A man who underwent surgery for throat cancer is preparing to enter the Harrogate Triathlon — despite having a hole in his neck.
Richard Andrews was diagnosed with cancer in July 2018 and underwent 30 sessions of radiotherapy. Despite being told there was just a 2% chance his cancer would return, it did in May 2019.
He then underwent a laryngectomy, which involved removing his larynx — the part of the throat that contains the vocal cords — and neck dissection in July 2019.
The operation took away three quarters of his thyroid and left him with a hole in his neck.
Richard maintains a positive outlook by setting himself huge athletic challenges, one of which is to compete in next month’s Harrogate Triathlon at Ashville College. He says finding something to focus on is “the only way to keep going”.
The most difficult part of the event will be the swim. Richard now has to breathe through the hole in his neck, rather than his nose or mouth, which means he will have to compete with a specialist snorkel fitted into the hole. This sends any water into his stomach.
He has also endured numerous training sessions learning to breathe through the 8mm tube.
Richard and friend John taking part in the 2021 Race to the Stones; a 100km trail.
Richard said:
“I have found the only way to keep going is to stay positive and push the boundaries, I have a wonderfully supportive family and have put my wife Ann through hell. I now have no sense of taste of smell and struggle to swallow solid food due to an anatomical anomaly with my food pipe.
“Also, people need to know that with throat cancer in particular you can still maintain a positive life, I am fitter now than I have ever been, yes I have bad moments but these are moments not days.”
Richard also suffers from extreme fatigue due to the loss of his thyroid and a lack of upper body strength. His neck dissection surgery meant the muscles in his neck were cut so simple tasks such as lifting his head when lying down require more strength.
Richard and John taking part in another running event in 2020.
The Harrogate Triathlon will be Richard’s third athletic event this year. The Hereford man has already competed in the Muddy Woody and the Cardiff half marathon.
Over the coming months he is also set to take on a half ironman which includes a 1.9km swim, a 90km bike ride and a 21km run.
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Richard said the support of those around him allows him to take on such events:
“The support from my family and friends is the reason I’m still alive.”
He gave special mentions to his wife Ann, children Josh, Gabby and Tom, specialist nurses Mim, Claire and Zoe, coaches Delia, Nicola, Darren, Nick and Jonty and good friend Jon.
For more on Richard’s journey, read his blog here.
Shop will close tomorrow after 25 years in HarrogateA longstanding fixture on Harrogate’s high street will close for good tomorrow.
Orvis, which sells outdoor clothes, fly-fishing gear, dog accessories and walking items, has been trading in town for about 25 years,
It opened on Parliament Street in the 1990s before moving to its current five-storey unit on West Park.
But the American owners have decided to move the business mainly online
The company, which has a closing down sale, employs around eight people who have now all found jobs elsewhere.
On its penultimate day today, there was an overwhelming sense of sadness at the site of the last few garments hanging on racks.
There were also items of store furniture and plastic shoe blocks scattered around for sale for just a few pounds.
The store’s stock is depleted now after a month of major discounts.
Staff were sad to see the store go and hoped another retailer would take on the building.
The future of the unit remains unknown. The Stray Ferret has contacted the retail agent, Stapleton Waterhouse, but has yet to receive a reply.
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Orvis has 18 shops in the UK and all but one, at Stockbridge near Reading, will close. The company will instead focus on online sales, particularly fly-fishing equipment.
Orvis was founded in Vermont in 1856 by Charles F Orvis.
The upstairs rooms are now completely bare.
Coppice Valley Primary School is hoping to raise £10,000 to improve its library and provide a space for students to be inspired by books.
The current space inside the Harrogate school is more than 20 years old and the second-hand shelving is beginning to collapse.
The plan is to use the funds to completely redesign the space with new storage, books and floor mats.
Ms Emma Meadus, headteacher, said the school set up a covid-safe book swap outside during the pandemic and because of that many books weren’t returned or were returned in poor condition.
The school wants to improve its current library.
The school has had a quote from a design company of £8,800. Any remaining donations will be used to buy new books.
Ms Meadus said:
“It’s been a make-shift, make-do area and the books are in need of an upgrade. We knew it needed to be better for our kids, we have a lot of catch-up learning to do after the pandemic and we want a beautiful space for the kids to be inspired.”
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The school is celebrating its 50th anniversary in September and hopes the library will be a legacy project.
