Declaring my cancer on First Dates has helped others | Annie Slater

I always confuse people who meet me. This is because even when I’m feeling awful, I look perfectly healthy. So as I sat across from my date I had to tell him the truth – even with the cameras rolling.

“I am actually dying. Slowly but surely. I’m fine about it. All it does is keep things in perspective.” Barry and I were on our first date but I had to be me, and that’s totally upfront.

I had first applied for Channel 4’s First Dates in summer 2015. At the time I was focused on getting on with my life, after being treated for breast cancer. Before starting treatment I’d had my eggs frozen, as I really wanted to have children one day. But three years later and aged 36, I still hadn’t met someone. I didn’t want to try online dating and I’m terrible at flirting. So I needed help.

I’d put the cancer behind me, which is why I didn’t mention it on the application form. But by the time First Dates called, in March 2016, scans had revealed that the cancer had returned in my bones. This time it was incurable.

I went through so many emotions, but my family and friends were brilliant. They just got on with it and gave me the ability to do the same.

When I got the call from the reality dating show, I didn’t want to lie about my situation. They were nothing but supportive, so in May 2016 I made it to the restaurant in London for my date.

The diagnosis isn’t who I am – it’s just something I have to live with

Telling Barry was much harder than I ever thought. Not because of all the cameras but because I hate getting attention from the diagnosis. But it wasn’t fair for him to find out I was terminally ill when the episode eventually aired. Plus, the diagnosis isn’t who I am – it’s just something I have to live with.

I waited until halfway through the meal to tell him. Barry was lovely and totally made me at ease, and he even wanted to see me again. Although I had a terrific date though, and Barry was a fantastic guy, I just didn’t fancy him.

While First Dates didn’t lead to love, it opened up an incredible opportunity to help other people like me.

After the episode aired, a producer put me in touch with Marie Curie. When the charity asked me to be involved in a project to help raise awareness about their work – providing care to people living with terminal illnesses – I knew this was something I wanted to do. I’m now volunteering as an expert voice for Marie Curie, sharing my experience and providing advice to help the charity.

I don’t focus on how much time I have left. The thing I do worry about is being in pain at the end. Like many people with a terminal illness, I don’t want to die in hospital. I’m not sure if I want go into a hospice or be cared for at home, but I think everyone should have the choice. That’s why I’m supporting Marie Curie – so more people can receive the support they need to spend their final days where they want to.

Earlier this month, I attended the launch of the charity’s Garden of Light to celebrate the start of the Great Daffodil Appeal. Seeing the installation of 2,100 daffodils – one for each of the Marie Curie nurses across the UK – at Paternoster Square in London was really special.

The hardest thing about my diagnosis is accepting that I’m never going be a mum. I feel lucky for the life I have had but also sad that it is going to end. I don’t feel ready for that.

I’m determined to make the most of every opportunity that comes my way. From travelling to Paris and drinking loads of wine to riding on the Greenpeace boat and hearing the choir sing at St Paul’s – and maybe even finding love –I still have so much I want to do.

• Annie Slater volunteers for Marie Curie, whose Great Daffodil Appeal runs until 31 March. Funds raised will help Marie Curie nurses care for people living with a terminal illness in their own homes and the charity’s hospices. Visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/daffodil or call 0800 304 7025 to find out more.
  

The day I made a difference is the Guardian Voluntary Sector Network’s series that showcases the work of people involved with charities. If you have a story to share about a landmark moment in your life, email voluntarysectornetwork@theguardian.com.

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Declaring my cancer on First Dates has helped others | Annie Slater

What Happens to Your Body When You Eat 3-4 Dates Daily?

Dates is an extremely healthy sweet dark brown fruits originating from palm trees. They are full of dietary fiber, proteins, carbohydrates and plethora of vitamins and minerals, like vitamin B1, B2, B3, B5, A1 and C. Also they are a rich source of calcium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, copper and iron.

They provide a proper amount of nutrition, so you include in your diet. 3-4 Dates with milk early in the morning are a good start.

Health Benefits of Eating Dates Regularly

Lowers cholesterol

Date are free from cholesterol, and contain very little fat? Including them in smaller quantities in your daily diet can help you keep a check on cholesterol level, and even assist in weight loss.

Night Blindness

Consuming date daily helps in keeping the eyes healthy and also prevents diseases like night blindness. A paste of date leaves can be rubbed on and around the eyes or dates can be ingested orally to reduce night blindness.

Boosts Energy

They are rich in natural sugars like fructose, sucrose and glucose. They are perfect snack for individuals who need quick energy bursts. Many people including athletes eat dates before training or engaging themselves in activities that require high energy levels.

Promotes Digestion

If you soak a few dates in water and chew on them daily, your digestive system will behave itself very well. Plus it’s recommended for those who have trouble with constipation.

Healthy Heart

They are a rich source of dietary fiber which is essential for reducing bad cholesterol and total cholesterol levels. Dates are also a rich source of potassium which is linked to a reduction in heart disease and stroke.

