VACCINE AND NOT HEARD Paul Foot, Private Eye 19 Feb, 1999

THOUGH hearings at the Phillips public inquiry into BSE have broken up for a few weeks, its officials are drawing up what may turn out to be their most controversial document. It is a draft factual account of government policy on vaccines prepared for injection into masses of people, almost all of which contain some material derived from beef.

The first hint that anyone in officialdom was worried about the impact of BSE on these vaccines came at a meeting of senior officials at the department of health on 17 March 1988.

The feeling of the meeting was summed up by ministry of agriculture under secretary Alistair Cruikshank, as follows: "there is probably no risk in drinking milk or eating flesh from animals affected by BSE, but that the position was much less clear in relation to brains, spleens and other organs. This raised questions about the safety of human vaccines prepared using bovine material."

The chief medical officer Sir Donald Acheson said he suspected there was no risk, but this could take "30 to 40 years to prove". In the meantime, he warned, "ministers would be very exposed, if, as seems inevitable, the press began to devote attention to the subject".

The press showed no interest. But others were worried. A memo from Dr Hilary Pickles at the department of health on 21 June 1988 revealed: "I understand the pharmaceutical industry are also concerned: they had been using bovine not sheep products in various processes because scrapie is endemic in British sheep... the highest risk would be from parenterals [for injection] prepared from brain [eg rabies vaccine]."

The BSE scare led to the appointment of an expert committee of inquiry under Oxford zoology professor Sir Richard Southwood. On 30 August 1988 Sir Richard wrote to Acheson: "The only outstanding practical matter that we need to address at the present time is the use of serum in pharmacological work. I heard... that Wellcome are now only using serum from New Zealand."

Wellcome's initiative in getting its vaccine beef products from herds in New Zealand, which had not been fed on animal products as in Britain, was not yet insisted on by the government. Three times in 1988, Sir Richard Southwood wrote to the relevant statutory body, the Committee on Safety of Medicines, which is made up of top medical experts, many of whom are linked to the drug companies, asking for more urgent action on vaccines.

On 16 December 1988 a meeting of the Southwood committee considered that the response from the safety of medicines committee "was somewhat complacent, particularly in relation to the problem of existing medicinal products". On 26 January 1989, the Committee on Safety of Medicines wrote to Southwood that guidelines for the industry had been agreed. In future, bovine serum should only be taken from "appropriately certified herds".

The committee's letter went on: "Many vaccines are stored for up to five years before being released and this will therefore have to be considered."

The Southwood committee report was published the following month, February 1989. "The greatest risk in theory" it warned, "would be from parenteral injection of material derived from bovine brain or lymphoid tissue. Medicinal products for injection which are prepared from bovine tissues... might also be capable of transmitting infectious agents."

Prompted by the report, the Committee on Safety of Medicines sent 4,000 letters to drug companies asking for information about bovine products. Not all the information from these letters was passed on to the authorities. Sir Donald Acheson, chief medical officer, told the recent Phillips inquiry: "We were told that a number of things that we wanted to discuss were confidential in the commercial sense... and that they could not discuss them with us... They put up with me, but every now and again they would say 'Sorry we cannot share that with you'."

Nor was the information always accurate. A memo from the committee in September 1988 revealed: "The computer list show's 33 product licences extant for preparations of bovine origin." The memo categorically asserted:

"There are no licensed products derived from bovine brain." At the recent inquiry, Sir Donald was asked:

Q: Would you have been concerned if there were licensed products from

bovine brain?

A: Surely

Q: I want you to look at an extract from the MCA questionnaire summary.. One of the items is under a company number - we have 01234, because it is not right that the company should be identified here.

Company name, a large company. The product name is drug X. Animal specification is bovine and the animal ingredients include calf brain.

Do you see that?

A: I do.

Q: If you had known about that at the time, would that have caused you concern?

A: It certainly would, unquestionably, which I did not.

After some delay the Committee on Safety of Medicines guidelines ensured that the drug companies got their bovine materials from "healthy herds" in Australia and New Zealand. But what happened to all those vaccines with bovine material from unhealthy British herds, which were stored up sometimes five years in advance? On 31 October 1990, the committee's BSE working group minutes recorded: VACCINE STOCKS. Dr David Taylor declared a non-specific non personal interest in (company name deleted) and took part in the discussion. Dr Richard Kimberlin declared a specific personal interest and did not participate in the discussion but remained at the meeting.

"The working group considered that the secretariat should explore with the company the possibility that the unabsorbed vaccines which had limited usage should be replaced with batches using bovine materials which complied with the guidelines, especially where the stock-out date extended beyond 1991. There may be some commercial loss to the licence holder but it is unlikely to be very large." A list of the relevant vaccines was attached.

What happened then? What happened to the stored vaccines which, if injected into people, might carry the danger of infection? No one seems to know. The former Tory ministers who gave evidence to the Phillips inquiry didn't know. Asked about vaccines, they responded as follows: William Waldegrave: "I do not remember that as an issue."

John Macgregor: "I cannot remember, frankly.." Tony Newton: "I do not think I am in a position to help you." Edwina Currie: "I have not refreshed my memory.. Had the experts said: 'We feel the vaccines being built up are not entirely free of risk, we are therefore going to recommend that they be destroyed and that replacement stocks are acquired, and that this may delay the onset of the (immunisation) campaign for two weeks', we would have said: 'fine'." Kenneth Clarke, who was secretary of state for health from 1988 to 1990: "What one clearly got from all this was that they were advising us that we should continue with vaccine components and so on and the risk was so remote that [it] would not justify stopping it. I still believe that advice to have been correct."

The Eye asked the BSE inquiry, which has heard 300 witnesses, what information has come to light which reveals what happened to the stocks of vaccines with bovine serum from British cows manufactured before the BSE scare broke. A spokeswoman replied: "We have no information which can answer any of those questions."

The Eye put the same questions to the department of health. "We outsourced the supplies of bovine material for vaccines away from Britain very early," said a spokeswoman. In reply to the question "when were the old stocks replaced?", the department sent a 16 page calendar of events, which reveals:

• As late as July 1992: "The Group's previous concern about vaccine stocks in relation to a specific company [unnamed] were resolved by the company concerned producing a new batch with New Zealand foetal calf serum of assured quality."

• Not until November 1996: "All currently licensed vaccines complied with the guidelines and did not contain any UK-sourced bovine material." Neither item, nor any other in the 16 pages, answered the question. Vaccine to be done? (Private Eye, Aug 1999)

The sensitive and unresolved issue of the possible contamination of vaccines by bovine products affected by BSE (see Eye 970) came up again at the Phillips inquiry into BSE on July 21.

Four of the country’s top scientists, the members of the Southwood inquiry into BSE in the late l980s, gave evidence. They were Sir Richard Southwood, Professor of Zoology and Pro Vice Chancellor at Oxford University; Lord Walton, a world-famous clinical neurogist and former president of the General Medical Council; Sir Anthony Epstein, a former head of the department of pathology at Bristol and Dr A.W. Martin, a distinguished vet who had just retired as director of the Moredun research institute in Edinburgh. All four were given a torrid time by the counsel to the inquiry, Paul Walker, on the subject of the vaccines.

He wanted to know whether the Southwood committee report had given a "misleading picture" of the dangers to humans from widely-used vaccines, almost all of which contained bovine material, much of it from cattle infected by BSE. The committee had described such dangers as ‘remote" — exactly the same adjective they had used to describe the dangers of people catching BSE or associated diseases from eating BSE-infected meat. Close questioning of the scientists revealed that all four of them had regarded the dangers of human contamination by BSE-infected vaccines as, er, anything but remote.

Mr Walker asked Sir Richard Southwood: "In your view, at the time, the degree of hazard from medicinal products was greater than the degree of hazard that applied in the case of oral ingestion?"

Sir Richard replied: "Yes". Later, he told the inquiry: "We really thought the medical problem was severe... We were very conscious, all the way through, of the worry about the vaccination programme. And these were very real deaths. One hundred and seventy deaths had been estimated by the Chief Medical Officer."

If vaccination with BSE-infected vaccines was much more dangerous than eating BSE-infected meat, why did the Southwood committee describe the risk from both with the same reassuring adjective — "remote"? All four scientists were asked this question and all four wriggled with their replies. Sir Anthony Epstein explained: "The seemingly reassuring — I do not accept that it was — use of the word ‘remote’ was done on purpose because the consequences for the vaccination programme, for the use of medicines, would have been really quite disastrous if the public at large had been alarmed by this... it could have had very serious consequences for public health."

So the committee watered down their published warnings about vaccines.

But all four scientists went on to argue with some passion that although their report had appeared to be mild on the subject, they had made every conceivable effort to alert the Department of Health and its relevant agencies to the dangers of BSE in vaccines. All four said they were satisfied that their anxious if private warnings about vaccines would lead to "appropriate action" from the Department of Health.

So what action was taken? The Department issued a statement which emphasised the dangers to the vaccination programme from any public panic about BSE and blandly reiterated the view of the Southwood Committee that the risk of infection from medicinal products was "remote".

Fastening on that magic word "remote", the ministry gave the vaccines the all-clear. There was no need, officials concluded, for pharmaceutical companies to take any steps whatever to insure against the possibility of contaminated vaccines. So the Department of Health and its Committee on Safety of Medicines coolly junked the Southwood committee’s anxious, if unpublished, warnings about the dangers of BSE-infected vaccines.