Although the target is £10,000, the school wants to raise £20,000 over the next two years it so it can build another library for younger children in a separate area of the school.
To support the school’s appeal, click here.
Harrogate farm shop to stage art exhibitionMackenzies in Blubberhouses to host art exhibition
Yorkshire artist Lynda Logan and her husband Terry are to display their work at Mackenzies Farm Shop in Blubberhouses to raise money for charity.
Ms Logan, who has a studio near Harrogate, was one of the original Calendar Girls in the 2003 film. She played a model and her husband was a photographer.
Their exhibition, which begins on April 9, will donate 10% of all sales to Blood Cancer UK.
Blood cancer is the fifth most common cancer in adults and the most common in children.
Paul Palmer, the owner of Mackenzies, said:
“We’re delighted to have Lynda and Terry exhibiting with us in the gallery. Their previous work for charity has been exceptional and we’re excited to help raise even more.”
Events company brings food festival to Pateley Bridge
A previous event hosted by Lily and Lister.
The first Yorkshire Feastival will take place at Pateley Bridge on June 25 and 26.
The event is primarily a food and drink festival but also has an inflatable village, fun fair and a mini farm.
The event will host multiple small business owners, artists and entrepreneurs from Yorkshire. The event is organised by Lily and Lister Events.
Anna Lister, from Lily and Lister, said:
“With so many amazing producers, food, drink and artists from Yorkshire we wanted to create an event celebrating the best of what Yorkshire has to offer and in exceptional countryside in the heart of Yorkshire.
“It’s a great opportunity to come and support local businesses whilst having an amazing day out.”
Two Harrogate restaurants launch charity menu and easter egg hunt
Provenance Inns & Hotels Group is launching a charity menu and a large easter egg hunt across all its seven venues.
The venues include the West Park Hotel in Harrogate and The Punch Bowl in Marton-Cum-Grafton. Dozens of eggs will be hidden in and around each venue and customers will attempt to find them using clues posted on Facebook.
Anyone who finds one of the chocolate treats can enjoy a free drink at their local Provenance bar.
The Inns group has also launched a new menu.
Tom Patrick, head of marketing at Provenance, said:
“Our Easter egg hunt is going to be quite epic, with not one but seven of Yorkshire’s finest pubs taking part.”
£1 from each Chicken Kyiv dish sold at Provenance venues will go to the Red Cross Ukraine crisis appeal.
Ice warning follows rush hour snow in Harrogate district
Temperatures are set to plummet tonight after snow hit teatime traffic in the Harrogate district.
Snow is forecast across the district this evening and overnight temperatures are expected to reach -1 degrees celsius in Harrogate. It will be colder in more remote areas, especially around Pateley Bridge.
John Benson took this photo of Greenhow this afternoon.
BBC Weather is predicting the snow will clear by 7am tomorrow.
A yellow warning for ice is in place in the district from 8pm tonight until 10pm. Roads across the county will be treated.
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Nature observers, however, may get an opportunity to see the Northern Lights tonight.
The Met Office tweeted that the phenomenon, also known as the Aurora Borealis, may be visible.
Due to Coronal Mass Ejections arriving from the sun, there is a chance of seeing the #AuroraBorealis later tonight and again tomorrow night
As usual, the further north you are in the UK, the greater your chance of seeing it#NorthernLights
More here: https://t.co/sQ1IjJM44y pic.twitter.com/qxmFQNJCM6
— Met Office (@metoffice) March 30, 2022
Inquest concludes no single factor led to Harrogate woman’s suicide
An inquest into the death of a Harrogate woman has concluded that no single factor contributed to her taking her life.
Sarah Tatlow, 57, died at home on March 26 last year. At the time of her death she was undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of cervical cancer.
The two-day inquest in Northallerton, which ended today, heard Ms Tatlow’s husband, Julian Tatlow, question the actions of her doctors in the months leading to her death.
Mr Tatlow said his wife only became fully aware of her “poor prognosis” when a letter was sent days before her death.
The letter was written by Dr Isa Edhem, a consultant urological surgeon at Harrogate District Hospital, to Ms Tatlow’s GP practice. Mr Tatlow described the letter as “cold and insincere” and said it contained details not made clear to them during their consultation with Dr Edhem.
Harrogate District Hospital.
Mr Tatlow questioned members of his wife’s care team during the inquest, asking if they had made it clear to her how aggressive her cancer was. The doctors said they were sure Ms Tatlow knew her cancer was aggressive.
