Anthony Kelly, 71, from Haughton, took part in the BEST4 Screening trial this morning (February 3), where a mobile screening unit visited the ASDA Darlington Superstore.

Having lived with reflux and heartburn for most of his life, and experienced first-hand the devastating impact cancer can have, Antony said he was keen to take part.

The retired electrical inspector, who now volunteers at St Teresa’s Hospice, has suffered from stomach problems since childhood.

He said: “When I was seven years old, I was told I had a ‘nervous stomach’ and since then I’ve been on every tablet and prescription you can imagine.

“It’s a lot worse now I’m older and it keeps me up most of the night, so I’m very keen to get it looked at.”

Anthony has seen the impact cancer can have after losing his first wife to leukaemia when he was 23-years-old, and then having lost both parents to the disease. 

Anthony Kelly and Irene Debiram-Beecham, Principal Research Nurse and the BEST4 Clinical Coordinator, who carried out the procedures today. (Image: Cancer Research UK)

He said: “I take prescribed medication for the symptoms, but if I miss any doses, I notice it getting worse. I had an endoscopy a few years ago, but this sounds much more straightforward.

“Any new development which makes it cheaper and less intrusive for these kind of tests is good news. The pill on the thread is fascinating and I’m happy to be involved in something which could help create a future screening programme.”

The BEST4 Screening trial is testing whether a ‘pill-on-a-thread’ capsule sponge test could be used to screen people with chronic heartburn for Barrett’s oesophagus – a condition that can lead to oesophageal cancer.

The trial is backed by £6.4 million of funding from Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

The test takes ten minutes to do, making it much faster and less expensive than an endoscopy. The trial will find out if the capsule sponge test can detect oesophageal cancers earlier, reducing the need for intensive treatments and preventing deaths.

Anthony Kelly and Irene Debiram-Beecham, Principal Research Nurse and the BEST4 Clinical Coordinator, who carried out the procedures today. (Image: Cancer Research UK)

The capsule sponge starts off as a small, coated pill attached to a piece of thread. When a patient swallows the pill and it reaches the stomach, the coating dissolves and the sponge inside it expands to the size of a cherry tomato.

The sponge collects cells from the oesophagus, and they are sent for testing for two proteins which tell doctors if someone has Barrett’s oesophagus or oesophageal cancer.

Following the initial rollout of the trial in Cambridgeshire in November 2024, the trial aims to recruit 120,000 people who regularly take medication for heartburn.

According to analysis from Cancer Research UK, there are around 9,300 new cases of oesophageal cancer in the UK every year.

It is the seventh most common cause of cancer death in the UK, with around 22 deaths a day from the disease.

The BEST4 Screening trial will find out if a new ‘pill-on-a-thread’ test could be used to screen people with heartburn for Barrett’s oesophagus (Image: Cancer Research UK)

Consultant gastroenterologist at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and principal investigator of the BEST4 Screening trial in North Teesside and Darlington, Professor Matt Rutter, said: “Oesophageal cancer is becoming more commonly recognised in the UK. Despite advances in treating the disease over recent years, only one in five people survive this cancer for five years or more.

“The capsule sponge test is much quicker, less expensive and can be delivered in the community. We hope that the BEST4 Screening trial will help us identify more people earlier and crucially reduce deaths from oesophageal cancer.”

The trial is open to men aged 55 to 79 and women aged 65 to 79 who have regular symptoms of heartburn, acid reflux, or indigestion, or who regularly use medication to manage these symptoms.

If you receive a text message from NHSresearch, you can click the link to sign up, or sign up through the Heartburn Health website: https://www.heartburnhealth.org/join-the-programme/ 

Former Manchester United and England defender Wes Brown has been asked about the prospect of former team-mate David Beckham owning his first club in the future

Former Manchester United star Wes Brown believes it would be a dream come true if David Beckham returned to Old Trafford as an owner in the future. The megastar departed United in 2003 to join Real Madrid for a £25million fee after falling out with Sir Alex Ferguson.

