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A young paramedic died from a rare form of lung cancer despite never smoking.

Meadhbh Cameron, 24, died on March 11, after being told two days before Christmas that she had weeks to live.

She married police officer Lee Cameron shortly before her death, the day after his 27th birthday.

Meadhbh first noticed something was wrong in September when she coughed up a blood clot while in hospital as part of her job.

Lee says she had an intermittent nighttime cough with no other symptoms, but a scan revealed a shadow on her lung.

Four weeks later, Meadhbh was told she had stage 4 combined small cell lung cancer, an extremely aggressive and rare form of cancer, not typically seen in a young, non-smoker in good health.

Meadhbh, who worked in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, was given chemo but the cancer had spread to bones and lymph nodes,

She married Lee at a ceremony carried out by Kenny Gray, a healthcare support worker who worked in the ward in the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre.

Lee, who lives in Glasgow, is running the Loch Ness Marathon in October – as it was top of his wife’s bucket list of things she hoped to do.

Lee said: “She told me she had coughed up a blood clot while in hospital with a patient and that an x-ray had revealed a shadow in her left lung.

“This was totally out of the blue, as she had no other symptoms, other than an intermittent cough at night.

“The specialists advised us that Meadhbh’s type of cancer was incurable, however it tended to respond well to chemotherapy.

“They informed us that with chemo Meadhbh would likely have a year to live if not more due to her age and health.”

Meadhbh received three rounds of chemotherapy but was hospitalised each time with neutropenia, a condition which results in a low number of white blood cells, neutrophils, in blood.

Lee said: “On the third time she was hospitalised, we were informed that Meadhbh’s treatment wasn’t working and that the cancer in her spine was compressing her spinal cord.

“We were told that she had six to eight weeks to live, on December 23.”

Meadhbh passed away the day after Lee’s 27th birthday.

Lee added: “Despite the high levels of sedation she was under, Meadhbh still managed to wake up and hum ‘Happy Birthday’ to me.

“This was a true testament to Meadhbh’s strength and character.

“In the end cancer robbed Meadhbh of everything but her compassion, humour and mental strength.

“Meadhbh was an incredibly caring and compassionate soul who had an outstanding passion for life.

“Her smile could brighten even the darkest of days and she was the life and soul of the party.

“Those traits are what made her an exceptional paramedic, a job that she absolutely loved.

“It gives me great honour in being able to call her my wife.”

Lee is fundraising for Beatson Cancer Charity, which supported the couple.

He added: “The support they provided to my wife and I was second to none, especially with Meadhbh’s prognosis, which unfortunately involved spending her last Christmas in hospital.

“The Teenage and Young Adult team arranged for Meadhbh to get a private room so I could stay with her and also provided festive food along with a host of other things, including psychological support.

“They even helped Meadhbh and I bring forward our wedding so we could still have our big day, which is something I am incredibly grateful for.

“Before passing, she had a bucket list of things she wanted to do and at the top was run a marathon.”

Lewis Hamilton is hoping to potentially agree a new contract with Mercedes on Monday.

The seven-time Formula One world champion is set to hold renewed talks with Silver Arrows team principal Toto Wolff in the hope of finalising a deal.

Those discussions come in the aftermath of a positive Spanish Grand Prix for the team in which both Mercedes cars bounced back from a bizarre 200mph collision in a dramatic qualifying session on Saturday in order to reach the podium places in Barcelona.

Hamilton easily outfoxed Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to take second place behind the Red Bull of dominant championship leader Max Verstappen, while team-mate George Russell fought his way from 12th on the grid and held off the challenge of Sergio Perez to claim third.

It followed Hamilton and Russell getting fourth and fifth respectively in Monaco last weekend, with Mercedes clearly now benefiting from key upgrades to their W14 car.

Now Hamilton has reiterated his desire to continue in F1 for the foreseeable future, with plenty of speculation over his future and committment to the sport having swirled during a period of dominance for Red Bull and Verstappen.