To this day, no one knows what action was taken to dispose of the five years of stocks of vaccines which had been piled up to initiate the vaccination programme. No one knows whether any of those vaccines compiled before the BSE ban were used on unsuspecting patients, or whether any of the deaths from CJD - a killer disease associated with BSE - can be ascribed to such vaccinations.

Risk of BSE in vaccines revealed

Jonathon Carr-Brown

Political Reporter

Thursday 2^nd September 2010

Today would have been my Andrews birthday ….the third one without him...

Every minute of the day I am haunted by his terrible last months and death….every minute of the day I am haunted by the heartbreak that his death and suffering was so avoidable…..

Every minute of the day I wonder what Andrew would be doing now, how he would have looked and most importantly how he would be embracing and living his life….

My son grabbed life and its opportunities with both hands….full of energy, humour and life….its hard to believe that life force, that energy ….. my beautiful boy Andrew will never walk in this life again….will never call out ‘mum’ as he walks through the front door, will never ring me up to tell me about his day ….and he will never feel the sun or rain on his face again….

The tens of thousands of minutes the decades of life that have been unlawfully stolen from him….the sunsets, sunrises, holidays, birthdays, achievements, disappointments, tears, laughter. All those minutes, weeks, months, years have been annihilated from the future he should have had…..........his footprints will never appear in the sand again…..

Today I also think back to that day 2^nd September 1983...when my violet eyed Andrew

was placed in my arms for the first time. 71b 10ozs a strong and very healthy baby…..

How Andrew stared so seriously at me and the world around him…how he moved his head and looked around curiously at the world…….

How my heart burst with pride knowing that I would protect my baby son with my life …and all the wonderful hopes and dreams I had for his future……

Those precious moments of brand new life when I held my new born healthy son in my arms.….with the potential for so much…..remain with me today edged with a terrible sadness of how too short my Andrews life was…...

A future wrecked and stolen….a life taken far too soon…...when my Andrew was diagnoised with vCJD….all the lights in my world went out……..

THE DOOR WAS OPEN AND THE HOUSE 
WAS DARK

WHEREFORE I CALLED HIS NAME,
ALTHOUGH I KNEW

THE ANSWER THIS TIME WOULD BE
SILENCE

THAT KEPT ME STANDING LISTENING
WHILE IT GREW

BACKWARDS AND DOWN AND OUT INTO
THE STREET
WHERE AS I’D ENTERED (I REMEMBER
NOW)
The streetlights too were out………

By Seamus Heaney

Monday 30th August 2010

"According to the World Health Organisation, the future public health threat of vCJD in the UK and Europe and potentially the rest of the world is of concern and currently unquantifiable. However, the possibility of a significant and geographically diverse vCJD epidemic occurring over the next few decades cannot be dismissed.

Below are two letters one I sent to GlaxoSmthKline regarding my Andrews vaccines and their reply.

Patrique Offei Medical Information Officer for Glaxo during our first conversation assured me ‘ GlaxoSmithKline have archives going back to the 1980s, it may take about 2 weeks but I will research this and get back to you’

During our second conversation he told me ‘The batch numbers you provided for Andrews BCG and Meningitis C vaccine does not correspond with any of our vaccines’ he continued ‘I tried to find out more information for you and contacted the Department of Health to see if they could help me further and was surprised they don’t seem to have any records before 1992’.

I asked Patrique for his contacts within the Department of Health but he declined.

Patricque advised me go back to my GPs surgery for more information; I had previously obtained Andrews medical records and was advised to contact the vaccine manufacturer direct. Andrews vaccine records were incomplete and his pre school records from the age of four are missing, I have no information about the inoculations he received whilst at school, including boosters. .

Several other parents of vCJD victims have also obtained their sons or daughter medical records and their vaccine records are also incomplete.

I am pursuing this line of investigation as I know that the vaccines that my Andrew received during the 1980s and 1990s were sourced from cattle which were probably BSE infected. I also know for decades that not only has bovine material been used in the processing of vaccines but also human albumen from blood donors.

The drug corporations that continue to manufacture these vaccines have changed their names several times, merged and emerged under different names and companies…and continue to be worth billions globally for their shareholders.

I am not only a journalist but also a mother who needs to know what went into her son’s vaccines …..And whether this could be the source of Andrews’s infection? The CJD Surveillance unit ask every victims family to complete an ‘at risk questionnaire’ and within this document are many questions about vaccines, so these are seen as a ‘risk’ for developing vCJD.

I would have liked GlaxoSmithKline to have provided me with at least the information I had asked about the manufacture process and ingredients of their all vaccines, they have produced during those crucial years when my Andrew was a baby and growing child.

Millions of babies and children wree vaccinated during BSE …and I am sure their families and parents would like to know the truth too….

I will be writing to all the drug companies that manufactured vaccines during my Andrews too short life in an effort to provide information not only for myself but for you the public…….too much connected with vCJD victims have been kept behind closed doors….and I will continue to reveal whilst the establishment continues to conceal…

19^th July 2010

Dear Sir Madam,

I would like to know the whole ingredients, processing and source of the below vaccines and whether they were involved in any material sourced from bovine material or from human blood products/albumin. The vaccines below were given to my son.

The vaccines are BCG 29^th given on July 1997 Batch number E6135419a.

Meningitis C vaccine given on 21^st Feb 2000 batch 43621 expiration date 06

Can you also let me know if any bovine material/ human blood products as well as human albumin were used in the processing and manufacture of vaccines?

Polio 15^th December 1983, 9^th February 1984 and 2^nd August 1984

Diphtheria 15^th December 1983 9^th February 1984 and August 2^nd 1984

I understand both the polio and meningitis vaccines were taken out of circulation because of fears over contamination with vCJD, and that the BCG was also taken out of circulation.

I would appreciate full and comprehensive details on the above.

Details on the above request.

Yours faithfully,

Christine Lord

Wednesday 25th August 2010

Every day more people in the UK and globally are receiving confirmation that they

are ‘AT RISK OF DEVELOPING CJD’, due to medical procedures/medicines, exposure to BSE. .

A letter arrives with the morning post and their whole world has irrevocably changed

These ‘living victims’… have to adjust their family life, work, studies, and lifestyle

to accommodate the fact they now are a public health hazard with an ‘at risk status’. They also have to somehow live a normal life and not be worried that every ‘headache/pain or illness’ is the beginning of CJD.

This takes supreme effort and a high level of strength……and I admire every single individual that I have met and who has contacted me with their story and experiences.

Each and everyone is a heartbreaking story of lives that have been up ended and changed through no fault of their own.

EACH AND EVERY STORY IS DAMNING EVIDENCE AGAINST THOSE RESPONSBILE

.Thousands of individuals across the world are now ‘living victims’ of vCJD’ some have been informed but many more remain totally unaware that they are at risk of VCJD.

Those who have been informed of their ‘at risk’ status have to try and live a normal life, many of them just youngsters in their teens or early twenties. These are the victims that never make the official government statistics, these men and women try to live privately and peacefully in normality…but for them their lives will never be the same…..

I have been informed that recently more UK citizens have been informed that medical procedures they received has now put them at risk of developing the horrific brain wasting disease…… These terrifying scenarios are happening more frequently…as the ticking health time bomb that is vcjd continues to create more ‘living victims’…whose lives and livelihoods will never be the same again……These individuals are not in the media or public eye, because many want privacy and also are concerned about public reaction. They also quire rightly need to try and live as normal a life as possible.

Despite this growing list of innocent victims and thousands of people affected by vCJD…..

Once again David Cameron has refused to meet with myself and others affected to discuss this significant and ongoing public health issue. Cameron and his cabinet continue to politely brush aside my evidence and challenges and in doing so are putting the UK public health at continual risk.

I have been refused a meeting by David Cameron ( 3 times) and also Anne Milton and Andrew Lansley Health Secretary. Their replies never answer my challenges and contain the usual sound bites citing ‘The Phillips Inquiry’ and giving me links to various websites of which I am acutely aware.

VCJD has never gone away and continues to kill and maim on a regular basis. Numbers of cases have not fallen as greater numbers of people become ‘at risk’of developing the disease through medicinal exposure.

Having nursed my only son through the horrors of vcjd, met and interviewed many other victims and their families there is little that a government website which is manipulated to reflect government policy can tell me…..

The Phillips Inquiry ( chair Lord Phillips was promoted twice during his tenure)

Report is now a decade old, was incomplete, witnesses including all civil servants and officials were schooled and rehearsed and important evidence was deliberately withheld. How can that be a true Inquiry? No wonder those responsible for BSE escaped any further investigation when the Inquiry was so hampered by cover up and half truths.

Every Minister and Official from Gummer, Clarke, Hogg, Meldrum, Thatcher involved in the lies and corruption surrounding BSE quote the ‘Phillips Inquiry’ as their

‘GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD’…..it would appear that these culpable ministers/officials believe that they are ‘ABOVE THE LAW’……..as they believe the ‘Phillips Inquiry’ exonerates their role in the unlawful killings and maiming of so many innocent people.

Clarke, Gummer and all those named and shamed on this website used the Phillips Inquiry as a tool to conceal their wrongdoings….and ever since have used its report to escape justice and investigation.

