NEWS: Fund-raising appeal launched for Braiden and his family

A PUBLIC appeal has been launched to help raise £5000 towards end of life care for terminally ill little boy Braiden Prescott.

Braiden-Lee Prescott

At only 7 years of age, Braiden and his family have to endure a battle with cancer three times, and his family recently received the devastating news that he only has a few months to live.

A crowdfunding appeal was launched on Wednesday through popular website Justgiving, has a target of £5000 that will help Braiden and his family through his end of life care.

As of Monday evening, they have reached £1250 of their target, with more coming in every hour from all over the world. Donations have come as far and wide as the US and Australia.

Many of those who donated to the cause left messages of support for Braiden and his family. Heather Kelly wrote: “Keep going Braiden. You are a beautiful lad with such great strength”.

Callum Hesketh, managing director of Impress Managing and Marketing Limited from St Helens, was honoured to set up and campaign for such an inspirational little boy.

“I am very proud for my company to be leading this campaign to raise funds for Braiden and his family at this stressful time. Braiden is currently receiving end of life support and has shown time and time again how brave and strong he is”.

The heart-breaking news came just days before Braiden celebrated his 7th birthday in spectacular fashion. Hundreds of people came together to give him the best birthday he could imagine, featuring the dancing storm troopers from Britain’s Got Talent, Alex Winters from CBeebies, Postman Pat, superheroes, a magician, a bouncy castle and so much more.

The Dancing Storm Troopers who performed at Braiden’s birthday.

Organiser and friend of the family, Mindy Johnson, paid tribute to everyone who came and made Braiden’s birthday so special.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, she said: “I’m totally amazed at all the help I received in making Braiden’s birthday so special and special memories for Steph, Wayne and the boys.

He only got out of hospital at 5am on Sunday as he needed blood and then he was on morphine, but he was happy and he loved eating the hot dogs and ice cream. He got hundreds of cards from people. The support has been amazing.”

Mindy has her own GoFundMe page which you can donate to here.

Braiden-Lee Prescott is diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer that can be ravaging to anyone, let alone a little boy. His family traveled to the United States in 2012 in order to receive treatment that wasn’t available on the NHS, costing them over £200,000 which was met by generous donations and fundraising, as wells as a sizeable portion paid for by the Neuroblastoma Alliance UK.

During treatment with the Children’s Oncology Group, his family received the devastating news that Braiden’s cancer had relapsed, so the family came back home to the UK in order to carry on treatment closer to the rest of his family and friends.

Since then, people have continued to rally to the aid of this very special boy and his family, and are aiming to do what they can in order to make Braiden’s life easier.

All donations are welcome and you can find the link to contribute towards Braiden’s end of life care with Derian house here.

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NEWS: Severe traffic disruption after building collapses in Oldham

SEVERE traffic disruptions are in place after a derelict building has collapsed between King Street and Oldham way.

Firefighters were called to the area shortly after 11:30am after reports that the building was beginning to fall apart.

Manchester Fire Service has advised anyone travelling in and out of Oldham today to avoid Kings Street after the dilapidated building collapsed, blocking access to the centre of the town.

The buildings collapse has meant that both lanes in and out of the area have been closed so that the fire service can begin clearing up the site and making sure that the area will be safe for members of the public.

In a joint effort, the police and fire service evacuated people out of nearby buildings whilst the area was made safe.

In a tweet sent out by their social media team, Oldham Police service has also advised any and all pedestrians to avoid the area whilst the clean-up operation is underway.

Officers dealing with a collapsed empty building on King St, Oldham. King St has been closed, please avoid the area. pic.twitter.com/8fAlDognsW

— GMP Oldham West (@GMPOldhamWest) August 12, 2016

Local mum Taylor Barnes wasn’t surprised at the damage, insisting that it ‘was only a matter of time’.

“My family pass up and down here all the time and we always said that it was dangerous. It’s just lucky that no one was walking past when it started to collapse because they would have been seriously hurt.

“Something needs to be done about all these old, unused buildings. It makes the area look really bad and is a waste of space.”

The abandoned buildings are part of a £1.3million facelift scheme announced by local councillor Fida Hussein back in June, which will turn this part of the high-street into a nicer and more safe area.

The key motivation of the initiative is to produce a joint public cycle/footway and to renovate five intersections so that they consist of toucan crossings. An extra crossing will likewise be added near the King Street corridor, not far from the building collapse, in order to further increase protection for pedestrians.

Speaking to the Oldham Chronicle, Councillor Hussein said: “The area had become a little tired and because of that we’ve decided to improve its look in keeping with the other street scene improvements we’ve made across the town centre.”

Two fire engines, as well as a Technical Response Unit were at the scene on Friday after noon.

Police and Fire services ask that people continue to avoid the area whilst the clean-up operation continues.

 

NEWS: Argos reports yearly sales fall

  

  
IN their report to the City this morning, Argos and Homebase owner Home Retail Group (HRG) have announced that they expect profits to be poor after a disappointing peak shopping period.

