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Jun 30 2012
By James Moncur

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A KIDNEY patient who endured two decades of pain chose to die by stopping her treatment.

Care worker Sandra Dewar, 36, could have lived for another 10 years if she continued with dialysis.

But Sandra, who had suffered the agony of a failed transplant and had spent much of the last year in hospital, decided to put an end to her pain.

And she decided not to tell her family and friends of her decision in advance in case they tried to talk her out of it.

Sandra, from Perth, passed away last Friday in hospital, two weeks after stopping the dialysis.

Yesterday, as her funeral was held at Perth Crematorium, her brother William paid tribute to her courage and explained she could not face more years of agony.

William, 31, said: “Sandra could have lived up to another 10 years on the dialysis but would have suffered a great deal.

“Obviously, we were very upset when we found out as we didn’t want to lose her.

“But we all respected her decision and knew we would not be able to change her mind.

“It helps to know she is now at peace and there will be no more needles or operations.

“She battled bravely for a long time and will never be forgotten.”

William described Sandra as a great daughter, sister and aunt who loved fashion, make-up and going out dancing with friends.

He said his parents Jeanette and James, stepfather Freddie and sister Jeanett were still trying to come to terms with their loss.

Sandra was diagnosed with a life-threatening kidney disorder at 13. When she left Perth High, she began work at a care home.

She began dialysis at 19 and had to give up work as her health failed.

In 2008, she had a kidney transplant but her body rejected the new organ.

William added: “She nearly died a number of times after the transplant and was gravely ill but she fought back. She endured so many operations over the years and always kept positive.

“She loved life and was sociable and outgoing. When she was fitter, she enjoyed nothing more than going out dancing with her many friends.

“We are a really close family and spent a lot of time together. She was a great daughter, sister and aunt.

“When I was younger, she was someone I looked up to and I have so much admiration for her.

“Even if she wasn’t my sister, I would admire the person she was and what she dealt with.

“She was extremely courageous. I would not have been able to last as long with that kind of illness.”

William, a father of one, has paid tribute to Sandra by having a tattoo of her name inscribed on his arm.

Jun 30 2012
By John Ferguson

Commuters queue at Glasgow Central Station as delays hit transport

TRAVEL chaos hit thousands of Scots again yesterday as engineers battled to repair railways damaged by landslides and flooding.

Passengers travelling between Scotland and England endured cancellations and lengthy delays.

At Glasgow Central station, thousands heading south had to join a queue a quarter of a mile long for trains on the relatively unscathed West Coast main line.

Landslides at Scremerston, in Northumberland, and Spittal, south of Berwick, had closed the East Coast main line.

Alisa and Lee Morrison, from Kirkcaldy, were heading to Manchesterto see a Stone Roses gig.

Care assistant Lee, 37, said: “We were looking forward to a relaxing journey and instead we’re caught up in this mess.

“I’m glad the gig is on Saturday and not tonight because I have no idea how long it’s going to take us to get there.”

Accountant Alisa, 29, added: “It’s just our luck. I suppose there is nothing you can do about landslides so there’s no point complaining.”

James Stewart, 47, from Dumbarton, was heading to Lancaster to visit his son.

He said: “It is a nightmare. They say it’s down to severe weather but it seems every time I travel on the train there is a reason why the journey turns into a disaster.”

Chris Robertson, 58, from Glasgow, was going to London to see his grandchildren.

He said: “I realised it was going tohappen because it was on the news last night. I’m just resigned to it. These things happen.”

Pia Rosenstingl, 24, from Vienna in Austria, was trying to return to Stoke-on-Trent, where she is a student.

She said: “We were visiting Edinburgh but they sent us here to get a direct train – but there are no direct trains so we’re just waiting for the next one south.

“I’m a bit surprised because I thought they should be used to rain in this country.”

Limited services eventually started running on the East Coast main line between Scotland and Newcastle.

But services on the West Coast line were suspended at around 4pm due to damaged power cables between Lockerbie and Carstairs.

There was also severe disruption in the Highlands following a freight train derailment between Corrour and Tulloch and a landslip at Arrocharon Thursday.

The West Highland line remained blocked between Fort William and Crianlarich, and Crianlarich and Glasgow.

Network Rail said they hoped services would be back to normal today but that anyone travelling over the weekend should check reports and leave extra time for their journey.

The flooding and landslides were sparked by torrential rainfall across the UK.

A Met Office spokesman said tomorrow should see brighter spells before more rain returns on Monday.

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Jun 30 2012
By Karen Bale

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MP Charles Walker turned the spotlight on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder when he admitted he had been suffering from the condition for 31 years.

Talking about his battle with the mental illness, he called himself a “practising fruitcake” and said it takes him to “dark places”.

It’s reckoned that up to two per cent of Scots suffer from OCD.

Tory MP Walker, 44, operates on the rule of four.

He has to do everything in evens, such as washing his hands four times and walking in and out of a room an equal amount too.

OCD is an anxiety disorder where sufferers will experience repetitive upsetting thoughts and irrational fears.

Many carry out obsessive rituals, such as checking appliances are unplugged, or washing their hands.

A string of celebrities have also admitted having the illness.

Glasgow woman Christine Muir says she has had the condition since her childhood.

The 34-year-old first became aware something was wrong when she was 12 but suffered in silence until she was finally diagnosed at 19.

She has often spent several hours checking all the plugs in her flat are switched off and afternoons picking nails up from roads in case they cause car crashes.

She said: “When I first became ill I thought I was going to end up in an institution.