I like to remind Clarke, Gummer, Meldurm, Thatcher and their cronies that an Inquiry is not a court and therefore cannot exonerate or dismiss any culpability or wrongdoing……. and that their deliberate actions before, during and since BSE, continued concealment, lies and corruptions remain criminal acts which will be investigated in a court of law in the future…. It’s a fact that deliberate ongoing concealment and destruction of significant evidence remain a criminal act…

Gummer, Clarkes and Meldrums ongoing corruption continues to wreck lives and steal futures….

With blood donations being withdrawn on a regular basis in the USA and globally due to ‘risk of vcjd’ Gummer and Clarke have caused a worldwide scandal and continued health threat for which they must also be accountable……

How much longer can the UK government bury its head in the sand and make out that vcjd is not an ongoing and significant threat to every family in the UK?

How much longer will Cameron continue to support and condone Kenneth Clarke and those culpable?

Why is Cameron being so loyal to the ‘old guard’ Tories such as Clarke….a man who in his sixties is well past his prime?

Where is the government transparency and openness promised by Cameron?

With this blog are photos of three young men in the latter stages of vCJD who died recently………. Billy 21, Edward 25, Dean 25…..where is the justice in this?

Tuesday 17th August 2010

Throughout my investigations into the BSE scandal and its lethal human pathogen vCJD, I have come across many clusters of cases of vCJD and sCJD in the same location. This cannot be a coincidence because too many common factors overlap and connect these victims.  These common links point at a specific source of infection to which these victims were exposed. Hot spots across the UK and abroad where toxic BSE material was focused and ingested in a particular area by a group of people. These victims may well have been infected at the same time  and maybe even on the same day. 

Many of these clusters of victims share not only a common location but often the same school, housing, environment,lifestyle or medical care. These finding are significant but every Government agency involved in the investigations of these multiple vCJD deaths has apparently drawn a blank declaring them mostly a fluke or of  little relevance. The same departments who were involved in the enablement and creation of BSE in the first place, conduct these or oversee these investigations.  Lack of transparency and independence have continued to hamper the truth and all UK government investigations into the BSE scandal and vCJD deaths. All research into vCJD is jealousy guarded by a select few who are manipulated or part of whitehalls agenda. Indpendant and outside scientific help or support is kept to a minimal and everything relevant to public health is kept 'in house'  and secret.  

Nevertheless a lot of information, data and facts about these clusters have been gathered by scientists and researchers funded by the government which remains behind closed doors. Specific information and facts have also been distorted or withheld from the public domain.

Victims Stephen Churchill and John Longley attended the same school together, Sarah Roberts and Matthew Middleton lived just a few doors from each other in the same street and went to the same schools. Richard Roberts, Richard Cole and Marianne Harvey lived in the same area attended  the same schools. My Andrew, Kate Richer and Ben Dale were all at school the same time and fed school meals by the same local authority, they were also part of the schools vaccination programmes. Andrew, Ben and Kate all lived and had connections with Gosport/Southsea. There are just too many common connections between these victims and other clusters, which point at them being infected from a specific source at roughly the same time. In all of the above areas there have also been numerous cases of sCJD,­ many of which I believe have connections with BSE infection. Before BSE cases of sporadic cjd ( naturally occuring form of the disease) was ' one victim in a million'....in the UK in 2010 its now '1 in 33,000' Professor John Collinge December 2009.

In Queniborough at least 5 people died within weeks of each other from vCJD they would have had similar lifestyles and yet the source of their infection was never clearly established. A local butcher who had gone out of business was blamed, even though some of the victims never bought or ate meat from his shop. All victims lived within four miles of each other. Several cases of sCJD were also noted in the area at the same time.

There have been clusters in Glasgow, London, Walton on Thames, Southsea, Eastleigh, Doncaster, Wales, Ireland, Stockport, Kent, Norfolk many have been in less populated locations in which tracebility would have been easier.

Below is an article from the Irish newspaper The Independent, January 11th 2006, reporting on a cluster of vCJD cases in Co Dublin.

Note the comments from the Coroner and the local Garda both of whom tried to investigate further but came up against a brick wall of silence. Note the term used by the Health Service Executive who had been unable to provide information about abattoirs and slaughterhouses because of 'legal reasons'. What about the legal and human rights of the innocent victims who have been killed unlawfully by vcjd­? Note also the involvement of Defra ­whose covert actions quickly shut down any attempt of outside investigation.

Once again the corruption and lies that permate Whitehall and those that created and enabled BSE stretches its tentacles far and wide to keep the lid on the can of worms.. ..to keep hidden the truth behind the deaths of so many innocent people­..the truth and facts that would criminally indict Gummer, Clarke and their cronies.­

Double death uncovers a link to CJD 'cluster'

THE only three Irish victims of the human strain of the deadly CJD disease lived or had family within five miles of each other.

The astonishing revelation of a possible vCJD cluster emerged yesterday at an inquest into the death of 24-year-old Jason Moran from Shankill, Co Dublin.

He died last June from variant CJD (vCJD) - the human form of mad cow disease.

Dublin County Coroner Kieran Geraghty made the link as medical evidence was heard during the inquest.

He called for a State investigation into his discovery.

The court heard Mr Moran, a clerk for Dunnes Stores, had contracted the fatal disease by eating a BSE-infected meat product.

His father, Robert Moran, said his son ate the same meals as the rest of the family, including meat he purchased from one of two local supermarkets - Dunnes at Cornelscourt and Tesco Ballybrack, previously run by Crazyprices.

Witness Dr Michael Farrell, who performed the autopsy on Jason Moran's body, was joint head of the national CJD surveillance unit at Beaumont Hospital.

But he was unware until informed by the coroner that the only other person killed in Ireland by variant CJD in the last ten years - Offaly mother Kay Turner (33) - had close family living a short distance from Mr Moran in Ballybrack.

The coroner also referred to a third person currently fighting the same disease - a young man in his early twenties, understood to be from Bray, Co Wicklow.

"Would you feel that in this situation, when you have identified three cases with geographical links, that probably they should be investigated further?" the coroner asked.

Dr Farrell replied it "would be very reasonable under the circumstances".

He said evidence on Mr Moran's tonsils and spleen indicated he had contracted the disease orally.

He believed the incubation period was up to 15 years, and not fewer than four years in this case.

Garda Rhona Barker, of Blackrock Garda station, said preliminary investigations into the source of local meat had hit a brick wall despite approaching the two local supermarkets.

She added the Health Service Executive had been unable to provide information about local meat supplies or slaughterhouses "for legal reasons". Recording a verdict of accidental death for Mr Moran, the coroner said he believed the links between all three deaths should be explored. "I also intend to write to the Department of Agriculture and Health, to point out the possible connection of the geographical area," he said. "This is a very tragic case, and I would like to extend my sympathies to his family."

Following the inquest, Mr Moran's relatives said they feared Jason had contracted the disease by eating contaminated meat, either imported from Britain or from Irish farms with BSE.

They said they wanted to know how this had happened and who was responsible for the lapse in food safety. "Laws were in place but weren't policed properly," his mother Imelda told the Irish Independent.

"We want someone to be forced to admit they were in the wrong."

His brother Anthony (27) added: "Nothing will bring my brother back. No amount of compensation can stop me from crying every night.

Thursday 12th August 2010

World experts and scientists in the USA studied a range of victims of vCJD  and have been able to  pinpoint a rough table of incubation times for individual victims.

Thursday 29th July 2010

Two young men from Eastleigh Southampton died within weeks of each other of vCJD, they had received polio vaccines from the same batch and were inoculated roughly the same time and location. In a statement to a concerned public SEAC member Ray Bradley ( see profile) categorically denied that there was any connection between these young men¡¯s untimely deaths from vCJD and the vaccines. Ray Bradley was head of the CVL Central Veterinary Laboratory (1984) he was one of the government officials who kept the discovery of BSE a ¡®secret¡¯ and evidence ¡®confidential.¡¯ Despite his team of researchers discovering a terrifying and NEW lethal pathogen, which Bradley and Whitehall understood would have devastating effects on animals and humans Bradley and the Government decided to keep this knowledge ¡®low key¡¯ and secret from the UK public.

This allowed BSE infected cattle to continue into the human food and medicine chain. When these life and death decisions were being made my Andrew was just 18 months old. Bradley and Whitehall were aware that bovine material from BSE herds was being used in the manufacture of childhood vaccines, and that human albumin was also used from blood donors to make these inoculations.

Some polio vaccines were eventually withdrawn but not until October 2000 (see press article below) amid fears of BSE contamination. Millions of infants had already been given oral and injectable vaccines which had been sourced from infected BSE cattle, including my Andrew and every young victim who has died of vCJD. (See a list of some of the implicated vaccines, what¡¯s to blame?)

In a recorded interview between myself and Professor Bob Will CJD Surveillance Unit I asked him ¡®Can you categorically assure me that those young lads who died of vCJD who lived near Southampton just 20 miles from our home in Southsea, did not become infected via polio vaccines they received from the same batch.

He replied ¡®No of course I cannot¡¯¡­yet the reassuring statements presented to the media and the UK public from SEAC and Ray Bradley was for parents not to be concerned and there was absolutely no risk or link between vCJD and vaccines.

I also received an email from Bob Will telling me ¡®Under no circumstances are you allowed to discuss, share, publish or reveal our conversations or discussions with a third party without my express permission.¡¯ As I asked medical questions of a world expert in prion disease I will publish these discussions/replies in the knowledge that the public need to know. Professor Bob Will answered those questions with the knowledge and facts he has as a leading scientist in the field of vCJD, whose salary and unit is also funded by the Department of Health and the UK Government.