The ex-England captain and United academy product is already firmly involved in the world of football club ownership. Beckham, 50, is a team owner of Inter Miami in Major League Soccer and, more recently, became a leading member of a consortium that owns Salford City.

United’s major shareholders, the Glazer family, have proven deeply unpopular in their time with the club, and speculation over a sale has been rife in recent years. Such uncertainty saw Sir Jim Ratcliffe arrive as a co-owner in 2024 after buying a 27 per cent share for £1.25bn

Ratcliffe’s tenure has seen him become a face of the club’s ownership and he has proven controversial. United have seen a number of cost-cutting measures, including widespread redundancies, and in some corners, an appetitite for a takeover remains.

Brown does not believe a bid from Beckham is imminent, but believes it would be a dream move. “Could Becks come back to United as owner one day? Becks has done fantastic at Inter Miami,” the former defender told BettingLounge.

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He’s brought in some great players. They are building the team again now to go bigger and bigger to become this worldwide brand. He’s done brilliantly in that sense.

Manchester United is a little bit different. Inter Miami are a new team that needs to get itself out there to the world. I don’t think anybody thinks United need to get themselves out there!

But Becks back at United? It would be a dream come true if that was ever the case but I think Sir David is busy enough at the moment.

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Beckham’s ownership group behind Inter Miami formed in 2013 as Miami Beckham United. The ex-AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain loanee agreed a deal when he joined LA Galaxy that allowed him to own an expansion team for a discounted franchise fee.

Speaking in 2023, when United were actively in search of new owners, Beckham explained what he wanted to see happen at that level.

“Whoever is running your club, you want them to be passionate, be involved, make the right decisions, bring in the right players and invest in the club,” he said.

“Because the club does need investment, whether it’s the training facility, stadium, on the field…these kinds of big things need to be made and changes do need to happen, especially when you see the likes of Man City and what they’re doing.”

At least 170 people have been killed by a mob of gunmen in Nigeria, a local lawmaker has told the Reuters news agency.

The attack on the remote village of Woro on Tuesday is among the deadliest of the year so far in a country currently rocked by sectarian violence.

The jihadist raiders had demanded villagers embrace Sharia law, survivors told Reuters.

When they pushed back the militants opened fire.

Residents were rounded up, with their hands bound behind their backs before being executed, local lawmaker Saidu Baba Ahmed claimed.

He added that authorities are still combing through the bushland to find survivors.

He told Reuters: “As I’m speaking to you ​now, I’m in the village along with military personnel, sorting dead bodies and combing the surrounding areas for more.”

The attackers also torched homes and shops before fleeing.

Read more from Sky News:
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Air India flight grounded after ‘possible defect’

Woro sits in the central region of Kwara – an area increasingly targeted by gunmen who raid ​villages, kidnap residents and loot livestock.

Kwara police spokesperson Adetoun Ejire-Adeyem said the police and ‌military have been mobilised to the area for a search-and-rescue ‍operation.

He declined to provide exact casualty details.

Just last month around 150 churchgoers were kidnapped by a group of bandits in Nigeria.

Nigeria has become a focal point for the United States in recent months, after President Donald Trump accused it last year of failing to protect Christians.

It led to American forces striking what they described as terrorist targets on Christmas Day.

In a new Channel 4 documentary Our Yorkshire Pub Rescue, Richardson, 43, who is known for his appearances on 8 Out of 10 Cats and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown becomes a shareholder in Fadmoor Community Pub Limited, and shows how he works with the community to breathe life back into their local boozer.

Along the way, the Waterloo Road star will get involved in the renovation and be on hand to tackle a variety of challenges.

Ahead of the release of Our Yorkshire Pub Rescue, Richardson discusses what his experience has been like.

HAS IT ALWAYS BEEN A DREAM TO OWN A PUB?