“That was my fear. And when you’re 14 years old, dealing with that is frightening.

“For the first seven years it was a secret illness that I hid out of fear.

“People with OCD are given a frivolous perception, such as she’s a hand washer, or a plug checker.

“But, actually, the anxiety, the thought process and the despair goes so much deeper than that.

“It grips you as if a dark cloud is over you and is just so distressing.

“During periods I’m ill, I can feel anxious hundreds of times a day.

“There are days I’ve been unable to leave my home.”

Christine, who works at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, first remembers having symptoms of OCD when she was just 12.

She said: “In the early days it was to do with checking.

“I would check the cooker was off, that plugs were off, wash my hands excessively – run-of-the-mill things talked about with OCD.

“I could spend hours checking things like plugs.”

As a teenager, Christine had no idea what was actually wrong with her.

As a result, she hid a lot of her behaviour from her parents, but was secretly terrified.

“My parents saw I was doing ritual checking and took me to the doctor who said it would pass.

“The doctor didn’t have any information on it. It was an unknown illness.

“So I carried on dealing with it in secret. I thought I was going to end up in an institution.”

Christine’s illness came to a head when she moved to Carlisle to study creative arts. She said: “I became very ill. I came home for the holidays and I worried about going back the whole time.

“My dad was driving me back to university and I started crying and told him I didn’t want to go.

“He stopped the car, squeezed my hand, turned the car round and brought me back home.

“Neither of us knew what was wrong with me but they knew I needed help. That was a turning point for me.”

Christine was referred to a psychologist, who quickly diagnosed her condition.

Since then, she has been in weekly therapy and has learned to live with her illness.

She said: “Up until then, I thought I was a bad person and wasn’t able to live a normal life.

“I thought I would be locked up. It was taking a big step to get to the psychologist stage but in hindsight it was the best thing.

“When I was diagnosed I felt total relief.

“And the first time I went to the Glasgow support group I started crying with relief.

“Finally, there were other people discussing the same things I had been going through.

“It was one of the most amazing things in my life, to know that I wasn’t alone.”

Christine still has phases when her OCD consumes her but she has slowly learned to manage it.

“I have a big fear of builders leaving nails on the road,” she said.

“I worry that car tyres will go over them and one will skid and crash, then a family of children will die and it will all be my fault.

“It’s such an intense feeling of anxiety.

“If I’m in a strong state of mind I allow myself to check the plugs twice before I leave the house.

“I know where every single plug in the flat is and I have a quick route where I check them in the same order every day.”

Christine later went back to study as an adult and was awarded a degree in Community Arts from Strathclyde University, proving that people who suffer from the illness can overcome it.

She has been living away from home from 12 years and has a successful career, too.

She said: “I’ve had amazing support. I remember once telling my mum that my psychologist saved my life. I’ve had incredible support from my family – and with the right support and treatment, OCD is manageable.

“It’s so important that people start to recognise that OCD is an illness just as much as diabetes, asthma or other illnesses.

“Acceptance and support means people can manage their illness and there will be fewer frightened teens alone with their thoughts.”

● For more details on OCD go to http://www.seemescotland.org/findoutmore/aboutmentalhealth problemsandstigma/ocd or to find out further information on the Glasgow support group, email ocdglasgow@yahoo.co.uk

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Jun 30 2012
By Janice Burns

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A SCOTS pensioner has been told he is a direct descendant of Eve, the first woman on Earth.

Ian Kinnaird, 72, who took a DNA test to trace his ancestors, was gobsmacked when researchers phoned to tell him he could have descended directly from “the Garden of Eden”.

They told him he was the “grandson of Eve, or grandfather of everyone in Britain”.

The results showed Ian has a genetic marker, L1B1, that can be traced all the way to an ancient African lineage.

It has never before been found in Western Europe.

Widower Ian, of Halkirk, Caithness, has mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is passed through the female side, is 30,000 years old and only two genetic mutations removed from the first “black Eve”.

The retired lecturer said: “I’ve led an unremarkable life until now. This is a real gobsmacker.

“I seem to carry a gene from West Africa that arrived through the slave trade.

“I’ve been researching the links between the slave trade and Liverpool, the area where the female side of my family came from.”

His sister Jean, 65, carries the same L1B1 gene.

Despite his research, history fan Ian, who taught at the North Highland College in Thurso and was a tutor for the Open University, said he had no idea what would unfold when he took the test.

Britain’s DNA, the research team who carried out the test, said most men have genes that have incurred around 200 mutations from the earliest humans.

St Andrews University rector and historian Alistair Moffat, who was involved in setting up the project, said: “It is an astonishing result and means Ian could have been in the ‘Garden of Eden’.

“It’s further proof that even white Anglo-Saxon Protestants are descended from a black Eve. This lineage appears in Africa, in Senegal, but has never been seen in north-west Europe.”

Moffat added: “A woman who might be called Eve and a man who might be called Adam really existed.

“Eve, the mother of us all, lived around 190,000 years ago just as homo sapiens were evolving.

“Other women lived at the same time but only Eve’s mtDNA survived.

“Adam also lived in central Africa, perhaps only around 140,000 years ago.

“Only his YDNA survived to father all of the male lineages on earth.

“Ian can’t pass on his mtDNA but his sister could – and she had a daughter who will carry the lineage.”

A study by Britain’s DNA has found most people in the UK’s genetic markers date back around 3500 years to the days of the earliest Britons, Vikings and even cave painters and hunter gatherers.