Too many secrets and lack of transparency surround BSE/vCJD and those cover-ups/half truths and lies killed my son. Why is there such a need to keep relevant and significant facts and information hidden from the public if there is nothing to hide?

My Andrew had polio vaccines in the 1980s/1990s and in 1997 he had his BCG vaccination and in 2000 Meningitis injection. The BCG vaccination programme has been withdrawn, suspected polio vaccines were withdrawn amid fears of vCJD and also there has been fears around vCJD and meningitis inoculations. My Andrew had all his infant vaccines apart from whooping cough and MMR he also refused to have his leaving boosters aged 16. I publish these facts because I wish to be as transparent and open as possible about my Andrew and the risk factors which he was exposed to regarding him developing vCJD.

My Andrew was found to have high levels of mercury in his blood when he became ill with vCJD, Andrew had perfect teeth never had any dentistry/fillings or was knowingly exposed to this deadly chemical. I understand that mercury is used as a stabliser in the production of some vaccines. I have written to the major drug company who produced the vaccines that my son was exposed to; with the very limited information I have of Andrews vaccine record asking for a breakdown of ingredients used, source material and expressing my concerns regarding bse/vcjd contamination. I will publish my letter and their reply in due course.

Many innocent people have died of cjd due to growth hormone treatments which were developed using pituitary glands from cadavers infected with cjd. At the same laboratories where these lethal injectibles were developed, scientists were also researching the deadly BSE. There is also an overlap with some of these researchers working within the development and processing of human vaccines. Did some cross contamination take place within these labs?

Is this why so many victims of vCJD have grown during their terminal days?

I will continue to present the facts via this website/media until the entire truth is revealed about BSE/vCJD and those responsible are made accountable¡­.

UK families need to have an informed choice so that they can make appropriate decisions about their children¡¯s health and wellbeing. I didn¡¯t have that informed choice, as John Gummer, Ray Bradley, Kenneth Clarke and those shamed on this website deliberately manipulated and corrupted the truth about BSE/vCJD and continue to do so by using the establishment and their connections to block my investigations.

By Cherry Norton, Social Affairs Editor

Saturday, 21 October 2000

A polio vaccine that has been given to millions of children and adults was withdrawn by the Government yesterday amid fears it could be contaminated by mad cow disease.

A polio vaccine that has been given to millions of children and adults was withdrawn by the Government yesterday amid fears it could be contaminated by mad cow disease.

The Medical Control Agency ordered GPs to return all unused doses after the finding that it had been produced using fetal calf serum from the UK.

Guidelines in 1989 banned the use of bovine material in medicinal products, but despite repeat assurances from Medeva, the maker, the Department of Health found it was in breach of the guidelines.

The company, which has made one-third of polio vaccines used in Britain since the early 1980s, stopped producing the vaccine last month.

Dr Peter Fellner, chief executive of Celltech, which bought Medeva from Wellcome and owned it from January to October this year, said records relating to the batch of vaccines in question did not "fully clarify" its BSE-free status. "We had assurances from Wellcome that there were no issues over the vaccine and passed on these assurances to the Department of Health. What Wellcome told us was found not to be accurate," he said.

Professor Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, said the risk of anyone being infected with vCJD, the human form of BSE, was "incalculably small". The recall comes as it was announced that a report into Britain's BSE crisis will be published next week after a 30-month inquiry.

Medical experts urged parents to continue getting their children immunised, warning that any fall in vaccination levels could result in polio returning to this country for the first time in decades. Worried parents and patients have been advised to see their GPs or contact NHS Direct.

Despite the obvious breach of the guidelines, which were updated in 1999, no action can be taken against any company as the guidance does not become legally binding until next year when it will be covered by an European Union directive.

Andrew Kemp, chief executive of the British Polio Fellowship, which supports victims, said: "What we would hope is that this does not deter anyone from being vaccinated. The vaccine has been extremely successful in combating polio."

Liam Fox, the shadow Health Secretary, said: "The immunisation programme is one of the most important parts of public health policy... It is therefore essential that all information is fully disclosed by the Government to help retain the confidence of an understandably sceptical public."

Monday 26th July 2010

Several victims of vCJD including my son Andrew grew in height during their final days. Grant Goodwin aged 30 grew 2 inches in 6 weeks, and my Andrew grew over four inches in height. Andrews GP during visits commented ¡®how tall¡¯ he was!? My Andrew throughout his limited life always tried to look taller because he was on the short side. Every expert I have challenged about this has told me ¡®There is no medical explanation for this growth spurt; individuals with Vcjd should not be growing in height.¡¯

I have posed the question to many of the worlds leading experts in prion disease ¡®Why have victims of vCJD who apparently have never been exposed to growth hormone treatment grown during the terminal stages of the disease?

Professor Collinge University College London said, ¡® People with Vcjd shouldn¡¯t grow and I have no idea why this has happened. We are now measuring the height of people suspected or at risk of developing vCJD¡¯.

Many victims of vCJD have also been exceptionally tall 6ft 9inches with siblings and parents much shorter.

Was my Andrew and some of the other victims of Vcjd unknowingly exposed to growth hormones? We know that many people have died of cjd due to growth hormone treatment sourced from cadavers infected with scjd. These growth hormone injectibles were developed in labs that were also involved in other vaccine research and medicinal development could there have been a cross contamination of some sort?

Below is a report from evidence offered by Anne Maddox¡¯s a retired microbiologist about growth hormones used in cattle¡­.

Note her comments about the strangeness of the outbreak and how the pattern of the disease did not fit microbiologist and epidemiologists understanding of the spread and pattern of disease¡­¡­.something as Maddocks said was very strange about BSE its outbreak and resulting epidemic¡­¡­..

The cover up continues ¡­¡­¡­the truth about BSE/vCJD is so sinister that scientists and officials involved in every aspect of BSE and prion research are bound and continue to be bound by the official secrets act. Why? If there is nothing to hide¡­¡­.¡­..

VETS MAY HAVE SPREAD MAD COWS DISEASE - 14^th August 1999 by Debora Mackenzie

INEJECTIONS of hormones from cattle brains might have started ¡®made cows disease¡¯ according to a statement made to the official inquiry into the epidemic.

Mad cow disease or BSE is spread when cattle eat infected meat and bone meal, but it¡¯s still not clear why it suddenly appeared at many locations across Britain. Last month, however, Anne Maddocks a retired microbiologist from St Mary¡¯s Hospital London told the BSE Inquiry that experimental treatments using cattle pituitary glands might be to blame.

The pituitary produces hormones controlling growth and ovulation. In the 1980s children treated for dwarfism with human pituitaries developed the human spongiform brain disease, Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease. Maddocks argues that cattle pituitaries may have done the same for British cows. She says pituitary extracts made by vets were widely used in Britain in the late 1970s and early 1980s to boost milk yields and induce multiple ovulation in prize cows. Maddocks believes that ¡®promiscuous¡¯ use of pituitary extracts initially spread the infection, which was then amplified in feed. Roger Eddy incoming head of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, says he has not heard of widespread use of pituitaries at the time. Bit abattoir workers are reportedly preparing to tell the Inquiry that they sold pituitaries to vets for this purpose.

Alterations in the use of bovine pituitary hormones in various countries

This was particularly of significance in countries outside the UK and the bovine growth hormone (BGH) was not licensed for use there. However it is not at all clear that it was not imported and used illegally and as farmers cattle were calued for breeding according to the quantity of milk that they produced (bgh causes milk production) it would be reasonable to consider that it did take place here. Knowing that HGH caused a spread of CJD from rare human cases it is not unreasonable to consider that BGH might do so in cattle. This hypothesis would require the BGH being infected with small amounts of BSE and also that there was another change in the UK that caused the epidemic to take place whereas it did not do so in other countries. BGH use took place after the Second World War and rose markedly during the 1970s. There are now good indications that bovine pituitary hormones were used for both GH and as a method for embryonic transfer and implantation in the UK herd. The way in which BSE seemed to start in the South East of the UK and cases appeared suddenly throughout the UK is odd, and the easy transfer of pituitary hormones around the country could explain this. The sudden rise in the cases of BSE long after the use of MBM started was strange and was the fact that numbers rose so rapidly, whereas if BSE was derived from a single sporadic BSE case we would have expected a different growth pattern of the disease. The subject is fully discussed in the Phillips Inquiry and the explanations are fairly convincing as the method of transfer of the original cases to get the numbers up to a level to cause the epidemic. Farmers have been fairly clear that they did use these hormones but it is unlikely that they will make this public.

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Saturday 24th July 2010

Below is a report from Rome regrarding a woman of 42 years of age suffering from vCJD.

I would challenge the numbers of cases that are being officially reported in Europe,

As families continue to battle the authorities across the European Community to get the correct diagnois for their loved ones who they are convinced have died of vCJD. I am in contact with many of these individuals and families affected, Check out the link to the tragic and untimely death of 32 year old GianLuca on Facebook Associazione Gianluca Sgueglia and the Facebook Profile is named Gianluca Sgueglia Onlus.

UK herds continue to be affected by BSE but the Government has raised the age for testing cattle for BSE this has conveniently meant that DEFRA can claim BSE has all but disappeared.
ROME - A 42-year-old Italian woman was reported as the second ever case of madcow disease in humans in the country and is currently hospitalised in desperate conditions, the ANSA news agency said Wednesday.