The Briton says he wants to get back to the same level as Verstappen after their enthralling and controversial 2021 title battle that went right down to the wire in Abu Dhabi, starting with an extension to his Mercedes deal that is due to expire later this year. Hamilton has already dismissed any suggestion of a link-up with Ferrari.

“I want to keep going for as long as I can,” he said after the Spanish Grand Prix. “But I want to be where he (Verstappen) is, or racing him at least, and I am super-focused on getting to that point. There is a long way to go, but there is time.

“My hunger has never shifted. I am in a great place in my life, and I am really happy where I am in my life. I have got all the ducks in a row so I can focus.

“I have not signed anything yet, but I am meeting with Toto (on Monday) so hopefully we can get something done.

“We have had so many meetings. And this is another meeting. But the contract is always at the back of your mind, so once it is done then I can focus more on the future.”

• The James Webb Space Telescope snapped a new image of a galaxy 17 million light-years away.
• Thousands upon thousands of stars are visible, many of which are concentrated in the galaxy’s heart.
• JWST is peering into the hearts of many galaxies to help scientists better understand star formation.

With the power of the James Webb Space Telescope, we can peer into the mysterious hearts of galaxies. And that’s exactly what you’re seeing here, in this new image from Webb of the galaxy NGC 5068.

NGC 5068 is located about 17 million light-years from Earth. For perspective, the Milky Way’s neighborhood of galaxies called the Local Group, is 5 million light-years away. So, this galaxy is beyond what we might consider close.

Each individual dot of white light you can see is a star, per Mashable. NASA said there are thousands upon thousands of stars in this image. And many of them are hanging out at the galaxy’s center, which you can see in the upper left as a bright bar of white light.

This region appears so bright because that’s where most of the stars are concentrated. That’s also where all the action is.

James Webb peers into the hearts of many galaxies to uncover their secrets

Most galaxies have an ultra-bright center due to warm dust that’s heated by massive bursts of star formation, according to the Harvard Smithsonian. And it’s this star formation that astronomers are interested in studying more with the help of JWST.

In fact, NGC 5068 is just one in a series of other galaxies Webb is observing for a project to help us better understand star formation. Webb has also taken images of the spiral galaxy IC 5332:

And the heart of galaxy M74, aka the “Phantom Galaxy”:

The James Webb Space Telescope has the advantage of seeing in the infrared.

Infrared wavelengths are too long for the human eye to detect. But they’re especially important for studying in space because they allow JWST to peer past obstructive visual light that would otherwise block our ability to see into the hearts of galaxies and their bustling environments of star formation.

“By observing the formation of stars in nearby galaxies, astronomers hope to kick-start major scientific advances with some of the first available data from Webb,” NASA said.

Pro-Ukrainian fighters said they captured at least two Russian soldiers during a cross-border raid on Russian soil.

Denis Kapustin, leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps which is allied with Kyiv, paraded the alleged prisoners in a video filmed in what appeared to be the operations room of a hospital.

The move is another major escalation for a group causing mayhem in southern Russia and embarrassing the Kremlin by launching attacks in the country with apparent ease.

In the video broadcast on Sunday one of the prisoners was standing but the other was lying under a foil sheet on the operations table.

“As a gesture of goodwill, we are ready to give you these prisoners, ordinary Russian soldiers, for the opportunity to communicate with you personally,” Mr Kapustin said in a message directed at Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s southern Belgorod region.

The fighters, Russian nationals who attacked from Ukraine for the second time in a week on Thursday, destroyed several buildings and caused hundreds of residents to flee.

Russia’s ministry of defence said that it deployed fighter jets and artillery to repel the attack, killing 30 fighters.

Mr Kapustin’s taunt appeared to undermine those claims, as did videos posted by the Freedom Legion of Russia, a group allied with the Russian Volunteer Corps, showing what it said were its fighters moving into the Russian border town of Shebekino.

Russian officials have said that the shelling of Shebekino and its outlying villages had intensified over the past week. Mr Gladkov ordered people to leave the area and also rejected the offer of a meeting with Mr Kapustin.

“I saw the appeal of scoundrels, murderers and fascists who allegedly want to meet with me,” he said as he declined the meeting in the border Village.

