Less than a year ago, Carrie Wallace described herself as deeply unhappy and lacking confidence.

When Carrie Wallace from Livingston looks back at the past year, it’s not just her weight loss that stands out – it’s how completely her life has changed.

Less than a year ago, she described herself as deeply unhappy and lacking confidence. She avoided mirrors, felt uncomfortable in her own skin, and dreaded shopping for clothes, often hiding behind oversized, baggy outfits. Even simple daily tasks were a struggle.

The moment that changed everything came when she looked at a photograph of herself.

Although she was smiling in the picture, it didn’t reflect how she truly felt.

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“I was really unfit,” she said. “Even walking upstairs at home would leave me out of breath.”

“I wasn’t happy when I looked at it. That’s when I knew something had to change.”

Encouraged by a friend and inspired by her mum’s success, Carrie made the decision to join Slimming World – a step she admits she initially found daunting.

That sense of belonging quickly became a cornerstone of her journey. What first felt overwhelming soon became reassuring, as everything was clearly explained and she realised she wasn’t alone.

“I was really nervous walking into group because I didn’t know anyone,” she said. “But within five minutes, I felt so welcome.

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“I love the group I go to. Everyone is so supportive even outside of group.”

Before joining, her eating habits were inconsistent. She often skipped breakfast and sometimes lunch, only to eat a large evening meal followed by snacking late at night.

Crisps, she admits, were her “downfall.” With guidance from her consultant and encouragement from fellow members, Carrie began to build new habits.

In her first week she was delighted with a weight loss but naturally she hoped for more – but she now sees her weight loss as healthy and sustainable for life.

Now, her relationship with food has completely transformed. She plans her meals, shops with intention, and enjoys experimenting in the kitchen.

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She said: “I love Slimming World’s healthy eating plan and continue to enjoy family favourites like pasta, rice dishes and spaghetti Bolognese.

“It feels balanced now. I don’t feel like I’m missing out.”

Over nine months, Carrie continues to lose weight, and the biggest transformation has been in how she feels about herself.

Along the way, she has received support to build activity into her daily life and is reaping the rewards. Her fitness has improved dramatically too. She now has far more energy and has taken on challenges she once never imagined possible.

She’s recently completed the Couch to 5K programme and has found a love of running, alongside walking on the days in between.

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She has even climbed a couple of Munros, something that would have felt completely out of reach before.

There have still been difficult weeks, she admits. But having the support of her group and her Slimming World consultant has helped her stay on track.

She added: “On the weeks it has been tough my Slimming World group has supported me with identifying the psychological barriers that have been deep routed, they have encouraged me to get to know myself as a slimmer and boosted my confidence in myself and my abilities.”

Now, Carrie is ready to give that same support back to others. She is embarking on an exciting new role as a Slimming World consultant and will be relaunching the Broxburn Wednesday evening group which is held in Buchan Park Bowling Club on Greendykes Road on Wednesday, April 15, with sessions at 5.30pm and 7pm.

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Drawing on her own experience, she hopes to create a warm, welcoming space where others – no matter how nervous they feel at first – can begin their own journey.

For Carrie, this next chapter is about more than weight loss. It’s about helping others build confidence, find support, and realise that lasting change is possible.

Because, as she now knows for certain – they really can do it.

If you want to find out more about joining Carrie and beginning your own weight loss journey give her a call or text on 07359 725428.

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Four people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a young woman found unconscious in the street died in hospital.

Detectives have appealed for help in identifying the victim, thought to be a teenager, who was initially found on Kennerleigh Avenue, in the Austhorpe area of Leeds, at 5.55am on Saturday.

She had suffered what police described as ‘serious injuries’ and was rushed to hospital, where she died shortly afterwards.

 The four suspects – two women aged 18, a man aged 20 and a boy aged 17 – were all arrested from a nearby address on suspicion of murder.

All four remain in police custody and a crime scene is in place while officers carry out further inquiries.

The victim remains unidentified and inquiries are ongoing to identify her, police said.

Detectives are also releasing details of her identity in the hope that someone will recognise her.

She is of slim build and has tanned skin. She is described as 5ft 2ins tall and believed to be in her mid to late teens, with green eyes and brown hair with darker roots and blonder ends.