The woman was diagnosed with a variant of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) at a Milan neurological hospital in the past months and was then transferred to a hospital in Livorno, in western Tuscany, when she was already in a coma, ANSA said.

It is still unclear how the woman contracted the disease.

In 2009, Italy's health ministry had reported the woman's disease as a "likely variant of the CJD".

The only previous case of madcow disease in humans in Italy was reported in 2002 on the island of Sicily.

On Friday the European Union said it had nearly wiped out madcow disease in animals in Europe.

Only 67 positive cases of madcow disease were identified last year and the animals were old cows that could have been contaminated long ago, the EU said.

In the 1990s, panic erupted after Britain reported a link between madcow and a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i3cOap1PrjgW2aD_-vZBmUk1snBQ

Una livornese di 42 anni è ricoverata nell'hospice di cure palliative dell'ospedale di Livorno in coma, dopo avere contratto la variante della sindrome di Creutzfeldt-Jakob, il cosiddetto morbo della mucca pazza. La donna è in condizioni disperate ed è ricoverata nel reparto dell'ospedale livornese proprio per effettuare cure che l'aiutino ad affrontare con dignità la fase terminale della malattia. È il secondo caso della malattia registrato in Italia; il primo colpì una donna siciliana nel 2002.

COLDIRETTI: CARNE SICURA «Se confermato, è una eredità del lontano passato facilmente prevedibile, per i lunghi tempi di incubazione della malattia, che non ha nulla a che fare con il consumo della carne italiana, che è del tutto sicuro grazie ad un rigido sistema di controlli introdotto con successo nel 2001 per far fronte all'emergenza Bse». È questo il commento della Coldiretti in riferimento al caso probabile di morbo della "mucca pazza" contratto da una donna di Livorno. «La Bse è praticamente scomparsa da anni dagli allevamenti italiani per l'efficacia delle misure adottate per far fronte all'emergenza come - sottolinea la Coldiretti - il monitoraggio di tutti gli animali macellati sopra i 30 mesi, il divieto dell'uso delle farine animali nell'alimentazione del bestiame e l'eliminazione degli organi a rischio Bse dalla catena alimentare. Ma anche e soprattutto - prosegue la nota - l'introduzione, a partire dal primo gennaio 2002, di un sistema obbligatorio di etichettatura che consente di conoscere l'origine della carne acquistata con riferimento agli Stati di nascita, di ingrasso, di macellazione e di sezionamento, nonch, un codice di identificazione che rappresenta una vera e propria carta d'identit. del bestiame e consente di fare acquisti Made in Italy». Secondo la Coldiretti, «a dimostrare che nei bovini la malattia della mucca pazza è ormai quasi completamente debellata sono i numeri forniti dalla Commissione Ue: nell'unione Europea dai 37.000 animali ammalati del 1992 si è passati, nel 2009, a soli 67, dei quali appena due casi in Italia su oltre 450 mila test effettuati».

GIALLO SULL'ORIGINE DELLA MALATTIA Il caso era stato segnalato come «probabile variante della malattia di Cjd » nell'ottobre del 2009 dal ministero della salute. Secondo quanto riporta oggi il quotidiano Il Tirreno nei mesi scorsi la livornese aveva accusato progressivi disturbi neurologici e ha scelto di farsi curare presso l'Istituto neurologico milanese 'Besta' che le ha diagnosticato la malattia e l'ha sottoposta alle terapie senza riuscire ad arrestare l'avanzata del male. La paziente è dunque stata trasferita già in coma presso il reparto di cure palliative dell'ospedale di Livorno. Non è ancora chiaro invece in che modo la paziente abbia contratto la malattia.

LA SCHEDA DELLA MALATTIA Persone relativamente giovani, che presumibilmente hanno mangiato carne di bovini colpiti dalla malattia della «mucca pazza» e che mostrano disturbi psichiatrici, seguiti a breve distanza dalla comparsa di demenza e disturbi nei movimenti di braccia e gambe: sono queste le caratteristiche che permettono di distinguere le persone colpite dalla forma umana della malattia della mucca pazza e quelle colpite dalla classica malattia di Creutzfeldt-Jakob (Cjd). Quest'ultima colpisce infatti le persone anziane (in media 65 anni) e si manifesta con una demenza che peggiora progressivamente, accompagnata da disordini nei movimenti. La variante umana della malattia della mucca pazza è comparsa 14 anni fa in Gran Bretagna, dove è stata subito associata al consumo di carne di animali colpiti dall'Encefalopatia Spongiforme Bovina (Bse). La forma umana è considerata una variante della malattia di Creutzfeldt-Jakob (Cjd) ed il suo nome è stato ufficializzato come «nuova variante della malattia di Creutzfeldt-Jakob» (vCjd) nel 1997, da un articolo pubblicato sulla rivista The Lancet. A scatenare la malattia nell'uomo è l'alterazione di una proteina naturalmente presente nell'organismo, chiamata prione. Dopo il notevole aumento dei casi della malattia sia nei bovini che nell'uomo, concentrato soprattutto fra il 1996 e i primi anni 2000, da qualche anno si registra un notevole rallentamento nella diffusione della malattia sia negli allevamenti e altrettanto rari sono i casi della forma umana. Proprio nei giorni scorsi il commissario europeo alla Salute, John Dalli, ha dichiarato che l'Europa è uscita vincente dalla lotta contro la malattia, che nel 2009 ha fatto registrare 59 negli allevamenti degli Stati membri. L'ultimo caso di Bse in Italia risale al 2008, in Piemonte e l'unico decesso nell'uomo risale al 2002.

http://www.leggo.it/articolo.php?id=73638&sez=ITALIA

Eurosurveillance, Volume 6, Issue 6, 07 February 2002 Articles S Salmaso1

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Tuesday 20th July 2010

Today is my 53^rd Birthday, and I will be spending it quietly working on the campaign and having a meal with my daughter Emma and a friend. .

Every family occasion, celebration or special event has a sting in its tail as it highlights my Andrews absence and what he has lost. There is no healing or acceptance when you have lost your only son and brother to vCJD.

I am very proud to announce that my Emma has done exceptionally well in her second year results at University, where she is reading History, Politics and International Relations, despite her grief and heartbreak Emma is like me ¡® When the going gets tough the tough get going.¡¯ My beautiful daughter thank you for bringing light into my darkened world.

Well done Emma your big brother would have been so proud of you!

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Saturday 17th July 2010

Ten million cattle, sheep and pigs were destroyed in 2001 due to an outbreak of ¡®Foot and mouth disease¡¯.

In 2002 cows and animals remains who had been culled during the epidemic were dug up and reburied amid fears that their diseased carcasses were also carrying BSE which could contaminated the water supply. It was over a year before these burial sites were deemed as dangerous to public health and action taken.

Across England over 160 sites were used for the disposal of these sick creatures including landfills in West Cumbria and Buckinghamshire. Eighty wagon loads of diseased animal remains were moved to another place of disposal from just one farm in Northumberland. Across England thousands and eventually millions of cattle and animals were destroyed on farms and then hastily reburied in neighbouring fields.

A year later the decision to dig up and then rebury millions of animals struck down by foot and mouth came after a risk assessment by the Environment Agency. Surely it was common sense not to bury diseased animals who could also be carrying or incubating BSE on the same land in which restocked animals would graze and be processed into the human food chain?

Cross contamination also took place during the initial disposal of these animals, and the subsequent removal and reburying of their remains, once again the human food chain and our families were not protected from BSE/vCJD.

In a report filed by Peter Hethrington, The Guardian Feb 9^th 2002 he wrote:

¡®Richard Dodd s Northumberland County Councillor and farmer who lost 1,450 animals to Foot and Mouth said he was baffled ¡® We hear its not about Foot and Mouth but about BSE¡¯ he said ¡® If it is removed because it poses a risk why was it buried at these sites in the first place? This is happening in places where farms are restocking¡¯

During the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 over 10 million animals were culled their diseased carcasses initially buried on the farms in which they were raised. until mass slaughter sites were opened to cope with the numbers. These diseased animals many who may have been ill or carrying BSEe were moved around and then buried in sites which had no safeguards for BSE.

Precautions used to eradicate and prevent ¡®foot and mouth¡¯ spreading would have no impact on the rogue prions that cause BSE. The rogue prions that cause this lethal pathogen are virtually indestructible cannot be burnt, buried or killed by sterlisation.

The slaughter, transportation, disposal, burying and reburying of these diseased animals would have increased the likelihood of BSE spreading not only to other livestock but also to humans.

How many animals were destroyed during the foot and mouth outbreaks that were also dying, carrying or incubating BSE? BSE still affects UK herds, during the ¡® foot and mouth¡¯ outbreak it would be impossible to find out just how many of the ¡®ten million cattle and animals¡¯ culled were also infected with BSE.

Is this why so many young people in their teens and early twenties continue to die of vCJD, twenty six years after the first official recorded case of BSE?

BSE continues to remain a threat to human health and life, those young people who have died in the last few years may well have been infected much more recently. This is very much the case according to a high level ex Government Minister who told me ¡®All victims of Vcjd who have been diagnosed since 2007 were infected after 1997¡¯ This high ranking Whitehall official told me many eye opening facts over and extended lunch.

Details of this recorded interview with the ex Cabinet Minister will be published by me in due course.

