Woman pulled out of UK ultramarathon after death threats over Afghanistan fundraising

A woman was pulled out of Britain’s most gruelling ultramarathon after receiving death threats over her fundraising for Afghan women and girls.Sarah Porter was nearly a third of the way through the 108-mile Montane Winter Spine Challenger South endurance race when organisers made the “difficult decision” to withdraw her due to threats to her life in relation to the foundation she runs helping women and girls in war zones.Speaking to the Guardian, Porter said she was disappointed. “My immediate feeling was just one of shame really.”“I was very emotional,” she said, “just born from the perspective that I really felt like I’d let down the girls that I was running for and I’d really kind of got this narrative in my head and psyched myself up that what I was doing was just so insignificant in comparison to what they’re enduring

Circumcision kits found on sale on Amazon UK as concerns grow over harm to baby boys

Circumcision kits have been found on sale on Amazon UK, highlighting lax regulation as concerns grow about deaths and serious harm to baby boys.In December, a UK coroner issued warnings about insufficient circumcision regulation after the death in 2023 of a six-month-old boy, Mohamed Abdisamad, from a streptococcus infection.In a prevention of future deaths report, Dr Anton van Dellen, assistant coroner for west London, highlighted how “any individual may conduct a non-therapeutic male circumcision (NTMC) without any prior training”, with “no requirement for any infection control measures [and] no requirements for any aftercare”, adding that “action should be taken to prevent future deaths”.The Department of Health and Social Care has until the end of February to respond.The Guardian found “Plastibell” kits, in various sizes, on sale for £200 on Amazon in January

One in four UK teenagers in care have attempted to end their lives, study says

One in four teenagers in care have attempted to end their own life, and are four times more likely to do so than their peers with no care experience, according to a landmark study.The research analysed data from the millennium cohort study, which follows the lives of 19,000 people born in the UK between 2000 and 2002, and considered how out of home care, including foster, residential and kinship care, affected the social and mental health outcomes of the participants.More than one in four (26%) 17-year-olds who have lived in foster or residential care have attempted to end their own lives, the analysis found, compared with only one in 14 (7%) of teenagers with no experience of being in care.Although previous research has found that about 7% of UK children have attempted suicide by the age of 17, this study, conducted by academics from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, is the first to calculate the elevated suicide risk teenagers with care experience have.Lisa Harker, the director of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, said the fact that one in four care-experienced children had attempted suicide was a “national emergency”

Five minutes more exercise and 30 minutes less sitting could help millions live longer

Just five extra minutes of exercise and half an hour less sitting time each day could help millions of people live longer, according to research highlighting the potentially huge population benefits of making even tiny lifestyle changes.Until now, evidence about reducing the number of premature deaths assumed that everyone must meet specific targets, overlooking the positives of even minor increases in physical activity.Moderate-intensity physical activity such as brisk walking for an extra five minutes a day was associated with an estimated 10% reduction in deaths, the study of 135,000 people from the UK, US, Norway and Sweden found.Researchers led by the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences also found reducing sedentary time by 30 minutes a day was associated with an estimated 7% reduction in all deaths.The greatest benefit was seen if the least active 20% of the population increased their activity by five minutes each day

NHS spending up to £19k a time treating people suffering after overseas surgery, research finds

The NHS is spending up to almost £20,000 a time treating people who have suffered serious setbacks after having medical procedures abroad, research has found.Hospitals are having to “pick up the pieces” when things go wrong for the growing number of Britons going overseas for weight loss surgery, breast enlargements or other operations.As many as 53% of those who do end up with complications such as infections, organ failure and wounds that do not heal, according to a study published in the journal BMJ Open.Some people need a stay in intensive care, further surgery and large amounts of antibiotics in order to recover from botched treatment they have paid for in another country, researchers found.Patients have ended up in a UK hospital for as long as 45 days as a result of complications that arose after an operation to lose weight and even longer – 49 days – after cosmetic surgery

LGB+ people in England and Wales ‘much’ more likely to die by suicide than straight people

LGB+ people are much more likely to die by taking their own lives, drug overdoses and alcohol-related disease than their straight counterparts, the first official figures of their kind show.The 2021 census in England and Wales asked people aged 16 and above about their sexual orientation for the first time. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has now analysed differences in causes of mortality from March 2021 to November 2024. The ONS research uses the acronym LGB+ rather than LGBTQ+.It found that people who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or “other” sexual orientation had 1