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Four generations of fancy footwork

Monday, 26 September 2011 14:48

Four generations of ballroom legacy now rest on the adorable tuxedoed shoulders of British championship hopeful, seven-year-old Owen Moss. The tiny dancer has fancy footwork in his blood, with nearly everyone on mum Kristina’s side of the family, from great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents all being involved in ballroom dancing on a competitive level. Even 18-month-old baby sister Natasha is the subject of high hopes in the family, where kids sometimes start as young as two or three.
His award-winning nan Jeannette, 50, is also his dance partner, in training and in competitions. The dance school the family attend in Oldham, Manchester is a social centre for the family – with wedding receptions, anniversary parties and birthday being routinely held there. Jeanette even met her current husband there – where he worked as a dance teacher. At the moment, Owen and Jeanette are the stars of the family - the miss-matched pair have quickstepped their way through countless competitions, both bagging the top prizes for sequence and Latin in regionals and are currently preparing for the British National Dance Championships in Blackpool in October. Normally training for an hour a week, in pre-competition periods they double their practice time. The family’s passion for dance means that Strictly Come Dancing is a weekly family ritual, with Owen’s grandfather joining the family of four on the sofa to watch the show. Owen likes to brag to his school friends that he’ll be on the show one day. It could happen – he’s won a rosette in each competition he’s been in since he began at four and is number one in his region for sequence and Latin. The story featured in Yours magazine after Owen's family spoke to Cavendish Press.

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Boy takes first steps thanks to twin sister

Monday, 26 September 2011 13:39

Kelly and Ivan Rosbotham, of Accrington, Lancs, spoke to Cavendish Press to tell how their son Finley was born with almost half his brain missing yet has incredibly defied doctors’ to take his first steps with the help of his active little sister, and his favourite Thomas the Tank Engine toy. Finley and twin sister Ellie were born seven minutes apart at 34 weeks in June 2009 but just a few months later Kelly and husband Ivan noticed that Finley wasn’t developing the same as Ellie, as he was unresponsive down one side, had a rag-doll like posture and was not smiling like his lively sister. After asking their health consultant for advice, the couple were referred to a physical therapist who was concerned that Finley had a rare form of cerebral palsy known as hemitaresis, a neurological condition which weakens one side of the body, and recommended an MRI scan. The scan revealed that a large part of the left side of Finley’s brain was missing and his devastated parents were warned that their son was highly unlikely to ever be able to walk or even crawl. But, determined not to give up Kelly and Ivan set about researching their son’s condition and learned that if they worked hard with Finley they could train other parts of his brain to adopt the functions of the missing sections. Kelly and Ivan set about doing home therapy sessions with special exercises and games for Finley, to stimulate his brain, and began taking him to a child development centre where physio and occupational therapists used a specialised play centre to supplement their work. They spent twenty months gradually building up Finley's ability to use the right side of his brain to control both sides of his body by urging him to move around and play with his twin sister and after five months of hard work, mum Kelly was thrilled when Finley finally moved his head in response to Ellie who was playing noisily across the room. Since then he has gone from strength to strength - after months spent chasing Ellie and his beloved blue and white motorised Thomas the Tank Engine train around their playroom, Finley slowly learned to crawl and, now aged two, he has recently astounded doctors by taking his first ever steps. Now his delighted parents are keen to tell others not to give up hope and are looking forward to a brighter future for their son. Their heartwarming story went in Take A Break magazine.