By the extermination of so many cattle in 2001 it was another way of DEFRA clearing the books ¡­.the cover up spreads like a spiders web through the establishment, but fortunately there are men and women of integrity helping me to gather evidence and to pursue those responsible¡­..

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Wednesday 14th July 2010

An Italian family whose lives have been broken by the death of their son and brother GianLuca have set up a foundation in his memory. The Sgueglia family are convinced that 33 year old Gianluca died of vCJD and are currently battling the authorities in Italy for the correct diagnosis. What they have found as a family affected by this horrific disease was a lack of support, consistency, transparency and information and the ¡®Gianluca Sgueglia Foundation has been formed to help families and victims of cjd. Families affected by CJD across Europe and globally feel isolated and their vulnerability is often used by the establishment to intimidate and marginalise.

The Gianluca Sgueglia Foundation is a non profit organisation and though conferences, publications, videos and a website is hoping to give accurate, transparent and factual information about the disease. Its aims are justice, truth, openness and understanding. Below is an open invitation from GianLucas brother and organiser of the foundation Antonio.

To obtain a brochure or further information contact associazionegianlucasgueglia@yahoo.it

GIANLUCA SGUEGLIA

ENCEPHALOPATHIES

The reasons that drove me and my parents to form a Foundation in memory of Gianluca are many but more than anything else they are undoubtedly linked to the promise that we made to him before he passed away. Yes, we made a promise to him that we would do anything it would take to restore his right to a correct and true diagnosis.

This is a right that we believe to be an inalienable right for anyone and more so in a case such as Gianluca¡¯s one; a case where a life full of projects and dreams was broken and taken at such a young age from a terrible disease.

We strongly desired that the Association was incorporated and registered on the day of the anniversary of his passing. In fact, exactly one year ago Gianluca was released from the chains of his suffering and and from the terrible illness that struck him. On that very day he finally regained his freedom after years of suffering, sacrifices and limitations.

Death is certainly a great mystery for man and for us all but Gianluca has taught us that in reality it represents, more than anything else, a transformation. Yes, a transformation of the visible that becomes invisible. The intangible that becomes tangible. The material that becomes immaterial. The end that turns into a new beginning.

Thanks to what he taught us with his experience, we, too, wanted to operate a transformation by ensuring that our pain and our anger would be transformed into something different. Yes, a new energy to be manifested in a concrete commitment that, after a year, aims to make sure that

Gianluca¡¯s sacrifice was not in vain but instead can be of help and inspiration to many people.

The non-profit organization named after Gianluca was born on the foundation of all those principles that have animated his life and in that sense it deeply represents and portrays him for who he truly was. Gianluca has endured his illness with dignity and courage that are big enough to be a true inspiration to everyone. And it is with such dignity and with the same courage that today we are committing to this project and to the objectives of the Foundation.

This Foundation is not meant to go against anyone because we do not believe that this would be in any way useful or effective. Instead it is born in favour of justice, truth, solidarity and transparency, principles that were important to Gianluca and that he strenuously defended.

Through his sacrifice, equal to that of a martyr, Gianluca has accomplished and is still accomplishing a very important mission, which is to awaken as many people as possible so that they, too, may recognize the importance of justice, truth, transparency, solidarity and awareness in their lives.

We live in a society in which these principles are too often trampled in the name of profit. A profit often unethical. A profit that protects only the interests of few people while at the same time trampling the right to life and health of many. It was on this ground that sprouted the seed that gave birth to the terrible disease that has affected not only Gianluca and our family, but many other young people around the world and their families. A disease that has been created by the choices of man against nature and that could therefore be avoided.

It is often said that you cannot change the world and that all efforts in this direction can only be in vain. In fact, we, as founding members of the Foundation, strongly believe that the only way to actually do something is to each change our own world. The only concrete thing we can do is begin to bring justice, truth, openness, understanding and solidarity in our own world, in our lives. Only then can we influence and inspire those around us and, who knows, maybe they too will want to do the same and follow our example. Only then the world we live in can actually have a hope of changing and improving. Basically this is the only real contribution that each of us can bring.

The "Gianluca Sgueglia" Foundation has made a choice to bring its own contribution, a contribution of solidarity and inspiration that is born and is based on these values because these were Gianluca¡¯s values. To this end, Gianluca¡¯s experience will be told to as many people as possible in the world through conferences, publications and videos and through a website that will tell his story and provide consistently accurate and transparent information.

The invitation is open to anyone who feels that the values and goals of this Foundation are in harmony with their own. Any help in this respect can only be highly appreciated and welcomed.

We want to take this opportunity to thank Gianluca's friends and relatives who wanted to help us and walk together with us on the path of this new project. Your support is very important to us, you give us great strength and inspire us to move forward.

Finally, thanks to Gianluca for the example of love, dignity, courage, generosity and perseverance that you left to me, your brother, and to our parents, and to all those who were close to you and whom you loved. Your constant guidance and how you illuminate our paths is the greatest legacy that we could never hope to receive.

With love,

Antonio Sgueglia

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Friday 9th July 2010

Hunstanton CJD dad dies aged just 25

Published on Tue Jul 06 08:00:30 BST 2010

DAD-of-two Dean Burrell has lost his brave fight against the crippling disease CJD at the age of just 25.

But through donation of his organs, it is hoped his death will now help others.

Dean, who is father to Chloe, 5, and Charlie, 2, died in Swaffham¡¯s Meadow House Nursing Home on June 24, with his family around him.

Doctors told his wife, Sarah ¨C just two days before his 25th birthday last November ¨C they were 99 per cent sure he had ¡®variant¡¯ CJD or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a debilitating disease which, commonly known as the human form of Mad Cow Disease, affects movement, actions and memory.

Sadly, there is no known cure for CJD and Sarah (23) ¨C whom he married only last July ¨C decided she would like his organs to be used for research to help others.

Doctors in London are to carry out tests on Dean¡¯s organs in a bid to, in turn, help screening programmes, like those used when people donate blood for transfusions.

The couple, of Northgate, Hunstanton, had previously decided they would like their organs donated.

Sarah told the Lynn News: ¡°If this happened to someone I knew, and I had denied the doctors having parts of Dean to help them, I would never forgive myself.¡±

CJD patients are thought to have contracted the disease after eating contaminated meat.

Scientists think there is a link between infected carcasses or offal processed into cattle feed and vCJD though there is no way of knowing where Dean got the disease from.

It was in 1996 when it was discovered that BSE (so-called Mad Cow Disease) had jumped to humans and the decision was made to remove tissue from beef, such as the spinal chord, which may have carried the agent that causes CJD.

It could have been just been one meal Dean had had, Sarah has previously said.

The disease so far is thought to have affected only around 200 people in Britain in the last 30 years ¨C though there are fears many more cases will be uncovered.

Reportedly, up to one in 4,000 people could be carrying vCJD without showing symptoms.

Dean, a scaffolder who used to work at Narford, near Swaffham, first noticed something was wrong as early as last August as he had become stumbly, lacked co-ordination and was very tired.

As his health deteriorated, he was helped by the Norfolk Hospice Tapping House and also Meadow House where he had stayed since March.

Local people previously undertook fundraising to help Dean, who was able to see his beloved Manchester United play, and enjoy a trip to Euro Disney, before his death.

A funeral for Dean will take place at the Union Church in Hunstanton ¨C where he married Sarah on July 18, 2009 ¨C on Thursday, at 2pm, followed by cremation at Mintlyn.

It is requested no black be worn but that men wear sports shirts and the women wear red. Family flowers only are requested though donations for Meadow House and Tapping House can be made.

¡°I want it to be celebration of his life,¡± Sarah said.

Thanking those who had supported her, she included Hunstanton Infant School who had sent books about stars home for the children.

¡°The children say daddy is a star now,¡± Sarah said

Sarah was among those family members, also including Dean¡¯s mother, Marie Dugard, who was with him when he died.

Earlier this year, Mrs Dugard took part in a march in London in a bid to raise the condition¡¯s profile.

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Wednesday 7th July 2010

Below is the reply from Nick Clegg, regarding my letter to the Deputy Prime Minister demanding the resignation of Kenneth Clarke . My response to Nick Clegg is below.

My challenges for justice and the truth¡­¡­my questions about culpability for all the innocent victims of vCJD were not answered¡­.

¡®IN A TRUE DEMOCRACY THE STATE HAS NO RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT¡¯

Heather Brooke (The Silent State)

Ms Christine Lord

2 Wilton Terrace

Southsea P05 2BQ

Tel 07828230158

mschristinelord@aol.com

www.justiceforandy.com

Dear Nick Clegg,

JUSTICE FOR VICTIM OF VCJD

VCJD SIGNFICANT ONGOING THREAT TO THE UK PUBLIC

I have received a communication from Mrs S Silver, informing me that you received the copy of the letter I sent to Kenneth Clarke demanding his resignation.

I now enclose a copy of another letter I have sent to David Cameron requesting for the second time a meeting with the Prime Minster and/or Andrew Lansley, I would appreciate your comments on both these letters and the opportunity to discuss with yourself the significant ongoing health issues that I have raised.

I am hopeful that as you have ¡®registered the contents¡¯ of my last and the contents of the enclosed correspondence that the factual issues I continue to raise are eventually acted upon and recognised for the truth. A truth that continues to remain hidden and manipulated by the sleight of hand, corruption and intrigues of those Ministers and government officials that is culpable for BSE/vCJD, and the unlawful death of my only son Andrew.

