Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust (HDFT) has announced a research study has been launched in the district to help improve the health of children and families.

Pregnant women are being invited by their midwife to join the research programme which aims to find out what influences the health and wellbeing of families.

HDFT has become the latest NHS Trust to join Born and Bred in (BaBi), a network of local birth studies that work together to link existing data across health, education, and social care to create a picture of families’ lives over time.

The data will highlight any inequalities in the region and help to shape local services, creating a healthier environment for families.

If mothers to be wish to participate their routine health data will be recorded by the health services they access themselves or for their child.

Health researchers then link together routinely collected data from parent and child, such as such as blood pressure measurements or the details of baby’s height and weight to see how health care and services could be improved.

This helps researchers to create a bigger picture of the challenges within the district. It will give insights into what works well and what can be made better to improve local services for the future.

They may identify relationships between things that happen in pregnancy and a child’s future health, or highlight if childhood conditions such as asthma, are more prevalent in one particular area of the district.

One of the first local mums to sign up to the study was Georgina Fogarty, whose son, Freddie, was the first BaBi Harrogate baby. Georgina said:

“Babi Harrogate is a great research project, providing helpful data that will help us to learn more about the health and care of mothers and babies living in the district.”

Leanne Likaj, associate director of midwifery, at HDFT said:

“We are delighted to launch the BaBi research project in Harrogate following on from its success in other maternity units across the region. We are passionate about babies having the best start in life and collecting BaBi data will be a great help.

“This is a really exciting development and we are looking forward to seeing the impact of joining this information together to improve the health of children and families in the future. Anyone who is currently receiving care from our Harrogate maternity service and is interested in taking part should speak to their midwife about how to enrol.”

The BaBi concept began in Bradford. The network now consists of 11 trusts, including Leeds, York and Scarborough, Doncaster and Hull.

More information about BaBi Harrogate is available here.

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The head of a Nidderdale school will take part in today’s London Marathon to support a family affected by blood cancer.

Nathan Sadler, headmaster of Belmont Grosvenor School in Birstwith, will be taking to the streets of the capital this morning to raise money for Blood Cancer UK.

He’s running in memory of Philippa Badger, whose three children were pupils at Belmont Grosvenor, who was just 42 when she died from acute myeloid leukaemia last year.

Mr Sadler is raising money to support her widow James, who is aiming to raise £300,000 for research into the condition.

At the same time as the marathon begins, Mr Badger will be setting off on an eight-day cycle ride from Lands End to John o’Groats with three friends.

Mr Sadler said:

“As a school community we want to do as much as we can to support James and his family in their fund-raising efforts in memory of Philippa.

“James is a truly inspirational man who is driven to raise the funds needed for what could be a life-changing research project. All money raised on my JustGiving page will get added directly to James Badger’s fundraising pot, to help reach his target.

“I am proud to wear the Blood Cancer UK colours and am looking forward to the electric atmosphere on Sunday, especially as other members of the BGS Community will be running and spectating in London as well.”

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A keen runner who has already completed seven marathons, Mr Sadler will be taking on three more in the next four weeks. As well as London, he will be running in the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon on May 14 and a final 26.2 miles at Windermere on May 21.

To support Mr Sadler’s marathon efforts, click here.

Mrs Badger died just 36 hours after being diagnosed with AML on April 22 last year. Her children were aged 12, 10 and six at the time.

AML has a survival rate of just 10% and husband James is hoping to fund a three-year research project to improve its understanding and treatment.

Along with Richard Baldwin, Adam Ellis and Anthony Fraser, Mr Sadler is aiming to raise £100,000 through the 1,600km bike ride alone. He has already reached three-quarters of that target on his JustGiving page.

A man from a village near Harrogate who was told he had two weeks to live is backing a research project to find new treatments for cancer.

Stephen Young, 73, who lives in Brackenthwaite, experienced unusual symptoms last summer including a constantly bleeding nose, a rash on his face, mouth ulcers and shortness of breath.

His GP initially treated him for rosacea and gave him a nasal cream, but the symptoms worsened.

When Stephen returned to the doctor, he had blood tests and was offered a chest x-ray – which revealed a major infection in his lungs.

After being sent by ambulance to A&E at Harrogate District Hospital, company chairman Stephen was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The blood cancer claims more than 2,600 lives a year in the UK – and Stephen’s case was so advanced he was told that, without treatment, he had just two weeks to live.