Anemia

They have a high mineral content, which is beneficial for many different health conditions, but their impressive levels of iron make them a perfect dietary supplement for people suffering from anemia. The high level of iron balances out the inherent lack of iron in anemic patients, increasing energy and strength, while decreasing feelings of fatigue and sluggishness.

Dental Health

Dates contain fluorine, an important chemical element that inhibits tooth decay by removing plaque as well as strengthening the tooth enamel. Tooth enamel is made up of hydroxypatites which becomes resistant against tooth decay when it comes in contact with fluorine.

Intoxication

They are commonly used as a remedy for alcoholic intoxication. Dates provide quick relief and have a sobering effect in case you feel as though have consumed an uncomfortable amount of alcohol. They can also be used the following morning to prevent severe hangovers.

Strengthen Bones

Dates contain a high amount of calcium which strengthens and promotes healthy bone. Due to its rich calcium, it proves the best food to prevent osteoporosis. High potassium decreases the loss of calcium through the kidney.

Sexual Stamina

Date is known to increase sexual stamina. It must be soaked overnight in goat’s milk and grinded in the same milk day after. Cardamom and honey must be added to this mixture to prepare a tonic. This is very useful in increasing sexual endurance and sterility.

References:

–https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/fruit/health-benefits-of-dates.html

–http://www.healthbeckon.com/date-fruit-benefits/

–https://healthyfocus.org/12-health-benefits-of-dates/

–http://livelovefruit.com/amazing-health-benefits-of-dates/

Read More:

What Happens to Your Body When You Eat 3-4 Dates Daily?

8 Collective Information You Need to Eat Dates Each Day

Dates develop on the palm tree its belong to family of Phoenix, and scientifically named as Phoenix Dactylifera. Its extensively grown in warmer climates across the world. Dates are a wonderful snack also incredibly nutritious. Dates contain essential nutrients this kind of as calcium, amino acids, manganese, copper, magnesium, sulphur, iron, potassium and phosphorous.

Dates are a great supply of dietary fiber. It is recommends that you consume 20-35 grams of dietary fiber a day. They are also wonderful sources of vitamins A1, B1, B2, B3 and B5.

Dietary Worth Of Dates Per one hundred grams

Vitality 282 Kcal
Proteins two.five g
Fiber 8 g
Body fat .4 g
Folate 19 mu gs
Iron 1.09 mg
Vitamin K 2.7 mu g
Magnesium 43 mg
Potassium 656 mg

eight Collective Details You Need to Eat Dates Every single Day

Avert Clogged Arteries

Dates are great supply of antioxidants and phenolic acid. As a end result it offer anti-atherogenic results and stop clogged arteries. Remember it has much more positive aspects when you eat it with pomegranate juice.

Digestive Health

Higher fiber always supporting the digestive technique. Dates are a very good source of soluble and insoluble fiber.  The digestive program wants an sufficient provide of fiber to make certain foods moves through the gastrointestinal tract at a healthy fee.

Fight aging

Dates contain natural antioxidants. Antioxidant fight naturally free radicals which are largely responsible for cancer and ageing. Rich antioxidants diet programs prevents the occurrence of cancer and delay ageing.

Liver Protection

Liver is largely responsible for filtering waste material from blood. Broken liver may trigger a variety of well being issues and condition, eating dates may protecting liver from damage and minimize threat of liver fibrosis.

Diarrhoea

Dates are also a rich source of potassium, a mineral that is frequently misplaced throughout diarrhoea. Taking two-3 dates every day keep away from diarrhoea and dehydration.

Nervous method

Dates are rich in potassium and much less in sodium. This helps regulate a wholesome nervous system and keep brain energetic. Researchers show that adequate potassium consumption up to a specific extent can lessen threat of stroke.

Anti-inflammatory

As it is high supply of magnesium, due to this it possess advantageous anti-inflammatory properties that assist ease out irritation. As per research, Study shown taking ample quantity of magnesium is useful in reducing inflammation.

Cures Iron-deficiency And Anemia

Dates are excellent supply of iron, it is most effective in curing iron deficiency or anemia. It supplies appropriate volume of iron to the physique that helps in formation of hemoglobin. It additional aids in treating problem of anemia.

Reference and sources:

1) healthbenefitstimes.com

2) dasmaninstitute.org

3) orbitislam.com

Read also: Thyme Oil Kills Bacteria and Infections

8 Collective Information You Need to Eat Dates Each Day

Horsemeat scandal: probe failure by authorities dates back to 1998

A criminal investigation into hundreds of tonnes of unfit poultry meat by Rotherham council in 1998 also uncovered standard shipments of ‘ponymeat’ from China. Photograph: Ina Fassbender/Reuters

British authorities had been aware that tonnes of condemned horsemeat was getting imported for use by suspected fraudsters as prolonged ago as 1998 but failed to investigate the criminal networks concerned entirely for lack of sources, the Guardian has discovered.