Compared to the previous year, like-for-like sales fell 2.2 percent at Argos in the 18 weeks to January 2.  

Their report also revealed that HRG expected profits to be on the lower end of the scale, between £92m and £118m. 

Yesterday, the group – who rejected a takeover bid from Sainsbury’s in November – revealed it was in advanced talks with Australian company Wesfarmers for the sale of Homebase for £340m. Discussions started back in September, and a clear offer was made in Novemeber. 

Wesfarmers owns the Coles supermarket chain, as well as Australia’s largest home improvement retailer, Bunnings. 

With Homebase losing out on contracts from various brands, it seems that this takeover has come at an opportune time. The details of the purchase still have to be worked out but if it were to go ahead, it would be a much needed reinvigoration of a brand that has been slowly declining. 

Last week, British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s revealed they approached Home Retail Group with the intention of purchasing Argos. Yesterday they revealed that if there were to buy the retail giant, then 200 high street Argos stores would be closed, and instead moved inside nearby Sainsbury’s stores. 

The supermarket group revealed that it is in talks about what they plan to do next after being rebuffed with their first offer. 

Colleagues of Argos must wait patiently to hear whether this news spells dramatic change for the company.

David Bowie’s final goodbye

DAVID Bowie didn’t just die. He performed his greatest work by including us all in the science-fiction spectacle that was his passing.

The Thin White Duke is, was and always will be synonymous with the word style. His profound influence on the world of music, fashion and sexuality will never again be felt in the same way. A part of me feels jealousy for those growing up in the 70’s and 80’s who witnessed him at his mesmerising best, but also a twinge of sadness, as they recognise that no other generation will understand what it meant to live life at the same time as Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane.

Eighteen months ago, Bowie learned that he was going to die after being diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer. And in true Bowie fashion, he set about his death like a playwright, dipping his feathered quill into a dark pool of ink, scratching the final scene of his life onto a crisp piece of parchment.

That quill offered us our final gift from a music legend. Blackstar was Bowie’s last album, and with it only being released three days before his untimely death, it may be his greatest.

With his first major record being Space Oddity and his last being Lazarus, he took us with him on the space adventure that was his life. In Blackstar, as the glittering, jewel-encrusted skull of the dead spaceman stunningly signifies the end of Major Tom, it is easy to see through that logic, that it was also the end of Bowie. In his final music video, we watched as he levitated from his death bed, indicative of the way that his tale will transcend his death. In the closing seconds of the scene, we see that skull once again on the table at the end of his hospital bed.  In the circular narrative that was his life, Bowie played his final act beautifully. His final record was a carefully composed goodbye to us all.

His final album Blackstar is also well documented as a way people describe a cancerous mound. In true style, Bowie used this harbinger of death as a stage upon which to play his last fictional epic.

Bowie drew on the influences of fantasy and Sci-fi in order to construct inimitable personas. But it was these personas that allowed us to peer into the brilliance of the man. Living life in various guises meant he could target the crumbling world around him and fashion it into one of acceptance. His influence and will were so strong, that he drafted cultural and social progression in a time of football hooliganism and racial trauma. His brilliance was a vehicle of social change.

Just think, without Ziggy Stardust, how would the peculiar, the isolated and the confused know that they weren’t alone? Without anyone there to rip up the rules of what it meant to be, how could society be unique, adapt and fight off the stench of stagnation? Without the music videos for ‘Ashes to Ashes’ and ‘Fashion’, how would directors grow the balls to show off their eccentric creations. Without his influence, popular culture would never be the same. David Bowie was a master of breaking convention and forever spent his life swimming against the current of decided normality, even till his last days.

I read a beautiful quote the other day which succinctly puts into words what I’ve been trying to say in this entire article.

“If you’re ever sad, just remember the world is 4.543 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie.”

His battle with cancer may have taken him from the world, but he still lives on. With his passing, his legend will live on into forever.

We all now know, there’s a star man waiting in the sky…

REVIEW: Assassins Creed Chronicles: India

ASSASSIN’S Creed Chronicles: India is now the second instalment in the trilogy of supplemental side scrolling games from Ubisoft, after 2015’s blemished but pleasurable ACC: China. With the revision of China’s primary gameplay and the addition of a few new features, it is obviously a better game than its precursor, but not by much.

In ACC: India, you control Arbaaz Mir, an Indian assassin who finds himself trapped in the war between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company in the year of 1841. Using the events of AC novel Brahman as inspiration, ACC: India’s story sees Mir try to save his girlfriend and recover a precious object, all whilst causing trouble for the dreaded Templars.

Absorbing much of ACC: China’s central gameplay, ACC: India sees Mir traversing a sequence of settings peppered with platforms, dusk-covered nooks and evil sentries. There’s a much larger prominence of stealth and covert actions in the ACC games than in any of the main games, with basic guard configurations and vision cones highlighting the safe spaces in which to dodge enemies. This, accompanied with Mir’s talents, allows the player to fashion an exit route which then lets you finish the level.