“There is a battle going on now in Novaya Tavolzhanka.”

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Kremlin’s Wagner mercenary unit, responded by offering to send one of his senior commanders to the rendezvous instead.

Thousands of people have fled Shebekino, a city of 40,000 people, since Thursday. Many are now living in sports halls in Belgorod city or have been sent to neighbouring cities and regions.

They blame regional officials for ignoring deteriorating security in favour of projecting a sense of normality by hosting flower and dumpling festivals.

The incursions by pro-Ukrainian Russians, some of whom are known neo-Nazis, since Thursday appear to be the most serious since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, 15 months ago. Photos from Shebekino show burnt-out buildings.

A little-known group called the Polish Volunteer Corps has also said that it was involved in the attacks. The group has previously claimed to have fought around Bakhmut, the town in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region where fighting has been fiercest.

Poland’s government has denied any links to the Polish Volunteer Corps, reports said.

In Ukraine, officials said that Russian missiles had hit an airbase near the city of Kropyvnytskyi, 200 miles south of Kyiv.

“The cruise missiles did not destroy everything,” a spokesman for the Ukrainian air force said. “But, unfortunately, they hit the operational Airfield.”

Ukrainian officials have said that the Kremlin has changed its tactics, targeting military command and logistics centres instead of civilian infrastructure, in a bid to disrupt Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

On Sunday, local media reported several TV channels in Russian-occupied Crimea had been hacked to show a video of Ukraine’s defence ministry saying it would not announce the start of the counteroffensive.

Meanwhile, a two-year-old girl was also killed yesterday in Ukraine and 22 people were injured in a separate Russian missile attack near Dnipro.

And across Russia, police detained 45 people for protesting against the imprisonment of Alexander Navalny, perhaps Russia’s most high-profile opposition leader. His supporters had called for people to protest on his 47th birthday.

The Government must not curtail free speech, a minister has said, in the wake of The Telegraph’s revelations that it set up a secret unit to curb criticism of lockdown.

The Counter-Disinformation Unit worked with social media companies to curtail criticism of lockdown policies during the pandemic.

Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, told GB News that free speech was one of the great “tenets” of this country.

But he said it was his understanding that the unit did not monitor specific individuals.

Asked whether he said the existence of the Unit needed to be investigated, he said: “I believe in free speech.

“I don’t believe in governments or other people clamping down on the ability of individuals to speak their mind on the issues of the day.”

He added: “This unit did not take action against any individual, and there was a very clear policy that no journalist or politician should ever be monitored.”

Taken down by Facebook

The minister was then pressed by presenter Camilla Tominey about the case of David Davis, who gave a speech about the efficacy of face masks. The speech was later taken down by Facebook.

Asked whether this “over-monitoring of free speech” worried him as a Conservative, he replied: “I believe in free speech.

“I want politicians, members of the public, you as a journalist to be able to speak your mind without fear or favour.

“As I understand it, this unit within the Cabinet Office did not monitor specific individuals but on the broader point, we believe in free speech as a government. That’s one of the great tenets of this country and we should always fight for that.”

Freedom of Information and data protection requests reveal that an artificial intelligence firm was used by the Government to scour social media sites.

‘Trusted flagger’ status

The company flagged discussions including those opposing vaccine passports to the unit. Many of the issues being raised were valid and have since proved to be well founded.

The unit was embedded in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The department has “trusted flagger” status at social media companies including Facebook and Twitter – which means that requests for content to be removed are fast-tracked for consideration.

Much of the Government’s wider work on disinformation is shrouded in secrecy for “national security” reasons and large parts of official documents are still redacted.

The Government has said that the CDU “is focused on helping the Government understand online disinformation narratives and understand attempts to artificially manipulate the information environment”.

On Saturday, Elon Musk condemned the CDU after it was exposed in The Telegraph.

The billionaire Twitter owner, who purchased the company in October 2022, took to his own platform to condemn the approach as “Terrible”.

