Say it right! The trouble with unfamiliar names | Letters

Priti Ubhayakar’s article resonated with me because of my non-English surname (A moment that changed me: for the first time in my life, a stranger pronounced my name correctly, 1 April). I grew up in the 1950s on a very English council estate. Most other kids were a Brown, Smith, Jones, etc, but I was an Uszkurat. My lineage is complex on my dad’s side, with a Lithuanian grandfather whose original name was changed to Uszkurat by, I think, German authorities. My dad was born in a part of Europe that was German until the Treaty of Versailles made it part of the new Poland

A striking exchange between nurse and doctor | Brief letters

As a young ward sister and trade union steward, I remember, in the 1980s, when I was on the picket line in front of my hospital, stopping a doctor in his Mercedes. He asked me who I was, and I replied: “One of your colleagues.” He looked at me with contempt and answered: “I don’t think so, my colleagues are intelligent people.” So I wonder where their newfound enthusiasm for industrial action comes from. Has the price of Range Rovers gone up?Hilary BramleyCourbesseaux, France There seem to be experts for every aspect of life nowadays, but to read that the Woodland Trust has a “conversation adviser” in the form of Dr Ed Pyne surely takes the biscuit (Contractor that cut back 500-year-old oak in London park identified, 3 April)

Medicines watchdog to investigate UK peptide clinics over health claims

The medicines regulator is investigating whether UK clinics are breaking the law by making claims about the benefits of unregulated, experimental peptide therapies, the Guardian can reveal.Interest in experimental peptides has boomed in recent years. The substances are delivered by injection and are touted by sellers, influencers and even some medics as aiding everything from anti-ageing to recovery from injury.There is little scientific evidence to support such health and wellness claims in humans. Where studies have been carried out, most are in animals or cells

‘Young people want to come together’: experts respond to mass teen meet-ups in Clapham

It started with a flyer sent around on Snapchat. Teenagers were invited to gather at a south London basketball court to celebrate the start of the Easter holidays. They were told to bring their own weed and laughing gas because it was going to be a late one.What followed in the hours after was chaos. Hundreds of young people came to the “link-up” last Saturday, and then gathered on Clapham High Street

How we won a refund from a cash-grabbing care home firm | Letters

As witness to the cash-grabbing nature of these businesses (The great care home cash grab: how private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs, 28 March), I would like to draw your attention to a specific practice: that of trying to deny grieving families the balance of fees owed to them when a resident dies in the home with full weeks already paid for.I had already heard of this from someone else, so I was on the alert when the same thing happened to us. We were told that it was not their “policy to refund” when, policy or not, a careful reading of the contract showed that the money was owed. We appealed, and were successful.I imagine that many families in the grip of bereavement simply accept this “policy”, shrug their shoulders and say goodbye to the money owed to them

Calling us Auntie or Uncle is no insult | Letters

Re Lola Okolosie’s article (Is calling a woman ‘auntie’ ageist harassment – or a mark of respect? It’s a trickier question than you think, 31 March), I was interested to read uncle/auntie described as honorifics. Growing up (I’m 60-plus years old, Scottish), I think it operated as a familiar term. I was taught to call close friends of my parents Aunt Jane or Uncle John. Otherwise Mister/Miss.Clearly, there is an honorific element – if I am (as a child) calling you Aunt, you are close to my parents, but it was not related to age – I would never have dreamed of calling anyone Aunt/Uncle on an age basis