This latest instalment is the closest thing the Assassin’s Creed series has to a pure stealth game. Rapid traversal of buildings isn’t completely forgotten, and the two both work well together, with your stealth energy and abilities boosted by movement. But picking out one shining diamond in a heap of coal doesn’t do the game any favours. With sneak gameplay a welcome alternative to some fans, Chronicles India doesn’t help itself, as you often find yourself getting in your own way. Awkward controls make the game a more tedious experience than an enjoyable one and its taxing level system feels like a grind. It’s odd how the game seems to lack where China did really well, and there is nothing massively inventive that offers any incentive to pick up the game.

Another grievance is the games’ heavy reliance on instant-fail missions as a form of trial to the player. In the main games, you would recognise these as the tailing missions, where you had to follow your target without being spotted or heard. In Chronicles India however, these occur frequently and are punished by insta-death which quickly becomes grating. Initially, I felt that this was part of the level design and would only be part of the game. But as I played on, I found myself abandoning clever traversal or experimenting with different ways to complete an objective, by just scrambling to get to the end of the level so that I wouldn’t have to restart.

The gameplay becomes even more infuriating as you progress further through the fleeting five-hour campaign, as new hurdles and enemies come into play, with the ability to kill you in one hit. When this type of ‘one-hit gameplay’ is adopted early on it is easy to get to grips with, but with India, it feels like the developers have ramped up the difficulty as to extend the games short life-span. Explosive tripwires occasionally blend into the background, bringing a well worked level to an immediate and bloody stop. Those accompanied with assassin enemies hidden in the shadows of the later levels are a quick route to rage quitting the game, unless you constantly walk around with your eagle vision on. It feels like a cheap and vexing way to falsely prolong a game that had obviously run out of decent ideas.

By way of presentation, ACC: India cures the rigid sense of dull despondency that saturates Chronicles: China by inserting a brighter palette of warm colours and character anywhere it appeared promising. But the renewed sense of hope that could be perceived from its bright colours only goes on to hamper the players’ expectations. The energy granted by the pretty palette is wasted by poor level design and makes the whole experience feel cheap, especially with the one-hit KO’s. Even though the foundation of the game is solid, in aspect to the stealth focus that it carries off pretty well, Assassins Creed Chronicles: India isn’t the game that we were hoping it to be. With too many annoying gameplay peeves, the game finds too many ways to keep players from really appreciating it.

FEATURE: Manchester United Santa Run 2015

AS part of my news week in university, I covered a story on the Manchester United Foundation annual Santa Run and how people were raising money for their respective charities.

I interviewed a leading member of the 5 Boroughs NHS Partnership Trust and how she and her colleagues plan to run and raise money. Click here to be magically transported to the Quays News website and give it a read!

FEATURE: Cumbrian floods travel chaos

BACK in December, the north of England was battered by torrential rain and winds, causing millions of pounds worth of damage to local infrastructure, houses and the economy.

I wrote this story during my University News Week and it was published to the Quaysnews.net website.

Follow the link here to read my story.

 

Is Southpark: The Stick of Truth the funniest game ever?

Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Southpark is pure animation domination. After 6 years of hard work and countless rescheduling, their new game has been released and boy, it is as hilarious as ever!

With some of the most explicit writing of any modern video game, The Stick of Truth can only be described as a nefarious delight! This turn-based role-playing video game pushes the boundaries of what video game humour is allowed to do. So come on down to Southpark and leave your woes behind…

With a typical hysterical Southpark plot, this crudely animated series has given birth to an amazingly funny game. Playing the game is like going through one of the vulgarity infused episodes, often blurring lines and making you wonder if you’re actually watching an episode!

Playing as the new kid in town with a secret past, you are launched into the backward town of Southpark where the children of this quaint little mountain town are caught in the middle of a live action war game, fighting for the self titled Stick of Truth.

You can tell that developers Obsidian are true fans of the show as producers Trey Parker and Matt Stone were allowed to create the game as they saw fit. On stage at e3 2012, Matt said, ‘Working with Obsidian, it’s been really easy to make that distinctive crappy Southpark look!’

Tongue in cheek humour is what plays right into SOT’s ballpark, poking fun at overused game modes such as Nazi Zombies which is every bit as silly, sarcastic, smart and shrewd as the much loved episodes.

The game is cleverly written and diffuses controversy with brilliant satire even with certain parts of the game being censored for European and Australian audiences. There are at least some quite funny text descriptions in place of the censored scenes to describe what the audience is unfortunately missing out on.

Where the game falls down is its replay value. Fans of the show will see this as one long 14 hour episode which means once it is done – it’s done! Also the main quest-line gives you the choice to side with Cartman and the human’s or Kyle and his wood elf followers – neither attributing anything different to the game once you have made your choice.

If you are a fan of the show then this is most definitely for you as it is a celebration of all things Southpark!

Seriously guys, I’m super serial!

Cartman and the gang – Courtesy of BagoGames’ Flickr feed.