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The message in Freddie Mercury’s silence

November 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

World Aid Day raises awareness around the globe. Photo: Courtesy UNAIDS

“Goodbye everybody – I’ve got to go, gotta leave you all behind and face the truth.”

These are some of the lines from one of the most famous songs in music history and looking back they seem hauntingly accurate. The song, written by Freddie Mercury, reached number one for the second time in 1991, staying there for five weeks following his death.

Mercury was a larger than life character and shocked the world by publicly announcing he was HIV positive one day before he died.

The legendary icon died at 45, from a type of bacterial pneumonia brought on by AIDS. He died in London, 20 years ago. Mercury is still well known for his flamboyant stage presence, powerful vocals and talented songwriting that has inspired millions.

With the anniversary of his death today, and the upcoming World AIDS Day next week, there are even more reports and research being published to raise awareness of the virus.

The purpose of World AIDS Day is to remind people around the world of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. It has been 30 years since AIDS was first reported, and it is estimated that today 34 million people are living with HIV around the globe.

World AIDS Day 2011 has a ‘looking forward’ theme with a focus on 2015.  The organisation, UNAIDS, which is a joint United Nations programme on HIV and AIDS, is leading the campaign with what they call ‘Getting to Zero’. The organisation claims “we have three main targets which are: zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS related deaths by 2015”.

UNAIDS is promoting a “smarter, faster, better campaign” to raise awareness of these targets. They may seem ambitious but with the global statistics of HIV and AIDS decreasing it might not be  impossible.

The total number of Scots with HIV is now 6,845 with 72% made up of males and 28% females. The main spread of HIV is mainly due to drug use and the sharing of needles and syringes.

The Scottish charity, Positive Help, has created services to help those who are affected by HIV and AIDS in the Edinburgh area. They provide a transport service, home support service and a children and young people befriending system. The befriending system is aimed at children from three to eighteen who are HIV positive, or have parents that are.

Angus Mackenzie from the charity claims, “the befriending system is very helpful to both children and teenagers, but also their parents.”

“There was one little boy we took to a festival and his reaction was just mind blowing, as if he’d never seen anything like it before.”

One of the biggest issues with HIV and AIDS is the embarrassment and taboo that still surrounds the virus toady. Mercury himself remained silent about his illness until one day before it killed him. Many suffer discrimination and feel restrictions in relationships with friends and family. This is what the befriending systems aims to prevent.

Despite the advances in life expectancy, Positive Help claims that those influenced by HIV still suffer physically, mentally and socially. Mental health issues are a problem with the virus as it can lead to ill health, depression, isolation and agoraphobia.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Health Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Green spaces can improve your quality of life

November 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As the Woodland Trust says: "life is better with trees." Photo: Sunny Johnson

Plant a tree, save a life.

That’s the idea behind the Green Gym charity. With the help of the Dunfermline and West Fife Community Health Partnership, they aim to improve the lives of patients at Lynebank Hospital by planting trees.

The Green Gym charity encourages communities to work together to enhance their local areas by creating a green space. The aim of the scheme is to create a garden area at the hospital to promote positive health and wellbeing among patients, staff and visitors.

The charity running the Green gym claim a daily walk in a park can reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes and diabetes by 50%, cut breast cancer by 30% and Alzheimer’s by 25%.

They received a free 240-tree pack from the Woodland Trust. The environmental organisation has received over 1,000 community packs resulting in more than 200,000 native trees being planted all over the UK.

The Woodland Trust is supporting this project as it coincides with its main aims “we want to see no further loss of woodland and the creation of new native woodland.”

But the community packs are part of a bigger project. The Jubilee Woods scheme has a target of planting six million trees by the end of 2012.  It is one of a few projects in the UK that carry’s official Royal approval, with HRH the Princess Royal as its patron.

The charity’s aim is to raise awareness of the importance of parks. Over 33 million people in the UK choose to use their green spaces. Statistics show that the more often a person visits open green spaces the less often he or she will report stress related illnesses.

The Woodland Trust and Green Gym feel it is important to encourage people to take part in creating green spaces. This is because the local authorities are not legally required to provide, invest or maintain public parks and green spaces.

