GrownUps accepts no responsibility for decisions made by Members or any other persons as a result of using or relying on any information on the GrownUps website. GrownUps does not give any health advice or make any recommendation of any product or service.

Cancer is a major health issue for New Zealanders. It’s this country’s leading cause of death and a major cause of hospitalisation.

Every day, six Kiwis are diagnosed with a blood cancer like leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma. Each year, around 3000 women and 20 men in New Zealand are diagnosed with breast cancer, and over 2000 Kiwis are diagnosed with melanoma (a type of skin cancer). Four times as many New Zealanders die as a result of bowel cancer than in road traffic accidents. These diseases can strike anyone of any age, at any time, without warning.

Until recently, surgery, radiation and chemotherapy were the three standard treatments against cancer. However, clinical trials have shown that harnessing the body’s immune response (which evolved to fend off harmful bacteria and viruses) presents a new treatment alternative.

Targeted therapies, which include monoclonal antibodies and small molecule inhibitors, have also significantly changed the treatment of cancer. These medicines are now a vital component of therapy for many common cancers, including breast, colorectal, lung, lymphoma and leukemia.

Two out of three people are now living at least five years after their cancer has been diagnosed. Within the last decade alone, the response rates to treatments across all cancers have nearly doubled.

The Roche Group is the world’s leading provider of innovative cancer medicines, prolonging lives and significantly advancing the way some cancers are treated.

New treatments have to be assessed by government bodies as to their value and their priority over existing cancer treatments. Funding of new medicines can therefore take time as they are often put in order of priority. In addition, the budget for new treatments in New Zealand is limited.

In New Zealand, Roche has responded to the demand by patients for faster access to their registered unfunded cancer medicines by providing private patient access schemes. These access schemes provide some of the medicine free to patients during their treatment. Roche has been assisting patients in this way since 2008, and many hundreds of patients have benefitted with earlier access to cancer medicines and at a reduced cost.

If you would like to find out more about Roche’s patient cancer access programmes, visit cancerinfo.co.nz. Here you will find information on a number of Roche cancer medicines that could possibly help in treating your cancer.

ID2313/TAPSNA8481/2016JUL
Roche Products (New Zealand) Ltd.
PO Box 109113, Newmarket, Auckland 1149
Ph: 0800 656 464
www.roche.co.nz

Winona Ryder has come to the defence of ex-fiancé of Johnny Depp and insists he is a “good, loving and caring guy” after he was accused of abuse by estranged wife Amber Heard.

Winona Ryder insists ex-fiancé Johnny Depp is a “good, loving and caring guy”. The actress dated the ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ actor for four years from 1990 and has come to his defence after he was accused by estranged wife Amber Heard of physically and verbal abuse.

She said: “I can only speak from my own experience, which was wildly different than what is being said. He was never, never that way towards me. Never abusive at all towards me. I only know him as a really good, loving, caring guy who is very, very protective of the people that he loves.” Although Winona, 44, admits her relationship with Johnny, 53, was “a long time ago” she said she can’t imagine him ever being violent.

She told Time magazine: “I wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened. I’m not calling anyone a liar. I’m just saying, it’s difficult and upsetting for me to wrap my head around it. Look, it was a long time ago, but we were together for four years, and it was a big relationship for me. Imagine if someone you dated when you were – I was 17 when I met him – was accused of that. It’s just shocking. I have never seen him be violent toward a person before.

“It’s just hard to picture. The only word I can come up with is unimaginable. You know with certain people you hear something and go, ‘I can see that.’ But this isn’t that. I can only offer my own experience. It’s such a serious, horrible thing to be accused of.” Earlier this month, Amber’s restraining order against Johnny had been extended.

The ‘Magic Mike XXL’ star filed for the court order against her estranged husband at the end of May after filing for divorce from Johnny a few days earlier. The restraining order – which was originally granted when Amber claimed Johnny threw an iPhone at her face – will stay in place now until August 15.

Jennifer Kiss-Engels, from Canada, took to Facebook to share the incident involving her eight-year-old son Sawyer, the only child in a class of 23 who was not invited to the party. The mum said she felt hurt for her boy, adding it was important to share the message to educate and advocate for wider acceptance and inclusion of people with Down syndrome.

