Which news story has always stuck with you?

[bunnyboo]

Irish here, we only legalised abortion about a year ago and there were some harrowing stories that stuck with me during the ban that forced women to go aboard to seek healthcare.

Savita Halappanavar's story always stuck with me. In 2012, she went into hospital while she was 17-weeks pregnant and she was in a great amount of pain. She asked several times for her pregnancy to be terminated because she had severe back pain and was miscarrying. But her requests were refused because there was a foetal heartbeat. Her waters eventually broke as she was miscarrying, but some severe complications occurred and she ended up developing sepsis. She died a day later of cardiac arrest. She was only 31 years old, leaving her widowed husband behind. If doctors could have intervened earlier on Savita's request, this situation could have been avoided altogether.

I know people might have different opinions on abortion, and it's not the nicest topic to discuss. However, Savita (and many other women like her) were denied the appropriate healthcare that they needed and left to die of something that could have been prevented.

On the day it abortion was legalised, I went along to a vigil for Savita. It was bittersweet knowing that we'll never face a situation like this again but for Savita and her family, it was too late.

 

[watermelon sugar]

James Bulger. I grew up near where it happened, a bit later mind and it breaks my heart to think about. My heart goes out to the family.

 

[mcfeez]

The Soham murders, Holly and Jessica. I remember only being a child and following it very avidly on the news.

 

[and nothing happens]

I can never forget the case of Daniel Pelka who was 6 and in the months leading up to his death he was severely beaten and starved by his mum and stepdad. He was so hungry he was caught stealing food from bins at school and apparently looked like a concentration camp victim, but nothing was done. Broke the heart reading about the case and I still get upset thinking about it now

 

[Ohflogoff]

Leah Betts. The photo of her in the coma. It influenced how I was around drugs and there was no better “just say no” campaign for me. I just automatically thought I’d take an ecstasy and end up like her. To this day, I’ve never ever touched it. All my friends did. It certainly shaped my attitude to it. I felt very confident to refuse, without hesitation.

Must have been so very painful for her parents to have shared that photo? But it certainly stopped me from experimenting with it.

 

[BethanyGilbert]

When I was a little girl a child died because they stood on the Christmas lights wire barefoot. I have always remembered this and now as a parent think about the poor family a lot.
A few years back there was a story about a little girl being awfully neglected. Her stepfather built a cage around her cot because she was a bad sleeper. She was the same age when she died as my daughter was when it went to trial (hope that makes sense) so it really struck a chord and stuck with me for weeks.

 

[Emmadale]

Hillsborough. I think I was about 10, my parents used to get the Daily Mirror and there was some really graphic photos of people crushed against the railings, I’m presuming they didn’t survive, I can still sort of picture their faces. It’s always made me a bit wary of crowds at gigs etc.

Also Jamie Bulger, I read a lot about the case and just found it so chilling what they did.

 

[Curly Top]

There was a story in the paper a while back that has haunted me ever since. It is so awful.

A doctor decided to surprise her lover with a visit. So she scaled a ladder to the roof, removed the chimney cap and slid down the flue of the property in California.

The lover obviously did not know about this (or maybe just ignored it - as he described the relationship as "on and off") and her decomposing body was found days later wedged inside the chimney of his home!

She was believed to have been stuck in the chimney for three days.

Can you imagine the sheer horror of that situation? To go down there as a bit of a lark and then find you are completely stuck and alone!

I am claustrophobic so this scenario is utterly unbearable to even think about.

 

[Platypusfattypus]

The zeebrugge ferry disastor. I was off school ill and remember watching the news with my mum all about the disastor. It was a ferry we'd used at times going back and forth from Germany (forces child). All of a sudden my mum screamed and burst out crying. They were interviewing a man on the TV who was my dad's best friend. He was on the ferry and had become separated from his wife and children. They told him on air that they were safe. I always remember feeling really scared because of how upset my mum was.

Lockerbie really stayed with me too. For years I had anxiety a plane would crash down where I lived.

 

[MrsSoprano]

Dunblane, I was in primary at the time and was petrified to go to school for a while as kept thinking someone will come into the school with a gun

 

[Chablis1]

The story that stays with me is: a couple and their two children were on a beach in Norfolk. The tide suddenly turned and the parents couldn’t get to their children who very sadly died.