The coroner, Oliver Longstaff, said he took Mr Tatlow’s arguments into consideration but that there was no evidence the letter had a direct link to Ms Tatlow’s death.
Mr Longstaff concluded:
“Since it’s not known when that clinical letter arrived and indeed whether she had seen it, it is inappropriate for me to consider that a direct causal link can be found.
“Even if the letter arrived on March 26 and even if she had taken in the content, is there evidence this letter provoked her suicide over other factors?
“She was facing drastic surgery. I find it unrealistic to single out one factor only and say one was a trigger to this tragedy.”
He concluded the death was due to suicide and there was a clear link to her cancer.
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Hospital action plan
Mr Longstaff then read out an action plan written by Dr David Earl, on behalf of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, setting out a number of recommendations the hospital had put into place following Ms Tatlow’s death.
These included a protocol whereby, rather than sending letters to a patient’s GP, they are sent directly to the patient, explaining their prognosis and management plan. This is due to be rolled out across all departments by autumn this year.
It also suggested doctors would be more proactive with referrals to the cancer clinical psychology team if patients are struggling to cope.
Mr Longstaff said the trust’s action plan meant there was no need for him to write to the trust outlining his own recommendations.
Dr Jacqueline Andrews, executive medical director at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said in a statement afterwards:
New co-working space opens in Harrogate“We would like to offer our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Sarah Tatlow, and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.”
Harrogate Borough Council‘s co-working space, Co-Lab, has opened.
Co-Lab consists of new offices, a meeting room and communal space. It’s based on level 3 of Harrogate Convention Centre on King’s Road.
The authority secured £540,000 of funding from the Leeds City Business Rates Pool to fund the project.
It aims to connect digital, tech and creative businesses in the Harrogate district.
Alistair Forbes, Harrogate Borough Council’s in-house growth manager who will support businesses at Co-Lab said:
“Co-Lab will be focussed on digital and tech businesses, but we are inviting anyone interested in collaborating with the business community to talk to us.
“From designers to hardware specialists, technologists, marketers and developers, our aim is that everyone works together to help our community become more successful.”
Ripon butcher wins contract with Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason
Ripon-based online butcher, Farmison & Co has won a contract to supply London stores Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason.
Farmison’s new Saucepan Ready range was curated by the company’s Michelin-starred executive chef, Jeff Baker, who has cooked for the Queen and Barack Obama.
The deal comes after Inverleith LLP, an Edinburgh-based specialist consumer brand investor, acquired a majority stake in the business, so it could press ahead with expansion plans.
Business founder and chief executive, John Pallagi, said:
“It’s a real feather in our cap to get Saucepan Ready listed with these two such iconic British retailers – it’s also recognition of the superb quality of the heritage breed meat our farmers supply.”
As well as the Saucepan Ready dishes, Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason are stocking Farmison & Co’s beef dripping and chicken schmaltz.
Battery storage facility planned for Burton Leonard
Plans have been submitted to build a battery energy storage system near Burton Leonard.
The application has been submitted to Harrogate Borough Council by Harmony Energy Limited. The company also hopes to build a solar farm nearby.
The battery energy facility will store electricity so it can support the National Grid and provide electricity during high demand.
It would be built next to the Wormald Green Northern PowerGrid substation, off Station Lane, Wormald Green.
The storage facility would be built in the field marked in red.
A Harrogate man has told an inquest a “cold and insincere” letter from Harrogate District Hospital led to his wife to take her own life days later.
Sarah Jane Louise Tatlow, 57, died on March 26 last year at the home she shared with her husband and two sons in Harrogate.
She had been undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of cervical cancer.
Julian Tatlow told today’s opening day of the inquest in Northallerton that his wife was not fully aware of her “poor prognosis” until she received a letter from one of her doctors at Harrogate District Hospital days before her death.
The letter was sent following an in-person consultation with Ms Tatlow and her husband on March 17.
Ms Tatlow, who was a director of management training and development consultancy Kronos Learning, did not share the letter with her husband, who found it in the days after her death.
He described the letter as “cold and insincere” and said it contained details not made clear to them during the consultation.
He said the use of words such as “slurry” to describe the kind of faecal matter that would have ended up in his wife’s stoma bag, and the shock of her “poor prognosis” would have made his wife question “what is the point?”.
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Mr Tatlow told the inquest in Northallerton:
“I believe if she didn’t receive a copy of this letter, I may still have a wife and my sons a mother.”