Mr Musk has previously been outspoken on so-called “Covid misinformation”, accusing the BBC earlier this year of covering up the side effects of Covid vaccinations and spreading misinformation about masks.

Andrew Dudfield, the interim chief executive at Full Fact, an independent fact checking organisation, said the taxpayer-funded unit needed to be open and transparent.

“Bad information ruins lives. We saw that first hand throughout the pandemic,” he said.

“But in an open society there are better ways to tackle it than censorship through internet companies.

“The Counter Disinformation Unit needs open transparent democratic oversight.”

Storm Newton, PA

Mon, 5 June 2023 at 12:01 am BST

The Government must do more to prevent kidney disease becoming a public health emergency amid mounting pressure on the NHS, a charity has said.

Kidney Research UK has published a new report highlighting the growing costs of kidney disease, including the expense of treatment and money lost to the economy by those who are left unable to work.

The charity estimates that kidney disease costs the UK economy £7 billion every year, £6.4 billion of which are direct costs to the NHS, and said the figure could rise to £13.9 billion in the next decade if no action is taken.

The main factor which could drive costs up is a surge in demand for dialysis, a treatment crucial for those with kidney failure.

According to Kidney Research UK, there are an estimated 7.1 million people living with chronic kidney disease in the UK. People with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obese individuals are more at risk.

The charity is calling for “significant government action” to implement healthcare interventions, which it estimates could save 10,000 lives by 2033, and said kidney disease should be a priority in long-term NHS plans.

The report claims that kidney disease received £17.7 million in Government research funding in 2021/22 and Kidney Research UK is pushing for the figure to rise to £50 million per year.

Sandra Currie, chief executive of Kidney Research UK, said: “These figures are a stark warning, kidney disease has reached the point of being a public health emergency for the UK and unless serious action is taken the NHS risks being overwhelmed with demand.

“There is no cure for kidney disease, a transplant does not last a lifetime and dialysis patients face hours of gruelling treatment every week, taking them away from loved ones and making it harder to work.

“We know the only hope for stopping the growth of kidney disease and the increasing burden to the health system, the economy and to patients is better prevention strategies, earlier diagnosis and better treatment options, and yet kidney disease isn’t even included in NHS long-term strategic plans.

“The report provides some hope and offers some solutions, but only if there is a committed and active response.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We are committed to improving services for people living with kidney disease.

“Drawing on achievements and the expertise of the kidney care community, we are working closely with the NHS to level up the quality and accessibility of kidney care so they can deliver the best possible renal care to all patients.

“We fund research for all aspects of health, including research into kidney disease, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research.”

The majority of the British public thinks Rishi Sunak is doing a bad job in delivering on his five priorities, a new poll has found.

Almost half a year after the prime minister set out his five key aims – including halving inflation, growing the economy, cutting NHS waiting lists, reducing the national debt and stopping small boat crossings – an Ipsos UK survey found more than 50% of people think the government is doing a bad job on almost all of them.

In a further blow for Downing Street, the poll found the public tended to think Mr Sunak was doing a worse job on the areas that were most important to them.

According to the poll, the public’s top priority was easing the cost of living (with 59% listing it as important), followed by ensuring people can get NHS treatment more quickly (54%) and reducing NHS waiting lists (51%).

But 60% said the government was doing a bad job on easing the cost of living, with only 18% saying it was doing a good job and 62% thought it was not delivering on reducing NHS wait times.

On growing the economy, which 39% listed as one of their priorities, 50% said the government was doing a bad job.

Stopping small boats and ensuring illegal immigrants were swiftly deported was a lower priority for the public, with 29% mentioning it, but it was a much higher priority for people who voted Conservative in 2019 than those who voted Labour.

Almost half of Tory voters listed ensuring the swift removal of illegal immigrants as an important priority – the same number as those who mentioned reducing NHS waiting lists and more than those who listed growing the economy, while only 14% of Labour voters said the same.

Only 15% said they thought reducing the national debt was important.

Public think Labour would do a better job

The public was more likely to think a Labour government would do a better job than the Tories on each of Mr Sunak’s priorities.