She also has fixed metal braces to her upper and lower teeth.

Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Superintendent Marc Bowes said: ‘This is an extremely complex investigation where a young woman has sadly lost her life.

‘We are treating her death as murder and have arrested four people in connection with it.

‘Despite carrying out extensive inquiries throughout the course of today we have not yet been able to confirm her identity.

‘We hope by releasing these details that someone will recognise who she is and come forward.

‘I am also keen to speak to anyone who was in the Kennerleigh Avenue area in the early hours of this morning, or anyone who may have seen any suspicious activity in the vicinity.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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Taylor Wimpey North East is set to deliver 93 new properties in the second phase of its Seaham Garden Village project, located by Durham’s Heritage Coast.

The latest phase includes a mix of three, four and five-bedroom houses, as well as two-bedroom apartments, all part of a well-connected neighbourhood.

Sarah Whittingham, sales and marketing director at Taylor Wimpey North East, said: “We are looking forward to welcoming visitors to the launch of our second phase at Seaham Garden Village.

“Located by Durham’s Heritage Coast, this next phase will provide a further range of high-quality homes, as we continue to support the growth of the community.

“The development prioritises biodiversity and green spaces, to create healthier environments for both residents and wildlife, making it a great addition to the local area.”

The launch weekend will take place on March 28 and 29 at the Phase 1 sales office in Seaham.

Visitors can speak with a Sales Executive about the first release of the homes and receive free advice from an Independent Financial Advisor.

Taylor Wimpey is already delivering 192 homes as part of Phase 1, with a range of homes still available to reserve.

Plans for the development focus on fostering a well-connected neighbourhood, with green spaces, coastal views and pedestrian routes.

Guests at the launch event will be offered complimentary refreshments.

The Aviation Funding Solvency Act. The Keep America Flying Act. The Keep Air Travel Safe Act. The Aviation Funding Stability Act.

Again and again, members of Congress have dusted off the same idea: ensuring the federal employees who control air traffic and screen passengers and bags at U.S. airports get paid during government shutdowns.

Bills to make it happen keep getting introduced in one form or another, sometimes with Democrats and Republicans as co-sponsors. Yet session after session, the result has been the same — agencies receive their annual appropriations, public outrage over long security lines and flight delays fades, legislation languishes and workers have no guarantees their paychecks won’t stop coming again.

“Once the crisis is over, people assume that the good times are back,” said Eric Chaffee, a Case Western Reserve law professor whose research includes risk management in the aviation industry. “It’s easy to pass the next big bill when you’re still in the throes of the financial crisis, but once the shutdown is done, people have a relatively short memory of the problems that it created.”

Since 2019, after a partial shutdown that spanned the holiday travel season, lawmakers have drafted, revised and reintroduced multiple proposals to pay aviation workers who would have to keep reporting for duty in the event of another budget impasse.

The Aviation Funding Stability Act of 2019 — and 2021 and 2025 — and the bipartisan Aviation Funding Solvency Act introduced after a government shutdown last fall would protect the pay of air traffic controllers. The Keep Air Travel Safe Act, filed in October, extended the protection to Transportation Security Administration agents. The Keep America Flying Act, also from October, would cover both TSA personnel and certain Federal Aviation Administration employees.

Broader proposals, like the Shutdown Fairness Act introduced in January, would maintain the pay of essential federal workers across the U.S. government. Those bills have stalled as well.

“Congress cares about headlines, and as a result of that, it means they don’t always make changes that would be really beneficial,” Chaffee said.

Political gridlock

Shutdowns that disrupt air travel have continued along with the push for aviation-specific pay protections. The 35-day shutdown that arose over funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border during President Donald Trump’s first term resulted in delays at East Coast airports and prolonged wait times at some airports as air traffic controllers and TSA agents went unpaid.

Last fall’s 43-day shutdown broke the record for the longest funding lapse and revived concerns over the consequences of requiring air traffic controllers to work without pay. The FAA, citing risks to aviation safety, took the extraordinary step of ordering U.S. airlines to cut flights at 40 of the nation’s busiest airports as unscheduled absences deepened existing staffing shortages at air traffic control facilities.

TSA officers who worked through that shutdown also found themselves working through a short one that started on Jan. 31 and yet another when funding for only the Department of Homeland Security lapsed on Feb. 14. Thousands began missing shifts each day as the stalemate entered its second month.