The consultant who sent it responded to say:
“The extent of her cancer was confirmed on 10th March after numerous scans. I believe Sarah had come to the conclusion [of the severity of her cancer] following numerous consultations with myself and colleagues.”
Cancer diagnosis
The inquest heard that Ms Tatlow suffered frequent urinary tract infections in late 2020. A routine cervical screening in January 2021 then diagnosed cancer.
Dr Allison Amin, a consultant gynaecologist at Harrogate District Hospital, said she knew instantly it was an aggressive form of cancer that had spread to her pelvic area.
But Mr Tatlow said in an opening statement, which was read out at the inquest, that neither he nor his wife was aware of her “poor prognosis”. He said all the consultations had suggested that operations could “give her a better quality of life”.
Mr Tatlow asked each doctor if they had made it clear to his wife how aggressive her cancer was. Each doctor said they were unable to confirm their exact words but were sure Ms Tatlow knew her cancer was aggressive.
Mr Tatlow said to one of the doctors “my recollection is entirely different”.
He also asked why none had referred his wife to her GP for depression during a time in which, he said, she was clearly struggling.
At the time of her death, Mrs Tatlow was waiting for two surgeries that were due to take place early in April.
The inquest, led by coroner Oliver Longstaff, is due to conclude tomorrow.
Harrogate’s Tewit Youth Band wins flurry of awardsThree groups from Harrogate and District Tewit Youth Band had a successful trip to Northampton last weekend for the National Youth Band Championships of Great Britain.
The group’s Tewit Junior Band, Tewit Intermediate Band and Tewit Senior Band were all awarded for their efforts.
Tewit Junior Band, comprising of eight to 11-year-olds who have never performed in a competition setting before played a 15 minute programme under musical director Allan Briggs.
Adjudicators praised the young musicians, saying “this was what banding should be all about”. They were awarded a merit.
The junior band with musical director Allan Briggs.
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Tewit Intermediate Band, performing under musical director Rebecca Marshall, they played circus-themed The Big Top before soloist Ella Simpson played The Lazy Trumpeter.
The adjudicators liked it so much they awarded her the title best soloist for the section. Overall the intermediates came second.
Tewit Senior Band with musical director Richard Marshall
The Tewit Senior Band performed in the last section against some of the top youth bands in the country, including bands from specialist music colleges.
Alongside musical director, Richard Marshall, the band played a programme that included a solo performance from 16-year-old tenor horn player, George Fearnley.
George was named best soloist for the competition and the band placed third with a gold adjudication for their efforts.
President Colin Gibbs said it was “an amazing achievement with such strong competition”.
Brown plaque to commemorate Harrogate’s royal fashion designer
A brown plaque is to be erected outside one of Harrogate’s oldest and best-known clothes shops.
Property expert Alex Goldstein, with the support of local historian Malcolm Neesam, successfully applied to erect the plaque outside gentlemen’s outfitters Rhodes Wood. on Parliament Street.
The shop used to belong to Mr Goldstein’s great grandfather Louis Copé, a fashion designer whose female emporium opened on the site in 1922.
Mr Copé was a Polish designer whose high society customers over the years included Queen Mary, her daughter Princess Mary and Agatha Christie. The shop operated under royal patronage.
The store itself featured in the film Agatha, starring Dustin Hoffman and Vanessa Redgrave.
Louis Copé
Mr Copé moved to Harrogate because he believed the pure air would help his asthma. Mr Goldstein, who still lives in the area, said:
“I am so pleased to have been able to mark the history and story of my great grandfather, whose fashion house spanned decades and formed important memories for so many people in and around Harrogate.
“It has been lovely hearing people’s memories and visiting the Pump Rooms to actually see some of the garments that were made in his sewing rooms which are stored there.”
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Jeremy Beaumont, who owns Rhodes Wood, has been supportive of preserving the history of the building.
“When we took over the store in 1997, there were still many of the original features and cabinets in the shop, in such good quality and condition, that we still have them in the store to this day, literally 100 years later. The quality of the store fittings must have been superb, and to a very high standard.
“It is our pleasure to recognise the past history of the building, and we are delighted to host the plaque outside for everyone to see”.
The plaque is due to go up any day now.
Mr Goldstein is asking for anyone with memories from Louis Copé, or even items of clothing and hats etc, to contact him at alex@alexgoldstein.co.uk.