this has made news all around the world, so I hope Daniel continues to have the success he deserves.”
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Murs apologised for cancelling his performance at short notice after falling foul of flight issues.
The former X Factor star said he had been at Heathrow from 11am ahead of his performance on Friday night, but the flight was cancelled after “several delays” and an accident with a cabin crew member.
He later shared a video of himself being driven to Glasgow for his Saturday and Sunday performances.
Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine programme on Monday, Murs paid tribute to Mr Rooney for holding his nerve and being able to perform in front of an arena crowd of thousands with just 30 minutes’ notice.
Murs said: “Fair play to him, that’s amazing. You know what, credit to him.”