“I know it’s not because he’s mean, you couldn’t meet a happier child. I know it’s not because he’s not fun, he has a great sense of humour and an infectious laugh,” she wrote. “I know it’s not because your child and him don’t get along, he’s brought up your child’s name on several occasions. “The only reason why you decided it was OK to not invite my son to your child’s birthday party is because he has Down syndrome.”

She goes on to admit that, prior to finding out that her son had Down syndrome, she too was misinformed about the condition. “I know if you knew more about Down syndrome you wouldn’t have made this decision. I am not mad at you,” she wrote.

“I was so worried that my other children wouldn’t be able to connect with him in the same way as other siblings do,” Kiss-Engels said about the time she found out she was having a boy with Down Syndrome.

“But I was wrong. In fact, my children are closer than most other siblings are. Having a brother with Down Syndrome has helped shape them into compassionate individuals who know that just because you may be a little different that others, that it’s OK,” she continued.

“I know it can be difficult to teach our children about something we may not understand ourselves. I struggle with this as well. But this is a great opportunity and life lesson to have with your child.”They will remember the time that their parent said to them, it’s not OK to leave someone out because of their disability, race, or gender. I know you want the same things for your child that I want for mine.” The mum added she thinks she should have done what she said other parents of special needs children do and educate the class about her son at the beginning of the year.

“He’s always just been Sawyer to me and I haven’t felt the need to talk about Down syndrome to his class until this moment. I realize now that I have let him down,” she said. “I think we both could have done better,” she concluded, addressing the other parent.

In an update to her original post, Kiss-Engels says the parents of the birthday child had read her letter and got in touch and that Sawyer got a special party invite made for him, which he is thrilled about. Since it was first posted on June 24, the letter has been shared more than 4000 times.

]]> http://magazine.shopprice.co.nz/the-mother-of-a-boy-with-down-syndrome-who-was-the-only-child-excluded-from-a-classmates-birthday-party-has-penned-an-open-letter-to-the-parents-who-didnt-invite-him/feed/ 0 http://magazine.shopprice.co.nz/tyra-banks-is-the-only-voice-of-reason-in-the-supermodel-war/ http://magazine.shopprice.co.nz/tyra-banks-is-the-only-voice-of-reason-in-the-supermodel-war/#comments Sat, 25 Jun 2016 06:42:13 +0000 http://magazine.shopprice.co.nz/?p=3809 Shopprice New Zealand

This Tyra mail is just in and it’s all kids of inspirational amongst the supermodel drama going on at the moment.

It all started back in April when 90’s supermodel Rebecca Romijn told Entertainment Tonight she thought 20-year-old Kendall Jenner and 21-year-old Gigi Hadid were “not true supermodels”, which of course started a viral sensation around the world. However Romijn tweeted shortly after claiming her words were skewed in the article and she thinks they’re “both amazing & beautiful”.

All seemed well in the land of fashion and models until the Met Gala rolled around and yet another 90’s supermodel, Stephanie Seymour, told Vanity Fair she questions Kendall and Gigi’s status in the industry and would prefer if they were called “b–s of the moment”. Ouch!

While Kendall and Gigi remained silent on the matter for the past two months, Kendall decided to stand up for herself last week, writing an opinionated response to Seymour’s ‘cyberbullying’ on her blog, claiming she and Gigi Hadid are supermodels of their generation and that will never take the spotlight away from what supermodels of the past have done.

“If people want to call Gigi and I supermodels now, it doesn’t take anything away from supermodels of the past,” she said. “Obviously, I have so much respect for those women, but right now, we’re the models of this time. Significant? Maybe. Hardworking? For sure.”

Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid are in the middle of the supermodel conflict. Seymour came out apologising for her comments saying: “A supermodel is a supermodel. I respect and admire all these women in my industry, in particular Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner. Having been in the business over 20 years I know how hard these women work. Bravo to both Gigi and Kendall for their success!!”

Now the biggest supermodel of them all Tyra Banks has come out to weigh in on the drama. And who better to give her advice than the woman who brought us the truly inspirational America’s Top Model? Banks posted a throwback picture to her Instagram account from when she was an 18-year-old model backstage at a fashion show.