He said:

“Treatment began at 2am in the morning on July 2. By 4am, the team had started my first round of chemo and treatment for my chest infection which remained a stubborn complication for a further three weeks.

“It was touch and go whether I would pull through.”

Fortunately, the treatment was effective and, nine months on, Stephen is in remission and is hoping for a stem cell transplant later this year to improve his long-term prognosis.

However, the impact on his life continues. He said:

“AML treatment compromises the immune system and makes you very vulnerable to any and all infections. The threat of sepsis is ever-present.

“The need for social distancing between me and my loved ones, and being unable to hug and play with my grandchildren is, for me, AML’s greatest torment.”

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With World AML Day being marked next Friday, April 21, Leukaemia UK is calling on people to help fund more research into the disease and improve the survival rates. Chief executive Fiona Hazell said:

“Important discoveries are happening all the time within leukaemia research.

“With just 15% of AML patients surviving longer than five years after their diagnosis, it’s clear that more effective, kinder, targeted treatments are critically needed. At Leukaemia UK, we know that research has the power to one day stop leukaemia devastating lives.”

Funding from Leukaemia UK has already helped Dr Konstantinos Tzelepis at a research team at the University of Cambridge to discover a new drug which targets a key protein involved in AML growth and survival.

The charity has now announced funding for a new project which will look at ways to target another protein in the disease.

Stephen’s wife Eugenie said:

“We were completely traumatised when the doctor told us Steve had acute myeloid leukaemia. That’s why I am so committed to joining the campaign to raise awareness about blood cancer symptoms.

“The earlier the disease is spotted the better the chance of successful treatment, prognosis and quality of life.”

As well as helping to fund research, Leukaemia UK is urging people to be aware of the symptoms and visit their GP if they are concerned. Diagnosis can often be delayed, frequently happening in A&E when a patient is severely unwell, because the signs can be confused with other, more common symptoms.

Ms Hazell added:

“As with many diseases, earlier diagnosis improves the chances of successful treatment.

“We want to encourage people to trust their instincts when something is wrong and visit their GP to push for that all important blood test, which is the only way to properly diagnose AML.”

Several hundred people in Yorkshire have missed potentially life-saving early cancer diagnosis because of covid, according to a Harrogate-based research charity.

Dr Kathryn Scott, chief executive of Yorkshire Cancer Research, gave the figure in an interview with the Stray Ferret.

The NHS halted screenings in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Scott said:

“We have lost some opportunities to find early cancers. People were also very nervous to go to the doctors. Then the people that do go have delays in diagnosis and treatment.

“The NHS tried innovative ways to get around that. But it is still a sad fact that we think several hundred people have missed out on early diagnosis in Yorkshire.”

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She added that when people miss out on early diagnosis they often have to go through more invasive treatments and have a worse chance of survival.

Dr Scott spoke to us after the publication of the charity’s annual accounts for the year ending 31 March 2020, which showed total income had increased from £12.8 million to £18.7 million.

Royalty income accounted for £12 million – up from £6.7 million – of this.

The charity, however, is expecting its next accounts to be more challenging because of covid, with fundraising income likely to be down by more than £1 million.

£8.3 million for new cancer research

To combat what Dr Scott sees as a “big hill to climb” with cancer, the charity is pumping another £8.3 million into new research.

Of this sum, £3.4 million will be used to fund research into whether chemotherapy before surgery in bowel cancer patients improves survival rates.

Other projects it funds will look into ways to use medication to slow the spread of prostate cancer, urine tests to detect bladder cancer and whether vaping products can help those with mental illness quit smoking.

How coronavirus vaccine push can help cancer research

There has been much excitement about the development of coronavirus vaccines with efficacy of up to 95%.

Dr Scott hopes the development of new technologies, such as synthetic DNA-based vaccines, could be adapted to improve cancer treatments. She said:

“One of the benefits of the way they have run the clinical trials is the new technology and the new techniques they’re using in those trials.

“It really compresses the time and so absolutely in the future, fingers crossed, we can get cancer treatments and therapies through that pipeline faster.”

Although the pandemic is likely to hit Yorkshire Cancer Research hard financially, it believes its future is bright, and that it will be able to continue with its aim of helping 2,000 more people survive cancer every year in Yorkshire.