JON RICHARDSON: Yeah, it has been. I mentioned to my accountant once that my long-term goal was to own a pub, and I think it was the closest he’s come to punching me in the face. So this is like a dream. It’s a dream option where you don’t have to own the full pub, but you get to gob off about what you think they should have and what you think they should sell.

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH THE PLOUGH?

JON RICHARDSON: We talked with a production company about doing something around pubs, and specifically community-owned pubs, and then they heard about The Plough. We went up and did a visit and met everyone, and it just seemed right immediately. The people there were amazing, and the building was great. It was a quick turnaround from finding the building to getting Channel 4 to back it, so we were quite lucky.

THE RELEASE OF THIS DOCUMENTARY COMES AS THE GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCED ITS U-TURN AND A SUPPORT PACKAGE FOR PUBs. DOES it HIGHLIGHT HOW MUCH LOCAL PUBS ARE STRUGGLING?

JON RICHARDSON: Yeah, I think that’s been happening a long time. I think pubs have faced various challenges over the years. There’s always something on beer duties. At the moment, I think there’s a big problem around pubs, and a limit to what the publicans themselves are able to do in in the buildings that they run.

You can feel a clash between the problems that pubs are facing and their importance in the country. Lockdown was defined by the access you had to a pub. I feel like every different phase we were in was about whether you could eat in a pub, drink in a pub, sitting two people in a pub. Their importance can’t be overstated.

“We haven’t got into the business race thing on this series, because it just feels like pubs face one problem after another. What we’re trying to get into are the core values of a pub and what do you have to offer a local community that means you get to stay open for 50 years.

WHAT OBSTACLES DID YOU COME ACROSS?

JON RICHARDSON: There’s been so many. The first time I walked in, I could not believe there were no walls, no floor, no electrics, no toilets. I was flabbergasted. So even the starting point to me was this is more Grand Designs than a pub series. This is actually building something from scratch.

WHAT SORT OF LANDLORD WOULD YOU BE?

JON RICHARDSON: I’d be a terrible landlord because I’m quite grumpy. Ultimately, what I like, this is the real problem facing pubs: quiet pubs. I like pubs where I can sit in the corner, maybe stroke a dog now and again, go and get a pint, sit and not be bothered.

But for The Plough to succeed, it needs to be busy and full all the time, which I would be advising them against – let’s not have too many people in.

The great thing about this is that I don’t have to be. At some point, the shareholders will have to hand over the pub to somebody who’s going to run it, and that’ll be a really interesting phase, because at the moment, they’re doing everything themselves.

HOW DID YOU FIND THE MANUAL LABOUR? DO WE SEE YOU DOING A LOT OF IT DURING THE SERIES?

JON RICHARDSON: That is a recurring theme. If that’s what you’re into, people laughing at my efforts, then I’ll be pleased to tell you people were mocking my driving, my parking, the sandwiches that I bring at lunchtime. That is a recurring theme. But the manual labour I loved, because I’ve never done anything like it.

I’ve been doing comedy for 20 years, so there’s no tangible thing I’ve ever achieved.

So even just to grout a tile and to be able to say, ‘I can come for a wee in here in like 30 years and see that bit of grouting and know that I did it’, it’s a totally unique feeling to me.

So I’ll take the mockery. Just to say, we did a bit of plastering outside. I repointed part of the stone wall outside, and I never felt more like a toddler showing a picture of a dog to be pinned on the fridge. I’ve sent that picture of that repointing to every friend and family member I’ve got.

DO PUBS NEED TO EMBRACE THE COUNTRY’S CHANGING DRINKING HABITS?

JON RICHARDSON: I think we’re known as being a bit uptight in this country. And I think the pub is one of the few places where you’ll have a table full of nanas together, just giggling and howling and owning up to stuff.

And you’ll have men who wouldn’t talk in any other situation having conversations that they didn’t think they were going to talk about when they arrived. There are essentials for that, and that is not booze-reliant, which I’m realising now.

Our Yorkshire Pub Rescue, is on More 4 tonight (Wednesday) at 9pm. on Wednesday.