“What I DO remember is that even though I may look self-assured and confident, there was a lot of pain in my heart,” she started her post. “There were roadblocks and people who wanted to halt my success, but the fire in my heart and support of my mother kept me going.

Washington (AFP) – Flooding in the US state of West Virginia killed 23 people and stranded others who had to be plucked from rooftops and rescued from fast-moving waters, state officials said.

“The damage is widespread and devastating. Our focus remains on search and rescue,” Governor Earl Ray Tomblin told a news conference after floods caused by a day of heavy rains. “I had planned to fly around the affected areas myself today but wasn’t able to, because all state aircrafts are currently being used for rescues,” he said.

Tomblin gave a death toll of 14 from the disaster, but later Friday Jessica Tice, with the state’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management office, told AFP that the toll had reached 23. The dead included an eight-year-old boy who was swept away while walking along a creek bank with his mother and sister, local news station WSAZ reported. His body was found after three hours of searching.

At least six counties have extensive structural damage and about 66,000 people were without power, the governor said. US Senator Shelley Moore Capito said that she had been in touch with the White House about getting a disaster designation for the affected areas.

“We’re pushing for the federal declaration — I can’t imagine that we won’t get it,” she told CNN. “We had a call today with FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency). They’re moving some of their assets in over the weekend,” she said.

About 200 National Guard members had fanned out in eight counties to assist local responders and 17 shelters were open for those whose homes were damaged or destroyed. About 500 people were stranded overnight inside a shopping mall in Elkview, near the capital Charleston, after a bridge leading to the main road was washed away, ABC News reported.

News station WCHS/WVAH posted a video on its Instagram account showing a house in flames being carried away by muddy floodwaters in the small city of White Sulphur Springs. A Twitter account for news and events in the town of Spencer, West Virginia, posted dramatic images under its handle @Spencer_Daily.

One series of photos showed a man in chest-high water using a rock to smash the windows of a vehicle whose occupants were trapped inside. Another set of photos showed a woman who had caught a giant trout with her hands while standing on a two-lane road amid stopped traffic.

A teen victim of a south Waikato school principal convicted on charges relating to online child pornography says he’s disgusted by the length of the sentence for the crimes.

Bruce Allan Darroch, 51, was given two and a half years in jail in the Rotorua District Court on Friday for making an objectionable publication, possessing objectionable material and failing to give computer passwords to police.

A teenage victim of Darroch yelled abuse and launched himself towards the man in the dock after the teacher’s lawyer had said he had put pictures of pupils online while developing the school’s website. The teen was removed by the court by security officers.

Earlier, he and his mother trembled while reading their victim impact statements. Darroch remained impassive in the dock, staring ahead. Outside the court the teen said he had no regrets for his outburst, saying Darroch had betrayed his trust and that of his mother.

Darroch was not a human being and failed to show remorse, he said. He no longer went to school and his perspective on life had changed. The teen said he was disgusted by the length of Darroch’s jail term when the person his former principal had exchanged pornographic pictures and indulged in online chat with had received two sentences of 30 years each. “He was involved as much as that one was,” the 16-year-old said.

Sentencing Darroch, Judge Tony Snell described the school principal’s exploitation of his pupils as gross and premeditated. The judge said while the photographs Darroch exchanged during online chat with a man in America were not in themselves objectionable, they’d generated explicit sexual fantasises involving male pupils. Some included children at the school who had been recognised by a police community liaison officer when the pictures were sent to New Zealand for identification.

He noted there had also been talk of filming pupils with spy cameras so pictures could be exchanged in the future. Darroch’s pre-sentence report said he demonstrated a level of minimisation and lack of understanding of the extent of his offending and had gone to considerable lengths to conceal it.

Images police had been able to find included naked boys, 27 of them involving sexual acts, while one was of a young girl in a sadism and bondage situation. The judge rejected a plea by Darroch’s lawyer Russell Fairbrother QC that Darroch serve a period of home detention, saying it would simply be inadequate.

Crown solicitor Amanda Gordon outlined how Darroch had asked an American known as “Administrator B” how to encrypt his computer and hard drive, clearly saying they contained child pornography. The Crown said Darroch was known by the online name “Lustboys KWB”

Rome (AFP) – Fans of renowned artist Christo faced disappointment for a second day Sunday after his latest work in northern Italy was partly closed by rain.