¡®In a true democracy the state has no right to remain silent¡¯ Heather Brooke

Yours sincerely,

Christine Lord

encs

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Monday 5th July 2010

Check out the youtube links to tributes to my Andrew and Gianluca, they contain many facts about vCJD and also photos of other victims. It¡¯s a powerful tribute to two young men whose Lives were taken cruelly far too soon.

Tribute to Gianluca:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6v1BEwhflg

Tribute to Gianluca (Italian version):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-PLP3-os30

Tribute to Andrew:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFB5MjYs4No

Tribute to Andrew with Andrew's song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQAlayi-yJ4

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Wednesday 30th June 2010

Tommy Goodwin who lost his only son Grant to vCJD on 16^th January 2009, will be challenging the Deputy First Minister of Scotland at an emotional meeting today.

Tommy speaks not only for the loss of his 30 year old son but for all families affected by vCJD.

PRESS RELEASE

GRIEVING DAD CONFRONTS NICOLA STURGEON AND UK GOVERNMENT OVER HUNDREDS OF UNLAWFUL DEATHS.

WEDNESDAY JUNE 30^th 2010, 1 PM. SCOTTISH ASSEMBLY, EDINBURGH MEETING ROOM T4.23

A grieving father will confront Scottish Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during an emotional and challenging meeting on Wednesday 30^th June at 1pm. Tommy Goodwin from Glasgow has invited the press to record the face to face interview to dispel the ¡®culture of secrecy and cover ups ¡® that he believes unlawfully killed his son. Tommy (50) lost his only son Grant to the human form of mad cow¡¯s disease on 16^th January 2009. Within months the handsome, healthy 30 year old, became totally disabled due to eating beef products infected with BSE. (vCJD is chemically identical to BSE)

Grants untimely death due to the horrific brain wasting disease has spurred his father to seek answers and justice on behalf of the hundreds of victims that have died, and continue to die. On Thursday 24^th June Dean Burrell ( 25) from Norfolk died of vCJD he leaves a toddler son and a daughter aged 4years.

Tommy said ¡®I blame Government Officials for Grants unlawful death, they told us British Beef was safe when they knew it wasn¡¯t! In 2010 its time for justice I am hopeful Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Assembly will support families affected by the disease. ¡® he continued ¡® Whatever Whitehall¡¯s propaganda vCJD continues to kill on a regular basis, BSE still affects UK herds.¡¯ he added ¡®Official stats are manipulated, true numbers of people who have died and are dying of vCJD are not being recorded. I know because I have been told that my Grant will never appear on the Governments figures¡¯ He concluded ¡® I will also lodge a official complaint with Nicola Sturgeon human vCJD blood samples are being stored incorrectly. WHO recommendations are being deliberately ignored by the DOH which means vital blood screening tests understanding of the disease, its source and prevalence are being blocked the cover-up continues.¡¯

Tommy plans to challenge the Deputy First Minister on these issues:

1. 26 years after the first official recorded case of BSE, 15 years after the death of Stephen Churchill (19)from vCJD, young people in their teens and twenties are still dying of vCJD. Many of these youngsters were not even born when the first images of BSE cattle appeared on TV screens. Why is this still happening in the 2010?

2. Grant was the first officially recognised person in the world to die of vCJD from a different genotype MV. Professor Hugh Pennington SEAC stated ¡®hundreds more will die¡¯ from a second wave of victims. Yet I have been told by the CJD unit ( DOH funded) Grant will never appear on any official stats, despite a Lancet paper and world experts stating he died of vCJD. One death is one death too many from a totally avoidable disease, but the government are falsely reassuring the public vCJD has gone away. Currently there are families nursing loved ones dying of vCJD across the UK, it hasn¡¯t gone away and could be anyone¡¯s son or daughter next! .

3. I wish to lodge a formal complaint now with you as Secretary of Health deliberate misleading information about my son has been sent to other family members who have been affected by vCJD in a effort to stop them pursuing the truth. I will be writing to the GMC naming those individuals and Government Scientists and asking for a complete investigation.

4. In 2000 the World Health Organisation recommended that all human vCJD blood samples are stored in Citrate to aid research, understanding of the disease, treatment and to develop blood screening tests. Blood from UK human vCJD victims are not being stored adequately, in correct quantities, or in frozen whole blood which makes it useless for research or stored in a powerful chemical call EDTA. This is preventing the development of prion assays ( blood screening tests for vCJD) and understanding of the disease. Why is this happening? To protect John Gummer, Kenneth Clarke and those responsible? I believe it¡¯s to make sure we never find out true prevalence in the population and also the exact source of the infection. I would like you to investigate why these precious samples are being stored in a way that blocks research and hampers outside independent help.

5. I was told my Grants blood was ¡®worth millions to research¡¯ so the family agreed that copious amounts of his blood could be taken by DOH medics. Grants family hoped it would help others and prevent further deaths. When I tried to hand over some of Grants blood to independent scientists not funded or employed by the DOH. I was told only 2ml of his blood was suitable. Over 44ml of Grants blood had been stored incorrectly and is of no use to researchers outside DOH. I would like a full investigation into this! As Health Minister I would like you to discover/ publish exactly how many human blood vCJD samples are held by the DOH and UK groups, organizations. Also how much blood is stored by the DOH/organizations which is being taken regularly from vCJD victims and their family.

6. Andrew Lansley Health Minister states 16^th June 2010 ¡®The BSE inquiry continues to inform Government Policy¡¯. Vital evidence was withheld, witnesses rehearsed and instead of being a place to protect and reveal the Inquiry became a forum to hide and conceal. Whenever John Gummer, Kenneth Clarke or those in charge during the BSE scandal are challenged over their decisions they always quote the ¡®BSE inquiry¡¯ as a means to exonerate their wrong doing. Does the Scottish Assembly hold the same views as Andrew Lansley and Whitehall? Does the BSE inquiry and its findings inform Scottish Government policy?

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Monday 28th June 2010

Below is the letter I received from Andrew Lansley Health Minister in response to my letters to David Cameron and his ministers. The Prime Minister and Andrew Lansley have refused a meeting with me to discuss justice for victims of vCJD and the significant threat that vCJD continues to pose for families across the UK.

I have written again to David Cameron requesting a meeting for a second time to discuss my concerns particularly blood safety and the prevention of future and further deaths.

It would appear that whilst Number ten Downing Street remains firmly shut to Me Stormont and the Scottish Assembly are more open to families who have been affected by vCJD and are supportive of keeping others safe too!

My response to Andrew Lansley and David Cameron¡¯s refusal is below¡­.

Dear David Cameron,

JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF VCJD 

SIGNIFICANT ONGOING THREAT TO PUBLIC HEALTH  

Enclosed is a letter from Andrew Lansley in which he informs me that neither he or yourself are able to meet with me, to discuss justice for victims of vCJD and the significant threat that vCJD continues to pose to the UK publics health and well-being. Last Thursday 24^th June 2010 Dean Burrell was the latest victim to die aged just 25 years old he leaves a toddler son and a daughter aged 4 years old.

I request again a meeting with yourself as Prime Minister asking you to support the campaign for justice and the hundreds of UK citizens who have died and the thousands who have been affected by vCJD, including 128 children who have lost a mum or dad to this horrific brain wasting disease, and to also discuss and investigate why people continue to die of this man made manufactured disease. Twenty six years after the first officially recognised case of BSE , fifteen years after the death of Stephen Churchill (aged 19) young people are still dying of vCJD. Many of these young people were not even born when those first horrific images of BSE staggering cattle were broadcast on TV. Why? If infectious material was removed from the human food and medicine chain over 14 years ago? In January Billy Smith born (1989) died aged 21 of vCJD; this terrible brain wasting has not gone away and will continue to kill for decades. Why are official government¡¯s statistics not accurately recording the true numbers of people who have and are dying of the disease?

I find the measured dismissal from Andrew Lansley and you as public servants whose salaries are provide by UK taxpayers deeply upsetting and lacking in judgment. I had hoped with a new Government that transparency and honesty would be its core values. as well as protecting public health and preventing further avoidable deaths due to vCJD.

Since my son died I have campaigned for the truth and the prevention of further deaths of vCJD by supporting individual blood screening tests for vCJD, blood safety is paramount.. I was been invited to Stormont and welcomed by all political parties and their representatives in Northern Ireland, receiving support from Gerry Adams and Ian Paisley. During my four day visit to Northern Ireland I was given a platform to discuss and explore the significant health issues that vCJD poses in 21^st century my findings were received with sensitivity and interest by the Northern Ireland Assembly. I lunched at Stormont as well as engaging in proactive meetings with Nigel Dodds MLA Democratic Unionist Party, Michelle O Neill Health Spokesperson Sinn Fein, and John Mcallister Ulster Unionist Party. My investigations and research were taken on board and my findings continue to inform Northern Irelands Assembly on blood safety and the needs of current and future victims of vCJD. Communication continues with these supportive MPs and I am gladdened by their openness and help.

I was also invited to South Korea and met with MPs at their parliament, including Young-Jin Kim Democratic Party, MP Ki ¨CKap Kang Labour Party and they have petitioned the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for me to speak to the UN about

BSE/ vCJD and the ongoing threat to the global community. I spent three hours in discussion with members at the South Korean Assembly and found them to be aware and proactive in their dealings with BSE and vCJD. This was televised across Korea and Asia. Since my visit many school meals in South Korea are now being sourced from local organic farms to lessen the risk of infectious material being fed to their most vulnerable. I completed a lecture tour of Universities and public meetings in South Korea talking about my experiences and lessons to be learned from UK Government policy.

