Tom White obituary

My friend Tom White, who has died aged 93, was director of social services at Coventry city council in the 1970s and 80s, before becoming chief executive of the National Children’s Home (NCH), where he spent more than a decade until his retirement.When Tom first arrived at the NCH in 1985 it was running 128 projects on a budget of just over £22m; by 1996, it had changed its name to NCH Action for Children, and its spending had increased to £70m across 270 programmes, with the number of children it helped having increased fivefold.More importantly, however, Tom had helped to move the charity away from its image of providing children’s homes (most of which have now closed) towards a wider range of preventative service for children and families within the community.Tom was born in Ystradgynlais in south Wales to Walter, a coalminer, and Annie (nee Williams), a parlour maid and cook. He went to the local Maesydderwen grammar school before gaining a social science diploma from Swansea University and then a social work qualification at the London School of Economics in 1957

‘Now I do weight training’: how exercise helped one patient stay free of cancer

A landmark study shows exercise can reduce the risk of cancer patients dying by more than a third.The world’s first randomised clinical trial specifically evaluated if a structured exercise regime after treatment could reduce the risk of recurrence or new cancers in patients.Hailed as game-changing by experts, the results show it could. The trial found patients had a 37% lower risk of death and a 28% lower risk of their cancer coming back or new cancers developing, compared with patients who received only health advice.Margaret Tubridy was one of 889 patients with colon cancer recruited to the trial from six countries – the UK, US, Australia, France, Canada and Israel

Exercise ‘better than drugs’ to stop cancer returning after treatment, trial finds

Exercise can reduce the risk of cancer patients dying by a third, stop tumours coming back and is even more effective than drugs, according to the results of a landmark trial that could transform health guidelines worldwide.For decades, doctors have recommended adopting a healthy lifestyle to lower the risk of developing cancer. But until now there has been little evidence of the impact it could have after diagnosis, with little support for incorporating exercise into patients’ routines.Now a world-first trial involving patients from the US, UK, Australia, France, Canada and Israel has found that a structured exercise regime after treatment can dramatically reduce the risk of dying, the disease returning or a new cancer developing.The results were presented in Chicago at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco) annual meeting, the world’s largest cancer conference, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine

‘Men are not expected to be interested in babies’: how society lets new fathers – and their families – down

Around one in 10 fathers experience serious mental health issues in the period before and after their child is born. What can be done? Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastDean Rogut was holding it together.He had become a father for the first time, but it had not gone to plan. At 12 weeks pregnant, his wife was put on bed rest. At 24 weeks, their son, Max, was born

More than half of top 100 mental health TikToks contain misinformation, study finds

More than half of all the top trending videos offering mental health advice on TikTok contain misinformation, a Guardian investigation has found.People are increasingly turning to social media for mental health support, yet research has revealed that many influencers are peddling misinformation, including misused therapeutic language, “quick fix” solutions and false claims.Those seeking help are confronted with dubious advice, such as eating an orange in the shower to reduce anxiety; the promotion of supplements with a limited evidence base for alleviating anxiety, such as saffron, magnesium glycinate and holy basil; methods to heal trauma within an hour; and guidance presenting normal emotional experiences as a sign of borderline personality disorder or abuse.MPs and experts said the findings that social media platforms were riddled with unhelpful, harmful and sometimes dangerous mental health advice were “damning” and “concerning”, and urged the government to strengthen regulation to protect the public from the spread of misinformation.The Guardian took the top 100 videos posted under the #mentalhealthtips hashtag on TikTok and shared them with psychologists, psychiatrists and academic experts, who took a view on whether the posts contained misinformation

Norma Meras Swenson obituary

In 1958, Norma Meras Swenson, who has died aged 93, gave birth to her daughter, Sarah, in Boston, Massachusetts. The experience opened her eyes to how little agency American women had over something as natural as childbirth, and this set her up for a lifetime of activism.She became an expert in reproductive health and women’s rights and the book she co-wrote, Our Bodies, Ourselves, changed the landscape of women’s health. It brought into the open subjects such as contraception, birth and masturbation and has been compared to Dr Spock’s Baby & Child Care in terms of impact. Since 1970, it has been through nine editions, sold more than 4m copies and has been translated into 31 languages