Terrorised for two years by cyber stalker

Monday, 26 September 2011 13:30

Alexandra Scarlett's life was made hell for two years after she fell victim to an obsessed cyber stalker who bombarded her with hundreds of text, Facebook and Myspace messages a week after she rejected his advances. Jason Smith would professehis love before threatening to kill Alexandra, rape her mum and aunt and shoot her dad, and tracked her down despite her blocking his access and changing her number 40 times. Pretty student Alexandra, 20, first met Jason, 23, on a night out with two friends in 2007 but he began bombarding her with texts saying how much he liked her. Alexandra from Cheshire told him she wasn’t interested at all and asked him to stop calling her. But, although they’d only met for a couple of hours, Jason refused to take the hint, and began texting and calling her all hours of the day and night, leaving up to 30 messages a day telling her he loved her. Alexandra stopped answering her phone, but Jason’s messages took a sinister turn as he began threatening her family – threatening to kill her dad. Shaken, Alexandra believed the messages were the result of Jason’s bruised ego and would calm down, but days turned into weeks and Jason’s harassment continued, as he branded her mum a slut when she said her daughter wasn’t interested. Alexandra contacted her mobile provider to block Jason’s number, but he continued to call her via other people’s numbers, until she reported him to police who warned him to stop contacting her. For a few months, Alexandra’s life returned to normal as Jason didn’t know where she lived, or even her surname, so was unable to contact her. But when she logged onto her My Space account, after not checking it for a few weeks, she was horrified to discover page after page of messages from Jason who had searched every Alexandra on Myspace until he found her picture. Alexandra saved all of the messages to pass onto police and shut down her account before opening a new one. But now Jason had her full name, plus the names of her friends so he was able track her down again. Already terrified, Alexandra logged onto her Facebook account to discover that Jason had found her on there too, using her profile picture and had begun sending her messages, again telling her he loved her. Again she was forced to close her account down and set up a private page, but Jason had begun sending messages to her friends who had already accepted his friend requests. In a creepier twist, Jason had saved Alexandra’s profile picture and used it to set up a fake Facebook page pretending to be her and sending abusive messages to her friends, accusing them of sleeping with her boyfriend. Alexandra was soon being stopped in the street with people asking what her problem was and giving her abuse. Jason sent messages to family members claiming to be her boyfriend and saying he’d lost her phone number and eventually she decided to move out of the area, changing her number again, and continuing to pass his messages on to police. Jason sent a message to Alexandra’s mum, threatening to hurt her if she didn’t contact him - with enough evidence to act, police were finally able to arrest him. But, furious at the police involvement he broke his bail conditions to contact Alexandra again and was remanded in custody, charged with harassment. He was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended for two years, after admitting harassment and was given a lifetime restraining order banning him from contacting Alexandra after a judge said he needed treatment for an ''erotic mania'' psychological disorder. Now Alexandra is trying to get her life back on track, but is still reeling from the effects of her ordeal, feeling wary and on edge all the time. Her story featured in Take It Easy magazine after Alexandra spoke to Cavendish Press.

A mum at last thanks to reflexology

Monday, 26 September 2011 13:24

Gabby Lamplugh, from Wilmslow, Cheshire spoke to Cavendish Press to tell how she suffered three miscarriages before taking up reflexology to get pregnant. She is now celebrating the birth of her second child, and, so impressed with the results, she has now trained as a reflexology therapist herself. Gabby, 32, and her husband James, 35, wanted to start a family as soon as they got married in 2008 but after losing three unborn children a former work colleague advised her to try reflexology to help her to conceive. Gabby had always been sceptical about alternative therapies, but she was so desperate she decided that anything was worth a try, so she found a local reflexology group and signed up for a course. She was amazed when she fell pregnant with just six sessions. But after everything they’d been through neither Gabby or James allowed themselves to get excited as Gabby continued to work on her reflexology treatment, which helped her to alleviate stress and anxiety, in the hopes of avoiding yet another miscarriage – and it worked. The couple finally reached the all-important 12-week scan mark and were overjoyed to see the grainy images of their tiny baby on the screen and listen to his heartbeat. Despite a rocky pregnancy, Gabby relied on stress-busting reflexology to keep her calm and was so impressed with the results that she even enrolled on a training course so that she could one day administer the treatment herself. Gabby finally gave birth to son Alfie, now aged two, in 2009. When she brought her son home new mum Gabby was delighted but exhausted, and his constant crying was driving her to despair. She was told that he had ‘digestive problems’ and one night she decided to try her new-found reflexology skills out on her son, softly using her knowledge of pressure points to massage and sooth him and it worked like a treat. She continued with her own reflexology treatment and was thrilled when she fell pregnant again after just nine months. She felt much more comfortable during this pregnancy and bouncing baby daughter Georgia was born eight months ago. Now a hands-on mum-of-two, Gabby practices reflexology on both of her children and, after recently qualifying as a reflexologist, she is hoping to one day give up her sales job and take up the therapy full time, treating adults, children and babies – and specialising in fertility and maternal reflexology. Her story featured in Full House magazine.