The Green Gym project will run for ten weeks in total with volunteers coming every Tuesday from 10am – 1pm. The initial five week period will finish on Tuesday 6th December. But it will pick up again on Tuesday 17th January until Tuesday 14th February.

The marketing and communications manager for Love Parks Week states “the Love Parks week is definitely the biggest public campaign”.

Filed Under: Conservation, Health, Life and Society Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thousands of students protest against Spanish education cuts

November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

by Natalia Rodríguez Domínguez

Just three days before the Spanish General Elections, thousands of students and teaching staff from  Spanish Universities have taken to the streets
in order to protest against education cuts, difficult working conditions and educational reform which is to be implemented by the government in 2015.

Spanish students have chosen the International Student’s Day,  which is 17th November, as the perfect date to call for a day of protests and teaching strikes across Spain. In Madrid, hundreds of students have been occupying teaching rooms at the five main public Universities since the 14th November.

This movement has been organised by several student groups which have encouraged action against the increasing state cuts in public education and the expected increase of fees which will take effect in 2015. All across the main Spanish cities, students have skipped classes today to show their indignation.

In Barcelona, a number of teaching stuff have joined the students’ demonstrations across the city.  Some faculties also started the day under occupation by students. A group of radical protesters has demonstrated in the middle of some main roads and the city bypass. This has forced the traffic to stop for a few hours, until the demonstrators were removed.

This evening more demonstrations are expected as students and teaching staff plan to take part in localalised protests. They are demanding better quality higher education and an improvement in access to higher education regardless of family income.

Filed Under: All Politics, Education Tagged With: , , ,

How a boy I didn’t know helped me choose to become an organ donor

November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The sticker on the back of Sarah's license lets people know her status as an organ donor.

Sarah Turnbull reflects on her decision to become an organ donor:

“I joined the organ donor register a few years ago but I understand how people can have doubts.

At first I didn’t like the idea. I feared the doctors wouldn’t try as hard if they knew I was part of the organ register; a fear I no longer have after assurances that the doctors wouldn’t ever give up on a patient if they were struggling for their life.

My next concern was my heart. I didn’t like the idea of somebody else having it. They could have anything else, just not my heart.

I know I won’t need it after I’m dead but there was something about the idea of being buried in the ground without a heart that I didn’t like.

But then I read a news story about a seriously ill ten-year-old boy signing up for the donor register. He had a fatal illness and there was no cure. A couple of days later he died and his organs and skin were donated. That one little boy saved 30 people.

That story changed my views. I no longer have any problems with signing the organ donor register. Now I know after I die someone else could be given a new life.”

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: ,

New Call for Opt-Out Organ Donation

November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

by Sarah Turnbull

“Three people will die unnecessarily every day in Scotland” said Professor John Forsythe,
lead clinician for NHS Lothian. This is because more than 700 people in Scotland are waiting for an organ transplant.

While 90% of the population in Scotland are in favour of the idea of organ donation, only 37% of people have actually joined the register to become a potential donor.

The Scottish Government has decided to invest money into a television advertising campaign to promote registering as an organ donor.  Some people, though, are calling for a more extreme system to increase organ donation.  Termed an ‘opt-out’ system, this scheme would mean that everyone is automatically added to the Organ Donor Register. In order to remove oneself from this list, a person would be required to notify NHS.

Dundee MSP Joe Fitzpatrick supports this system. He  recently signed a petition to persuade the Scottish Government to change the current system of organ donation to the ‘opt-out’ system. Mr. Fitzpatrick claims “this system is supported by the British Medical Association and major charities including the British Heart Foundation and Kidney Research UK.”

This system has been suggested before and has been met with some controversy.

Scotland has the highest percentage of people donating organs in the UK, with 37% of its population on the register. Forsythe, however, said that this is not enough. “We urgently need more people from across Scotland to join the Organ Donor Register” he said.

It seems the top factor preventing people from joining the register is fear.  According to the NHS, one of most frequently asked questions about organ donation is “how do they know when you are really dead?” The organisation assures people that a doctors confirm the organ donors are dead in exactly the same way as those who are not on the register.

Filed Under: Health Tagged With: , ,

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