His ambitious three kilometre-long (1.9 miles) walkway of 200,000 floating cubes covered in orange fabric floating atop Lake Iseo was evacuated Saturday evening after wind and rain made it unstable. “Given the influx of people and potentially bad weather, it is advisable to rethink your trip,” said a manager at the installation in a statement.

Local authorities have also cancelled train services to the lake to limit the numbers able to reach the project. After being closed throughout Saturday night, the project only partly reopened Sunday morning with one of the two walkways still closed to the public. Crowds of visitors hoping to visit Christo’s “The Floating Piers” have been gathering around the lake since it opened on Saturday, with organisers hoping that 500,000 people will experience it by July 3 when the pontoons close to the public.

But the walkways can only hold 11,000 people at any one time — and only if weather conditions allow. More than 55,000 visitors attempted to cross the walkways on Saturday, forcing organisers who had anticipated just 40,000 to ask that they return another day. And by the early evening the bridges had been forced to close by heavy winds and driving rain.

Christo first conceived the project in 1970 for the River Plate delta in Argentina but was thwarted after failing to secure the necessary permits. Despite the long delay in realising his vision Christo said on Thursday that the project, his first since 2005, “stayed in our hearts”.

Hong Kong (AFP) – A veteran pro-democracy lawmaker was charged Thursday by Hong Kong’s corruption bureau over a payment from one of the city’s best-known anti-China media tycoons in a case he described as a political move.

Leung Kwok-hung — known locally as “Long Hair” — is a prominent activist from the League of Social Democrats. He was arrested and charged with one count of misconduct in public office by the city’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). He is accused of receiving HK$250,000 ($32,000) “in relation to his public office” from the founder of Apple Daily newspaper Jimmy Lai. The paper is highly critical of Beijing.

Leung told AFP his arrest had “political meaning” just months before parliamentary elections. It comes as fears grow in Hong Kong that China is tightening its grip on the semi-autonomous city and that the local government is increasingly influenced by Beijing. Those concerns were exacerbated by recent revelations by Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee about his eight-month detention in China.

Lam — one of five city booksellers known for selling gossipy titles about Beijing politicians, who disappeared and later resurfaced in China — claimed he was blindfolded and interrogated. “Everyone in Hong Kong will understand what it means,” Leung said of his arrest. With his trademark ponytail and Che Guevara T-shirts, Leung has been a defiant figure in Hong Kong’s legislature since winning a seat in 2004.

“I am a very well known opposition (figure) of Hong Kong, there might be some kind of political meaning,” he told AFP. “It will create a lot of political effect just before the next election.” When asked if he denied the charge, Leung said: “I’ll do it in court formally”. Leung has not revealed whether he is planning to stand in the September parliamentary vote.

Lai’s spokesman Mark Simon said they had no comment.A government statement on Thursday said Leung, 60, was charged with “wilfully and intentionally,” carrying out misconduct by failing to declare the acceptance of HK$250,000 from Lai between May 2012 and June 2016. “The case arose from a corruption complaint,” the statement said.

Leung is on bail and will appear at a magistrates court Friday morning. Hong Kong was returned to China by Britain in 1997 and is ruled under a “one country, two systems” deal which allows it much greater liberties than seen on the mainland. But tensions are high amid fears Beijing’s influence is increasing and freedoms are being eroded.

London (AFP) – With all the talk about European workers in the campaign ahead of Britain’s EU membership referendum on Thursday, many Poles living in the UK are concerned about what the future holds.

The Polish community is estimated at 790,000 people, making up the largest number of about three million EU citizens living in Britain who have become a key rallying point for the anti-EU cause. Paulina Coll, co-owner of a Polish restaurant in London with her Canadian husband, said the “Leave” camp in favour of Brexit have appealed to the “very basic instinct of the tribe”, with its call for a clampdown on immigration.

“I’m afraid that lots of the damage in my opinion has already been done, because lots of people have been made to feel unwelcome here,” the 38-year-old said in an interview at her bustling restaurant. She is not alone according to a survey of Poles living in Britain released on Sunday, which pointed to widespread unease among a large section of the population that polling had not previously captured.