Young mum plagued by poltergeists

Monday, 26 September 2011 13:17

Holly Taylor, from Wigan, Greater Manchester spoke to Cavendish Press to tell how she spent months living in fear with her two-year-old daughter as they were plagued by a pesky poltergeist after she moved into a newly renovated flat on the site of a haunted police station before calling in some real-life ghostbusters who helped get rid of her unwanted guest. Mum-of-one Holly, 22, had moved into her plush penthouse apartment but after just a few weeks she began to sense a strange atmosphere. She’d been watching TV with her boyfriend Jordan, when a plate smashed off the kitchen top during a trailer for The Last Exorcism, causing them both to jump. Laughing at themselves, the couple went to bed, but later that night they heard another plate and a pan fall off the kitchen top, despite having already checked that nothing was ready to drop. They assured themselves that there was a rational explanation, but a couple of weeks later, Holly – who was born on Halloween – heard footstep marching in the hallway as she lay in bed, and, terrified there was someone in the house, she rushed into her daughter’s room before realizing, with relief that there was no intruder. In the light of day, Holly convinced herself she was imagining things, but a few nights later the same thing happened again. Feeling stupid, Holly kept quiet, but soon other strange things began to happen – every time she walked into the kitchen the fire alarm beeped, as she lay in bed at night the kitchen doors would bang open and shut, her daughter began crying hysterically for no reason at all and she’d hear banging coming from Willow’s room when she was fast asleep. The once fiercely sceptical Holly was so terrified she kept daughter Willow in her bed at night and even boyfriend Jordan slept with earplugs in when he stayed to avoid hearing the spooky sounds. But in October this year, Willow was staying over with her grandparents and Holly was home alone – she was dropping off to sleep when she heard her front door creak open and shut. Knowing she’d locked it before she went to bed, Holly nervously peeped out of her bedroom door to find that all of her lights were back on and the security chain, which she’d fastened, was hanging loose. Convinced there’d been a break in, she called the police – officers arrived and found no evidence of an intruder, but although nothing was missing, some of her belongings had been moved and terrified Holly went to stay at her gran’s for the night, rather than remain there alone. When she spoke to her letting agents the next day, they confirmed they had heard stories about the ghostly goings-on at the property and Holly later discovered that her new flat was part of a renovated old police station which had a reputation for being haunted after a policeman named Burt had hung himself there. Holly refused to stay in the property and split her time between her boyfriend and her nan’s houses, just nipping home in the daytime for fresh clothes. She began hearing more tales about her haunted home, and discovered that the previous tenant was so scared she left, her neighbour had also experienced strange phenomena – and an electrician who helped to renovate the place emailed her to say he’d broken all of his ribs after falling in the property and is adamant he was pushed by a spooky force. Despite being non-religious Holly took to reciting the Archangel Michael’s prayer and was considering holding a séance or even asking a local priest to perform an exorcism. But eventually she called in some professional ‘ghostbusters’ – a trio called The Dead Connections spent a terrifying night in her flat, armed with an array of gadgets and gizmos during which they witnessed the ghostly goings-on, photographed strange orbs and discovered the main activity was in Willow’s room before finally performing an exorcism ritual. Since then, Holly’s home has been spook-free. Her story featured in Pick Me Up magazine.

Blinded by heel of stiletto show

Monday, 26 September 2011 12:45

A teenage girl blinded Joanne Brown in one eye by stamping on her face with a stiletto heel. Drunk Amy Leigh Smith, 17, left Joanne scarred for life after the club attack. Joanne, 34, said: "When I look in the mirror now all I see is a freak." Mental health worker Joanne told how pregnant Smith's savage, unprovoked attack on a nightclub dance floor destroyed her sight, her looks, her relationship with her boyfriend — and her dreams for the future. She added: "This girl has wrecked my life. Amy Smith was a thug who became an animal because she had too much alcohol in a bar she was too young to be drinking in. She was just 17 for God's sake. It says everything about the state our teenagers are in that she could casually stamp on the face of a complete stranger just for the hell of it. Now my career is wrecked, my personality is destroyed. She has left me a broken woman. I have lost the person I used to be forever." Smith, who was locked up for 33 months after admitting assault, stamped down twice on Joanne's face with a three-inch heel as the single mum lay helplessly on the floor at the Pada Lounge nightclub in Wigan. Such was the force of the attack, Joanne's eye socket was smashed into 16 pieces, her cheekbone broke and both her jaw and skull were fractured. The optic nerve in her left eye was severed, blinding her permanently. Joanne said: "My face has been reconstructed but it will never be the same.'' Joanne's horrific story featured in Love It magazine after she spoke to Cavendish Press.