Kemptown ghost walker Adrian J Andrews will be paying A Haunting Tribute to the Most Haunted TV series at Bar Jolly Brewers, Clifton Road, Worthing on Thursday, December 5 at 10pm.
Adrian J Andrews
New owners Sophie Lush and Lisa Haugh have planned the evening, which will be filmed and recorded, to fundraise for Cancer Research UK.
Adrian said:“Most Haunted has a recognisable formula that people have grown to love.
“I knew that if I was to do this, I had to get it exactly right so that people who attend are not disappointed.”
The Sussex ME Society working with the Medical Education Department at Royal Sussex County Hospital organised 2 presentations on Myalgic encephalopathy (ME) or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) at a GP Refresher Course held in Brighton this week.
Dr Gabrielle Murphy who is the lead clinician for the ME/CFS Service at the Royal Free Hospital in London lectured for one of the 50 minute sessions and Dr Alan Stewart along with team members of the NHS Sussex ME/CFS Service did a presentation for another 50 minutes.
The Refresher day that included the presentations was attended by nearly 80 GPs from across Sussex who enthusiastically received the talks and entered into the lively question and answer session. Committee members of the Sussex ME Society attended and literature was made available.
ME Society chairman, Colin Barton, said: “A recent survey run by our charity showed that many doctors in the county are considered to be reasonably helpful by patients but knowledge of the illness is variable amongst health care workers generally. We hope that this NHS training session will go some way to improve the understanding and treatment of the illness.”
ME is classified as a neurological disorder by the Department of Health and affects an estimated 6,000 people across Sussex including a good number of the LGBT community.
Brighton & Hove City Council is pulling out all the stops to show support for local retailers and businesses this Christmas.
VisitBrighton, the city’s official destination marketing unit, has launched a campaign to inspire potential visitors by demonstrating what the city has to offer over the festive period.
The website, www.christmasinbrighton.co.uk, has been developed to showcase the array of independent shopping, accommodation and restaurants that the city has to offer. Additionally it provides a searchable “what’s on” section with details of the diverse range of entertainment including seasonal shows, ice skating, pantomimes and advent calendar beach huts.
The city council’s Economic Development Team has also attempted to support local businesses and boost trade through the Dressed for Success scheme. As part of the plan, twenty-five independent shops in the city will receive free one-to-one expert training from retail trainers in how to make the most of their window displays in the run up to Christmas. The public will then choose a winner by voting on online and via Facebook.
The competition proved popular last year with over 2,500 votes submitted. In addition, feedback from participating shops stated that there was increased footfall and sales and a boost to staff morale at the critical point in the year.
The council has also given its backing to the upcoming Small Business Saturday with Brighton boasting highest number of independent retailers on the south coast. This national initiative, which has cross-party support, aims to encourage residents to back small businesses by purchasing local goods and services.
Small Business Saturday is set to occur on 7 December and on the day, helpers from Hove Business Association, VisitBrighton and the Council’s Economic Development team will be on hand at Brighton, Hove and Portslade train stations to give out maps and information about the independent retail areas. They will also promote local festive events such as Artists Open Houses, the annual Santa Dash along Hove seafront and the Rottingdean Smugglers night.
Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council Jason Kitcat, who last month signed the council up to the initiative, said:“Research proves that money spent with small local businesses is money kept in the local community. The vast majority of businesses in our city are small independent firms, and they remain the lifeblood of our economy.”
Free parking will be available on Saturday, December 7 and Sundays, 8, 15 and December 22 in five city car parks – Trafalgar Street, High Street, Regency Square, London Road, and Norton Road.
In the UK, mouth cancer kills more people than testicular or cervical cancer put together. One person is dying every five hours from mouth cancer.
Award winning local dental hygienist, Christina Chatfield is aiming to draw attention to the issue by walking from Kirriemore in Scotland to Brighton in order to raise awareness of mouth cancer and to publicise widened access to dental care. On the walk which starts in Kirriemore on May 19, 2014, she will be raising money for the British Dental Health Foundation, Your Smile and Mouth Cancer Action Month charities.
Actor Steve Speirs is a patient of Christina and is supporting her campaign.
Stephen Speirs
He said: “I’m backing this campaign as I was genuinely staggered to hear that more people die of mouth cancer than cervical and testicular cancer together. This sort of ignorance has to be addressed. We can’t rely upon “word of mouth”, so lets get the word of the mouth out there! Awareness of the fact may encourage someone to regularly visit their dentist and may indeed mean that lives can be saved.”
Christina launched the campaign last month with a reception at Emporium Art Venue at 88 London Road.
Christina Chatfield
She said: “I would be delighted if you could support me in this venture. I owe my start in the business of dentistry to a small practice in Kirriemuir and I am now a practice owner on the high street of Brighton. It has been a long journey – around 500 miles in fact! Walking and talking are two things that I can do (one quicker than the other) to help get two very important messages out to the general public.