Between a quarter and a third of people thought Sir Keir Starmer‘s party would do a good job on halving inflation, cutting NHS waiting lists and reducing the national debt. Some 21% said Labour would do a good job on stopping small boat crossings.

But less than 20% thought the same about the government in all of those areas except growing the economy.

Some 22% thought the government was doing a good job on that priority, though this was still lower than Labour’s score of 29%.

Labour government considered better outcome at next election

The poll was carried out between 26 and 30 May and surveyed 2,200 British adults about the government’s priorities and their thoughts on the outcome of the next general election.

It found the public was more likely to prefer options that involved a Labour government than a Conservative one, with 39% saying a Labour majority would be a great outcome and 31% saying the same about a coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

Only 27% said a Tory majority would be a good outcome, with 17% backing a Conservative-Lib Dem coalition.

The only Labour option to score less than a Conservative majority was a Labour minority reliant on support from the SNP, which 22% said would be a good outcome.

Ben Quinn and Kiran Stacey

Sun, 4 June 2023 at 10:30 pm BST

Keir Starmer has described nuclear power as a “critical part” of the UK’s energy mix and pledged to get stalled projects over the line, as Labour positions itself firmly behind the technology.

Before the Labour leader presents his net zero energy policies during a speech in Scotland early next week, the party said it would “push forward” nuclear to boost energy security, cut costs for consumers and create jobs.

On Sunday Starmer accused the Conservatives of a “shambolic” failure to open any nuclear power plants during 13 years in power. On Monday he will visit Hinkley Point C in Somerset, one of a number of new plants still not operational despite having been identified in 2009 when Labour was last in power.

“My government will lower household energy bills, create jobs and ensure Britain’s energy security. Nuclear is a critical part of the UK’s energy mix,” said Starmer, who claimed Tory failure to approve the new plans had cost 7,000 British jobs.

However, another plank of the party’s energy plans came under renewed attack on Sunday from a union that is one of Labour’s biggest donors. Gary Smith, the GMB general secretary, accused the Labour party of being naive over its plans to ban North Sea oil and gas production.

Labour has pledged to block all new domestic oil and gas developments if it wins power, proposing instead to invest heavily in renewable sources such as wind and also in nuclear power.

The proposals, which Starmer is expected to set out formally on a visit to Scotland this month, will involve not only a ban on new North Sea oil and gas licences but also a pledge that any borrowing for investment should be limited to green schemes.

Smith said Labour had “got it wrong” and risked creating “a cliff-edge with oil and gas extraction from the North Sea”.

“We are critical friends of the Labour party and I think this is just a lack of intellectual rigour and thinking about where they have got to on oil and gas,” he told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday. “They are focusing on what they think is popular rather than doing the proper thinking to understand what is right for the country.”

The shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said earlier on the same programme that the existing oil and gas fields in the North Sea would run until 2050 and the party was not talking about turning those off.

Starmer’s promise to block new North Sea oil and gas exploration has received the backing of an eclectic range of high-profile groups, including environmental campaigners, trade unions and even the Women’s Institute.

The radical pledge is a key plank of Labour’s environmental platform, but has angered business and political leaders in the north-east of Scotland, where the industry is concentrated.

Starmer is being urged to stick to the plan in a letter signed by 139 organisations, including the Countryside Charity, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes.

The groups write: “We urge you to stand firm on Labour’s policy of no new oil and gas developments and its significant investment in well-planned, nature-positive renewables and energy efficiency, and to confirm more details on how Labour will support workers to transition from fossil fuels to good quality, secure green jobs during your speech in June.”

Shadow ministers confirmed last month that the party intended to ban new domestic oil and gas developments as part of its strategy to achieve zero-carbon power by 2030. Starmer will formally announce the pledge as part of a speech later this month setting out his green agenda in more detail.

The plans have drawn fire from Aberdeen-based business leaders and the Tories, with Grant Shapps claiming the policy was an “ideological vendetta against British energy independence” and warning it would put jobs at risk and boost Russia’s global power.