My short sharp response from Andrew Lansley on behalf of you the Prime Minister

And UK Government is not appropriate for the hundreds who have died thousands who have been affected by vCJD and the ¡®One in a thousand of the UK population probably carrying vCJD¡¯ Professor John Collinge BBC 1 May 2008.

Family members affected by vCJD in Scotland have been invited to meet with Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to discuss similar issues I have raised in this letter. I am shocked that you as Prime Minister and Andrew Lansley as Health Minister are refusing to meet me a bereaved mum and campaigner, yet the Northern Ireland and Korean Governments welcomed me with warmth, energy and most importantly acted on the issues that were discussed and raised. I am deeply perplexed that whilst the doors of the Scottish Assembly are open to parents affected by vCJD, Number Ten Downing Street remains firmly shut to an English mum who wants justice, answers and to protect other families from the heartbreak she suffers every day.

I am also shocked that the BSE Inquiry ¡®findings continue to inform Government policy¡¯, Andrew Lansley 16^TH June 2010. The Inquiry was held ten years ago, important evidence was withheld, witnesses rehearsed and it was a forum that was used to hide and conceal instead of protect and reveal. Whenever Ministers and Officials responsible for the BSE scandal and my son¡¯s unlawful death are challenged by families or the media, the BSE inquiry is always used as a tool to exonerate and obliterate their wrongdoings.

I await your comments and decision regarding my second request for a meeting with yourself and Andrew Lansley.

Yours sincerely,

Christine Lord

Cc Andrew Lansley

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Friday 25th June 2010

At 10pm last night Thursday 24^th June 2010, Dean Burell from Kings Lynn Norfolk, UK. became the another victim to vCJD. Aged just 25 years old Dean leaves his wife Sarah, (24) and children Charlie 20mths and Chole aged 4 years.

His mum Marie is devastated that her once fit,handsome son, who this time last year was preparing for his wedding has died due to a totally avoidable disease.

My thoughts and sincere condolences are with Deans family and friends.

¡®What will survive of us is Love¡¯ Phillip Larkin.

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Wednesday 23rd June 2010

Cases of Sporadic or Classic CJD have tripled worldwide since BSE infected material was given free reign into the human food and medicine chain.

Sporadic CJD a previous spontaneous occurring form of the disease was once rare (one person in a million) and affected the elderly.

Since the BSE scandal the chances of developing sCJD have risen to 1 in 33,000 in the UK. Many cases have been much younger individuals some only in their twenties or thirties dying of this once age related disease. Also clusters or pockets of sCJD cases are appearing which indicates a common source or environmental factor. When my Andrew was dying three cases of sCJD were diagnosed locally one of these individuals lived close to my Andrews¡¯s old school, another near to where his grandparents lived. .

So could these rising cases of sCJD really be vCJD?

¡®VCJD is perceived as the most threatening to public health of all human prion diseases ¡®

Institute Scientific Research France

Many world experts believe the explosion of cases of sCJD and even Alzheimer¡¯s is connected with BSE¡­.we face a GLOBAL epidemic of dementia cases in the next decades and this is not just due to an ageing population. Laura Mauelidis Chief of Surgery Neuropathology Department, Yale University USA, conducted a study in which she discovered that people are being wrongly diagnosed in the USA she said ¡®Autopsies revealed that between 3 and 13 per cent of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer¡¯s were really suffering from cjd.¡¯ This means in the USA alone over 120,000 people could be dying of cjd but are being recorded as dying of Alzheimer¡¯s or other related illness.

World experts are also suggesting that there may be different strains of vCJD affecting individuals depending on their genetic makeup. This would manifest with differing symptoms and onset which could mimic sporadic cjd, resulting in wrong diagnosis.

A paper published by Dr Emmanuel Asante, Institute Neurology, London has shown clear evidence that people who have been infected with BSE can present with symptoms similar to sporadic cjd. Dr Assante research developed a key series of animal models of human prion disease.

Dr Asantes team extended their studies across the three different gene types in the UK.

Thirty seven percent of the population will carry the MM gene, Eleven per cent VV and

Fifty two percent MV. We take one gene from our mothers and another from out father; these genotypes are just a product of our family background and not out of the ordinary. So far the majority of officially recognised cases of vCJD have come from the MM genotype. However on 25^th September 2008, Grant Goodwin aged 30 from Glasgow, Scotland was diagnosed with vCJD from the MV genotype. The MV gene is believed to afford individuals certain protection against the disease, incubation periods may be longer and the length and severity of the illness may be slower to progress to the terminal stages. I have met frequently with Grants family and spent the day with Grant before he died in January 2009. Grants symptoms mirrored my Andrews but also seemed to be slower in progression. When I spent time with Grant he told me about his job, could move around and although his memory was failing he was still able to co ordinate his movements though very slowly, his symptoms seemed to be taking longer to develop and I believe it was due to his different genotype. However there remains a question mark for me about how long the MV genotype incubation period could be! There are many scientists who have forged their careers and life¡¯s work around incubation periods for vCJD the common theory is that MMs have the shortest incubation period roughly between 5 years and 13 years and MVs can have an incubation period upwards of 40 years. ( this is based on the Fore Tribe in Papa New Guinea who were cannibals and ate the brains of individuals with sporadic cjd the tribe developed Kuru a similar illness to vCJD)

Grant died one year one month after my Andrew, yet they were two different genotypes. Grant was also just five years older than my Andrew. This could mean that both Grant and my Andrew were infected from a common source at roughly the same time. Another anomaly is Vicky Rimmer she was initially considered the first ever case of vCJD when she became ill in 1993 aged 15 years old. But her diagnosis was overturned at an inquest held in April 2001. . Why? Vicky¡¯s grandmother was told by experts from the CJD unit that Vicky couldn¡¯t possibly have died of Vcjd because she came from the MV genotype.

Her brain apparently also showed signs of both Scjd and vCJD. Dr Assante research

proved different genotypes would also present differently at post mortem.(see his statements below). Professor John Collinge UCL told BBC1 May 2008 ¡®Individuals from different genotypes suffering from vcjd may well present with symptoms that could be diagnosed as sporadic cjd¡¯.

At Vicky Rimmers inquest the Coroner John Hughes stated that if further evidence came to light in the future he would petition the Home Secretary to re open the case. Professor James Ironside from the CJD unit told the Coroner that Miss Rimmers ¡®case was ¡®unique¡¯ and showed signs of both vcjd and cjd¡¯ I have spent many hours talking to Vicky¡¯s family who nursed her through the 4 years of her terminal illness and her family remain convinced Vicky died of vCJD.

Vicky was the same genotype as Grant Goodwin and if she had lived would have been just a few years older.

How could the government be so sure that nobody from the MV genotype could die of the disease in 1997? Were Grant and Vicky infected at the same time from a common source? Was my Andrew infected at the same time too? What is the real incubation period from ingesting infected BSE material to developing the disease? Could it be months or years?

What are the government keeping from the public and families affected by vCJD?

Is this another part of the cover-up? How many other victims of vCJD have died over the years from the MV genotype and experts have brushed aside families concerns telling them ¡®it¡¯s impossible for your loved one to have died of vcjd because they are a different genotype¡¯.

When Dr Assante team investigated how other genotypes would be affected by BSE infection, they found that the disease presented differently in both symptoms and brain pathology. Dr Asante said ¡®We also showed for the first time that BSE infection of the M genotype (genetic make up) can lead to an alternate phenotype (outward manifestation of the disease) that looks like sporadic CJD in addition to the characteristics of vCJD features.¡¯ Dr Asante also found that the brain pathology was different between the genes.

Below is just one of those emails from Theresa in the USA, which articulates the response from the public.

Kenneth Clarke¡¯s deliberate decisions whilst Health Minister not only unlawfully killed my only son has put the UK population at risk and also our entire global community. Millions ate or ingested BSE infected material not only in the UK but food and medicines which we produced during BSE were exported aboard.

Christine,

RE: Kenneth Clarke¡¯s appointment as Lord Chancellor UK

An unbelievable appointment. I am truly sorry for the UK public at large. It will take decades to assess the damage that has been done during his reign as Health Secretary and a few more to determine if what we have done thus far has been even remotely effective.

These are increasingly oppressive times for journalists in the free world seeking answers to problems with long incubation periods created by our leaders.

I hope the UK Mothers unite quickly to express disapproval. There is power and untapped potential in this community of caregivers!!

Today's UK mother has to live with the reality that she will most likely be caring for an elderly parent with dementia and the almost unbelievable notion that she may be forced to do the same for her child while she herself may be incubating a fatal neurodegenerative disease.

Is Democracy dead? On this side of the Atlantic, on January 21, 2010, 5 Republican appointees to the U.S. Supreme court struck down important laws and regulations limiting corporate influence on election and public policy. The following is a link that can be passed on. It is from the Center of Media and Democracy. http://tinyurl.com/AmericansBeforeCorporations

Again Christine, I am sorry you must endure this. I feel your pain and frustration and wish there was something more than telling you this that could reverse this situation. We all suffer from that appointment...we just don't know it yet.

Theresa USA