“The first message is about mouth cancer. I was shocked to learn that more people die of mouth cancer than testicular and cervical cancer put together. Why is that? Because most people are diagnosed at stage 4 mouth cancer due to late detection as they have not seen a dental professional until too late, many through fear and anxiety.
“That takes me on to my next message, Direct Access. Direct access gives people more choice and more options from whom they access dental care. The law changed on May 1 2013 but who knows about it? Hopefully a lot more people by June 19 2014.
“The more people I shock with the stats the more help I am getting. People such as the actor Steve Speirs who is a patient of mine and immediately asked if there was anything he could help me with. Yes of course there is, you can support financially or even join me on the walk for a few miles.”
According to a new Public Health England report, published today in the run up to National HIV Testing Week, around a fifth (21,900) of people living with HIV in the UK (98,400) are unaware of their infection, and need to test.
Further, around half (47 per cent) of the 6,360 people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2012 were identified late.
New HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) also reached an all-time high, with 3,250 cases in 2012.
Between 2011 and 2012 a small decline in the proportion of people living with HIV unaware was seen (25 per cent to 22 per cent), but this needs to be accelerated as early HIV diagnosis and timely treatment can nowadays mean a near-normal lifespan. This is why National HIV Testing Week (22-29 November) is so important, raising awareness of the benefits of testing and encouraging the people most at risk, MSM and black Africans, to get tested.
Professor Kevin Fenton, PHE’s Health and Wellbeing Director, said:“National HIV Testing Week is a great opportunity to alert people to the benefits of testing – for individuals and for the UK’s public health. PHE is urging members of the public, clinicians, commissioners and community leaders to support and engage with the campaign.”
Professor Noel Gill, head of PHE’s HIV and STI department, said:“In the UK, people who are unaware of their infection are likely to be those most at risk of transmitting HIV to others. We must increase the speed at which we’re reducing the number of undiagnosed HIV infections by encouraging earlier and more frequent HIV testing, especially by those most at-risk. Earlier diagnosis will help reduce new HIV infections across the UK.
“Around half of men who have sex with men recently diagnosed with HIV received their diagnosis the first time they tested, which is a strong indication that many men who should be testing are not. National HIV Testing Week gives people a great opportunity to get tested.”
National guidelines recommend that HIV testing should be offered routinely to everyone admitted to hospital and people registering with a GP surgery in areas of the country with HIV prevalence greater than 2 per 1000 people. Introducing additional ways to get tested, such as home-sampling services, is also encouraging more people to test.
HIV testing and safer sexual behaviour to reduce risk:
Early diagnosis of HIV enables better treatment outcomes and reduces the risk of onward transmission. Have an HIV test if you think you may have been at risk. Get tested regularly for HIV if you are one of those most-at-risk:
• Men who have sex with men are advised to have an HIV and STI screen at least annually, and every three months if having unprotected sex with new or casual partners.
• Black-African men and women are advised to have an HIV test, and a regular HIV and STI screen if having unprotected sex with new or casual partners. Always use a condom correctly and consistently, and until all partners have had a sexual health screen. Reduce the number of sexual partners and avoid overlapping sexual relationships. Unprotected sex with partners believed to be of the same HIV status (serosorting) is unsafe. For the HIV positive, there is a high risk of acquiring other STIs and hepatitis. For the HIV negative there is a high risk of HIV transmission (a fifth of HIV positive MSM are unaware of their infection) as well as acquiring STIs and hepatitis.
How to get an HIV test:
Ask your GP for an HIV test – nowadays there is no need for lengthy discussion about the test, it just involves having blood taken, or even a finger prick Go to an open access sexual health clinic.
To find clinics in large cities who are offering ‘fast-track’ HIV testing, CLICK HERE:
Paul Ward
Responding to the figures, Paul Ward, Acting Chief Executive at HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust, said:“Reducing undiagnosed HIV is now the single most important step we can take to halt the spread of HIV within the gay community. Within the last year, thanks in part to initiatives like National HIV Testing Week, we’ve seen a large increase in the number of gay men coming forward for testing. This has helped drive down the proportion of undiagnosed HIV in the community. Hundreds more gay men with HIV now know their status, helping them access life-saving treatments and drastically reducing the chance of them passing the virus on.
“We’re getting there, but we can’t stop now. We’ve never been in a stronger position to beat the virus, with cutting-edge testing services and free, world-class drug treatments for anyone who tests positive. Modern tests are fast, simple and confidential – gay men can even test by post. We fully believe we can turn the tide of the epidemic, but we need to see more men testing, and testing more regularly, to make it a reality.”
According to a new Public Health England report, published today in the run up to National HIV Testing Week, around a fifth (21,900) of people living with HIV in the UK (98,400) are unaware of their infection, and need to test. 
You must be logged in to post a comment.