I couldn’t get the thought of the parents out of my head having to return home without their children. And every morning waking up and trying to cope and come to terms with a different way of life.

 

[Hendrix]

Dunblane, I was in primary at the time and was petrified to go to school for a while as kept thinking someone will come into the school with a gun

I lived near Dunblane and was the same age as the poor kids it happened to.

I don’t remember anything as I was too young but years later my mum told me the local news didn’t advise what school it happened at and all of the parents rushed to all of the schools.

I also found out later that Thomas Hamilton tried to get into my school posing as some kind of teacher but the headteacher turned him away.

 

[orlyb1310]

A mother passed away in her flat, I think from maybe an asthma attack, leaving her non-verbal 4 year old alone by himself. His nursery came round to check on them a couple of times but as there was no response, they assumed they'd gone away and it wasn't taken any further. They were both found a few weeks later and the little boy had died in his mum's arms. Honestly one of the saddest things I've ever read and its stuck with me for years.

 

[Readread]

The young police officer, PC Andrew Harper from Berkshire who was killed by the travellers. He was the same age as me so it really resonates. Awful.

 

[DCICassieStuart]

All the well known ones, 9/11, London bombings, James Bulger..

Another one that sticks in my head is from about 20ish years ago when a nanny shook a child to death - I was young at the time and all I remember is the nanny was shown in court recreating the movement she did when she held the child, I believe her first name was Grace but I could be wrong and she received 15 years in jail. I’ve tried googling to follow up but can’t find anything.

The Louise Woodward nanny case happened around then too. 97/98 I think.

 

[MissRabbit]

The sixteen year old boy abducting and murdering the six year old little girl on the Isle of Bute. She was staying with her grandparents and her mother was back in Glasgow and apparently found out the news of her daughter's death over Facebook. What made me so upset was apparently the little girl woke up while the boy was carrying her and asked who he was before he did the unspeakable things to her. The sheer terror and suffering she went through. I had just had my first baby when I saw the news, and wanted to wrap him up in cotton wool there and then.

 

[NightFeeds]

I always think of the old woman who on the way to the doctors, got off the bus at the wrong stop. She was confused and lost, so just started walking and she just kept walking and walking. Eventually they found her body in a field, she had used her handbag as a pillow and her coat as a blanket and lay down to die. Horrific

 

[smellsofbiscuits]

Dunblane, again because I grew up not far from when it happened and was in P6 at the time. My mum also taught P1 at that time and her classroom was right next to the main entrance, where anyone could walk in. I remember begging my mum not to go to work the next day. And I also remember a news reporter live on ITV breaking down in tears.

There was a report on asylum seekers crossing into Europe via water (can't quite remember whereabours). One woman recounted her experience which involved her toddler who wouldn't stop crying on the trip. So one of the bastard smugglers threw him overboard into the sea. It was about the time I had just had my eldest and I was crying so hard that I had to pass him to his dad and go calm down in the toilet. Still think about that woman and that poor wee boy. We don't know the half of it.

 

[smellyfootballboots]

The London bombings April 1993

It was 17:14 and I was on my way home from college, waiting for my train at Charing Cross Station. The station was absolutely heaving with of commuters. Suddenly, all the shutter boards flipped to black, the pay phones had stopped working ( this was before mobile phones), the gates to the trains closed and the exit doors locked. We had been locked in. After what felt like ages there was an announcement that came over informing us that there was a bomb in one of the bins.

People were calm but many were crying and distraught. I remember it dawning on me that if this bomb(s) was detonated then we were all collateral damage. It was OK for us to die. The army and police came in and very slowly removed the bins.

It was after midnight before we were allowed to leave the station, but not by train or tube. My dad had seen the news which was quickly blacked out (they do this to stop panic) and had driven up to see what was happening. As I walked out he was being comforted by a WPC and he was really sobbing. I've never felt so loved nor been so pleased to see anyone in my entire life.

I was 18 years old.

FYI: That is the reason why their are no council bins London.

 

[Gym&Tonic]

A few years ago there was a family who were killed in an arson attack in Manchester a few days before Christmas. The mum survived but had terrible inquiries and in was in hospital for months, I don’t think she even attended their funerals. It was so awful and for some reason I couldn’t get them out of my head for ages afterwards.