As the campaign has become ever more heated, respondents to the survey by Polish polling group IBRiS said they had mostly negative emotions ahead of the vote — 11 percent feel fear and 62 percent uncertainty. It also found that 39.2 percent of respondents were concerned about a potential increase in negative attitudes towards immigrants following a vote in favour of Britain leaving the European Union. While 72.7 percent feel personally accepted in Britain, 34.6 percent said they think Poles as a national group are much less welcome.

- ‘I will be voting to stay’ -

Coll said she moved to Britain even before Poland joined the European Union in 2004.

“I came to the UK 16 years ago, absolutely fell in love with the city of London, with the English language, the culture, I felt extremely welcome here, and what was supposed to be my original two week vacation turned into 16 years,” Coll said. Originally from Ostrow Wielkopolski in central Poland, she now co-owns the Mamuska! Polish bar in Elephant and Castle, a multicultural part of London.

After taking British citizenship in 2006, she said she was keen to exercise her right to vote. “The tourism, the culture, the economy, it all benefited from the fact that we are very welcoming to everybody. It also benefited from the fact that we’ve got more people, young people, coming here, wanting to work and pay taxes, so that is why I will be voting to stay” in the EU, she said.

“I would definitely want my children to grow up in a multicultural, cosmopolitan environment. And if that’s not going to be possible in Britain then we will have to think of the next steps,” she said. Brexit supporters blame an influx of EU workers for putting pressure on public services and wages for Britons and say Britain has no way of controlling numbers if it stays in the European Union.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who is leading the “Remain” campaign, says his welfare reforms will limit some immigration and credits the economic benefits of Europeans working, for example, for Britain’s state-run National Health Service (NHS).

- ‘We will stay… I hope’ -

As revealed by the survey, not all Poles agree with Coll about remaining in the European Union. Bartek Kornata, a 23-year-old carpenter from Warsaw, who arrived in London three years ago, said he was as enthusiastic as Coll about life in Britain but said he would vote to leave the EU, if he could.

The only non-British EU citizens allowed to vote in Thursday’s referendum are Irish nationals and passport holders from Cyprus and Malta as Commonwealth members. He said he believes having “full control” over who is allowed into the country would be a good thing.

“Invite what you like to live with, what you need, and keep away those who just want to come for the benefits or have a free ride,” he said. “Remain” supporters have raised the question of whether EU citizens already in Britain would face the prospect of deportation — roundly dismissed by the “Leave” campaign as scaremongering.

Kornata said the reputation of Polish workmen had helped him find work, with prospective clients trusting he would do a high-quality job, and this boded well for his chances of staying in case of Brexit. “I’m pretty sure that the people who work here, that are established, have their companies, pay taxes and everything, we are good, we are fine, we will stay… I hope.”

New York (AFP) – Facebook said Tuesday it has signed a series of deals to pay celebrities and media companies to produce content for its new live video streaming service.

The test program calls for “a relatively small number partners that includes a broad range of content types from regions around the world” receiving “temporary financial support to encourage experimentation with this new format,” Facebook said in a statement. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the social network had signed at least 140 contracts worth a total of more than $50 million as part of the effort.

The report said Facebook was partnering with media firms including the New York Times, CNN, BuzzFeed and Huffington Post and with personalities including actor Kevin Hart, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and NFL quarterback Russell Wilson. Facebook did not offer specifics, but a statement from Justin Osofsky, vice president of global operations and media partnerships, said the partners “were chosen based on a variety of different factors,” including their ability to produce live content.

This includes “public figure partners who had already demonstrated an early interest in going live” and others “who would have relevant use-cases for live, such as breaking news,” Osofsky said. The Journal said 17 of the contracts were worth at least $1 million and were part of an effort to promote Facebook Live, the new service that allows anyone to stream live content.

It said Facebook has not yet determined how to monetize the new video service but wants to develop a steady stream of content to draw in more viewers. BuzzFeed, which drew millions to live video of an experiment to explode a watermelon earlier this year, is slated to receive $3.05 million and the New York Times $3.05 million, according to contracts seen by the Wall Street Journal.