A grieving daughter furiously handed an urn containing her mother’s ashes to a benefit health care professional who turned up to assess if the dead woman was fit for work, following an inexcusable and heartless blunder by the Department for Work and Pensions. 

Louise Broxton had suffered a host of neurological problems for which she received welfare support. She tragically died from lung cancer at the age of just 47 in August.

Her daughter, Hatti, immediately informed the authorities of her mother’s death and all her benefits were cancelled. After initially saying the information had been placed on file, however, some seven months later the Department for Work and Pensions sent an assessor to the door of her home in Wolverhampton to see if Louise was “fit for work.”

Hatti, a prison administrator, said: “I’m so upset and angry about what’s happened.

“It’s our government that has done this…

Doctors say a stem cell transplant could be a “game changer” for many patients with multiple sclerosis.

Results from an international trial show that it was able to stop the disease and improve symptoms.

It involves wiping out a patient’s immune system using cancer drugs and then rebooting it with a stem cell transplant.

Louise Willetts, 36, from Rotherham, is now symptom-free and told me: “It feels like a miracle.”

A total of 100,000 people in the UK have MS, which attacks nerves in the brain and spinal cord.

Just over 100 patients took part in the trial, in hospitals in Chicago, Sheffield, Uppsala in Sweden and Sao Paolo in Brazil.

They all had relapsing remitting MS – where attacks or relapses are followed by periods of remission.

The interim results were released at the annual meeting of the European Society for Bone and Marrow Transplantation in Lisbon.

The patients…

Tens of thousands of severely disabled and ill claimants are set to receive backdated payments of up to £20,000 after being wrongly underpaid for years by social security officials, the government spending watchdog has revealed.

An estimated 70,000 claimants were underpaid about £340m between 2011 and 2014 after being transferred from older benefits on to employment and support allowance (ESA) during a government overhaul of incapacity benefits, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

The error occurred when officials at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to follow their own legal guidelines governing the transfer process, meaning that in many cases they failed to properly check claimants’ full entitlements.

Meg Hillier, the chair of the Commons public accounts committee, said: “The government’s shoddy administration of ESA has resulted in vulnerable people being deprived of thousands of pounds they were legally entitled to. The NAO’s report shows the DWP was…

Oscar-winning British short film The Silent Child is to be shown on BBC One on Good Friday, giving UK viewers the first chance to see it.

Written and directed by ex-Hollyoaks stars Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton, the 20-minute film tells of a young deaf girl who struggles to communicate.

Maisie Sly, a six-year-old girl from Swindon, plays the title role.

She travelled to Los Angeles earlier this month to attend the Oscars and see her film named the winner.

Shenton, who is from Stoke-On-Trent, was inspired to write the film because of her own family’s experience.

When she was 12 her father went deaf after receiving treatment for chemotherapy.

She learned sign language and became a qualified British Sign Language Interpreter and ambassador for the National Deaf Children’s Society.

She and Overton, who is now her fiance, cast Maisie after conducting a nationwide search and auditioning 100 children.

Millions…

I really wish I could remember when the lovely people from Bloomsbury came to my house along with the two lovely guys from the animation company……..but I can’t…It must have been before Christmas as the animators were kind enough to send me the original prints used in the animation, which I framed and gave one each to Sarah and Gemma for Christmas.

I do remember having a wonderful day and laughing lots…..

They wanted to produce a simple yet beautiful animation to promote my book, and beautiful it certainly is, especially since my girls have become 2 cartoon characters within it🤣

Well we had to keep the animation under wraps until this week, which has been so hard that I had to delete the email with any mention of it so it wouldn’t pop into my head.

Secrets are usually very safe with me, for obvious reasons, but I often…

After a wobbly few days I thought I’d share this with you…..

Recently I’ve found it increasingly confusing to decipher what’s real and what’s been dementia playing tricks….

I remember pre dementia, waking up after a vivid dream, thinking for a minute and then realising it was a dream. Now, however, I’m never sure. I have to find the proof now to separate fact from fiction. I’ve always ‘heard’ things that aren’t real – the knock on the door, the tap on the window with no one in sight.

One night I lay awake and heard a cry of help from someone who sounded like my daughter Gemma. She was shouting ‘mum, mum’. There was knocking on my door. I then heard a car door slam and it drove off. It all happened so quickly but when I looked out of the window it was silent, dark and still. It…

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

Well everyone needs something to focus on to take their mind off the approaching winter and to stop getting excited about Christmas……so on October 27th I’m heading for Dove House Hospice to take part in a Firewalk!

I saw it first advertised on Twitter ages ago and asked if they thought I’d be able to do it – having a wobble and a stick in tow….They contacted the organisers who said they’d be my stick and support me through the fire🤓 No going back then…….

My dear friend, Alex Preston gave me some valuable advice………..Keep Walking! Don’t stop!🔥 note to self……….😳

We need to use hospices more for people with dementia. A hospice is associated with being a place to die for those with cancer, but they have so much more to offer, especially those living with a life limiting condition, such as dementia. They have the ‘talking’ skills we…

Same Difference sends thoughts and best  wishes to readers in Manchester after last night’s tragic incident. We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and unaffected.

To those killed- RIP. To their families, thoughts and sincere condolences.

To those who will now become disabled- your lives will change beyond recognition, but we hope you will eventually be happy in your new lives.

There will be no further posts today. Posting resumes tomorrow. We share the shock and sadness of many and will be spemding today following related news.