Shapps, the energy secretary, is due to make a decision within weeks over whether to approve drilling at the giant Rosebank oilfield off Shetland. Comments from Rishi Sunak – who has said it would be “economically illiterate” not to invest in new UK oil and gas – have been interpreted as a sign that the government is prepared to give it the green light, although there have been warnings that Labour’s green policies could make it less attractive to investors.

In an article for the Times, Ryan Crighton, the policy director of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, said: “If the alternative is importing, at a greater carbon cost, then surely the UK should always favour domestic production, where we can control the regulatory environment.”

The high-profile opposition to Labour’s plans has caused concern among environmental groups, with Labour recently having backtracked on a range of other policies, including a pledge to abolish university tuition fees. Starmer is also under pressure from some of his frontbench to change the remit of the party’s £28bn climate fund to allow it to invest in infrastructure projects that are not explicitly green in nature.

Tessa Khan, the founder of Uplift, a group that campaigns for the UK to move away from fossil fuels, and which signed the letter, said: “We were disturbed by the way in which Labour’s position to oppose development of new oil and gas field has come under attack in the last week. We wanted to make it clear that it is a core position of the climate sector and more broadly among different sectors in the UK. It’s a mainstream position and backed up by climate science.”

Flora Bowen, PA

Sun, 4 June 2023 at 6:44 pm BST

Temperatures are expected to rise later this week with the hottest day of the year so far and widespread sunshine predicted by the Met Office.

Wales and south-west England could hit 26C or even 27C on Thursday although there could be showers in the South of England towards the end of the week.

Cloudy weather is possible on the coast and and towards the east of England.

Met Office meteorologist Greg Dewhurst said: “There will be lots of dry weather, with the sunnier skies always in the West and cloudier skies always in the East.

“Going forward, temperatures are going to be similar if not a little bit higher towards the end of the week.

“This West-East split will be continuing with temperatures as well, so in western parts of the UK, temperatures will rise to around the mid 20s while the eastern side of the UK is more likely to see mid to high teens. Particularly on the coast it will remain quite chilly in the East and quite cloudy at times.”

Many people enjoyed sunshine across the UK on Sunday, with the highest temperature recorded as 25C in Porthmadog, Wales, while Castlederg, Northern Ireland, saw 24.5C, Bournemouth recorded 24.2C and Glasgow hit a high of 24.1C for Scotland.

While temperatures are expected to remain stable throughout the first half of the week, the South West may become windier towards the end of the week, with a risk of showers and breezes across the South.

However warm sunshine will remain for many, with the high pressure dominating to give mainly fine and settled weather.

The warmest and sunniest conditions are likely to be in the West with cloudy mornings across the East.

Catherine Wylie, PA

Sun, 4 June 2023 at 1:41 pm BST

The Football Association has condemned the actions of a fan at Wembley who wore a jersey referencing the Hillsborough disaster.

The Metropolitan Police Events Twitter account retweeted a picture on Saturday of a man wearing a Manchester United shirt that had the number 97 on the back and the words “Not Enough”.

Wembley was hosting the FA Cup final where Manchester City beat their rivals Manchester United.

Police said a man was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence and taken into custody.

On Sunday, the FA said in a statement: “The FA strongly condemns the actions of the individual who wore a shirt referencing the Hillsborough disaster ahead of the Emirates FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium.

“We saw a photograph of the offensive shirt on social media and immediately started working to identify the perpetrator.

“Our security team were able to quickly locate the individual based on the image, and we welcome the swift action which was then taken by the police.

“We will not tolerate abuse relating to Hillsborough or any football tragedy at Wembley Stadium and we will continue to work with the authorities to ensure strong action is taken against perpetrators.”

Sharing a tweet which featured a photo of the man wearing the jersey, the Met’s events Twitter account said on Saturday: “We are aware of this and have worked proactively with officials at @wembleystadium to identify the individual.

“He has been arrested on suspicion of a public order offence and taken into custody.”

Ninety-seven football fans died as a result of a crush at a match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield on April 15, 1989.

They were unlawfully killed amid a number of police errors, an inquest jury ruled in 2016.