Over 15 years ago, environmental wellness officers from Rotherham council investigating a conspiracy in which hundreds of tonnes of unfit poultry meat was recycled in to the human meals chain, found that regular shipments of about 20 tonnes every of frozen “ponymeat” from China had been arriving at Uk ports for months.

The horsemeat consignments had been condemned for the human food chain by the Chinese authorities but could have been used legally to make petfood, in accordance to a supply concerned with enforcement. However a paper trail showed the horsemeat going in to cold stores licenced for the human foods chain rather than for petfood and then disappearing in a separate suspected fraud, the source explained.

A spokesperson for Rotherham council confirmed that at the time it had investigated “important concerns relating to a broad variety of food stuffs, such as poultry, ‘ponymeat’, red meats, fish and frozen vegetables”. Convictions had been secured more than the poultry, but no 1 was charged in the other suspected circumstances.

The chain of brokers and cold retailers by means of which the horsemeat was passing overlapped with a criminal chain in which condemned poultry meat that was green with slime and covered with faeces was getting cleaned up with chemical substances, repacked and relabelled with faked official wellness marks and then moved in to the human food chain, the supply stated. The fraudulently mislabelled chicken and turkey was sold across the Uk to meals companies, schools and retailers which includes the low cost supermarkets Netto and Kwik Save.

FSA and police investigations into the 2013 horsemeat scandal have uncovered a comparable pattern, in which imported horsemeat passing by way of a technique of brokers and cold stores appears to have been repacked and relabelled with faked official overall health marks as beef, the Guardian has been informed, despite the fact that they have not proved in which specifically the fraud of mislabelling took location.

In the preceding Rotherham situation, 3 guys had been located guilty of promoting unfit poultry for human consumption at Hull crown court in December 2000.

According to an enforcement source, at the time officers warned the central authorities, including the Meals Requirements Company when it was newly formed in mid-2000, that the fraud was the tip of an iceberg of meat-connected crime they could see reaching in to a lot of other places across the nation. An additional case in Derbyshire in 2000 found unfit poultry becoming bleached and recycled to over one,000 foods manufacturers, wholesalers and merchants all round the Uk.

A series of meetings are explained to have been held at the FSA with local authority officers at which the ponymeat and poultry frauds were talked about. But the significance of the horsemeat was not understood.

Enforcement of meat regulation largely falls to neighborhood authorities and Rotherham council’s price range was getting severely strained by what had turn out to be a key criminal investigation costing it over £500,000.

A spokesperson for Rotherham council explained that in the 1998 investigation it was determined that the excess weight of evidence produced a prosecution far more probably to be profitable in the situation of the recycled poultry meat rather than the other suspected frauds like horsemeat. “The authority co-operated totally with the other companies involved in the prosecution,” she mentioned. The council no longer has total records for the period even so.

A spokesman for the FSA explained the company no longer had any information of meetings held by the appropriate enforcement officials for that time period either and so could not comment both to confirm or deny whether or not the horsemeat dilemma had been mentioned with it.

The information about the case from 1998 comes a year following the beginning of the horsemeat scandal when the Meals Safety Authority of Ireland first exposed the outcomes of a examine that identified undeclared horse in beefburgers from Tesco, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl. So far only one particular British horse abattoir has been charged with technical breaches of the food laws but there have been no prosecutions for fraud relating to the scandal in either the Uk or Ireland.

Measuring the scale of foods crime in the Uk has now been made a key priority for the group tasked by the Division for Atmosphere, Meals and Rural Affairs to overview the horsemeat scandal. Professor Chris Elliott from Queen’s University in Belfast’s Institute for Global Meals Safety, who is leading the overview, informed the Guardian that meals crime had grow to be “endemic” in the Uk. He believes that hazards are now so great that he has suggested that a new specialised police force be set up to tackle it.

His interim report last month described a case of big-scale meat fraud in 2005 which was another “missed chance”. Shipments of suspicious poultry meat from Asia led to raids on a cold retailer in Northern Ireland where a large provide of forged wellness marks purporting to come from a selection of meat plants across the EU have been located that have been the tools of a repacking and relabelling scam in which petfood was recycled as fit for human consumption. But at the time there was no capacity for the key criminal investigation justified by this kind of leads into food crime networks.

Elliott mentioned criminals concerned in meals crime had been nonetheless probably to go undetected, and even if detected unlikely to be efficiently prosecuted: “Horsegate was not a 1-off fraud is endemic in food and is probably to get worse since of the complexity of chains and the economic climate. The concentrate of regulators and industry has been security, and fraud has not been given the priority is need to have been.” He called for urgent modify to policy over meals crime, adding that “the complexity of the criminal network concerned in the horsemeat fraud will make it incredibly unlikely that these who perpetrated the crime will be effectively prosecuted”.

Horsemeat scandal: probe failure by authorities dates back to 1998