Carlos Rodriguez, a TSA agent and local union leader in New York, said many workers had not recovered financially from last year’s shutdown when this one hit.

“Part of the American dream that I was sold was that working for the government was honorable and stable,” Rodriguez, a second generation Dominican American, said. “But this is not honorable or stable.”

On Friday, the 42nd day of the DHS shutdown, Trump signed an emergency order instructing Homeland Security to pay TSA agents immediately. The action came after House Republicans defeated a Senate deal that would have funded the TSA, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency but not Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. The House later in the night passed its own bill to fund the entire Homeland Security department through May 22, but senators had already left town.

Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the TSA division of the American Federation of Government Employees, said union members resent having their livelihoods used as tools and talking points in a game of political brinkmanship.

To them, the machinations of Congress feel like “let’s checkmate the queen with the TSA pawn here, and then we’ll smash them over whenever we feel like it,” Jones said. “We’re on the chess board.”

Public pressure builds

Labor unions, airline leaders and airport executives have issued open letters, taken out newspaper ads and made direct appeals to urge lawmakers to act on at least one of the existing bipartisan proposals for paying government workers who are essential to the aviation and travel industries.

“Congress has the power to end this dysfunction once and for all, and must use any legislative vehicle to accomplish this goal,” the Modern Skies Coalition said in a joint statement this week. The broad coalition of more than 60 organizations pointed to the Aviation Funding Solvency Act, Aviation Funding Stability Act and Keep America Flying Act as potential options.

The president and CEO of Airlines for America, a trade group representing major U.S. airlines, made a similar case in a Washington Times op-ed this week, writing that Congress “must get to the table immediately” and pass legislation that would prevent more scenes of frustrated passengers, overflowing airport terminals and donation drives for public servants.

“Right now, lawmakers are sitting on their hands doing nothing with three viable, bipartisan bills that could prevent this mess,” wrote Chris Sununu, a former New Hampshire governor hired to lead the trade group last year.

The American Federation of Government Employees joined more than 30 unions this week in urging Congress to pass the Shutdown Fairness Act, warning that funding lapses undermined employee morale, recruitment and retention.

Breaking the cycle

Some TSA workers have reported sleeping in their cars or thinking about selling them to make rent. Union leaders have described workers not being able to fill their refrigerators or gas tanks.

Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a former TSA officer who runs a travel newsletter called Gate Access, said the officers he’s spoken with are eager to receive all of their back pay quickly because they are struggling to pay their bills and accumulating debt. But without greater certainty, more officers may miss shifts or decide to quit, he said.

If the president’s emergency order only funds a single pay period, “that’s not enough to bring them back,” Harmon-Marshall said. “It has to be an extended pay for them to come back or want to stay there.”

Previous legislation with bipartisan backing struggled to make it across the finish line. The Aviation Funding Act of 2019 that was introduced by Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, had 13 co-sponsors, eight of them Democrats. It never made it out of committee. A House version introduced by Oregon Democrat Peter DeFazio eventually had 303 co-sponsors and cleared the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee but never received a floor vote.

The current political environment in the U.S. may consign the legislation in Congress now to the same fate, Chaffee said.

“We live in a society currently where things are very polarized,” he said. “Whether or not any of these bills get passed, it will need to have political momentum behind it, meaning it will need to be something that the public really wants to see happen.”

A humpback whale has once again become stranded in the Baltic Sea, just days after rescuers in Germany helped set it free.

The whale became stuck again in the waters off Wismar Bay, in north Germany, on Saturday, local media reports.

Rescuers launched a complicated rescue operation to free the 12-15m (39-49ft) whale earlier this week, after it became stranded on a sandbank at Timmendorfer Strand beach.

After crews used an excavator to dig an escape tunnel on Thursday, the mammal managed to swim free early on Friday.

It was later spotted further east, near the coastal town of Wismar, in the German state of Mecklenburg-Pomerania.

On Saturday, Greenpeace confirmed to German news agency dpa that the whale had become stuck again, dashing hopes that it had made its way to safety in the Atlantic Ocean.

A spokesperson for Mecklenburg-Pomerania’s environment ministry said: “After managing to free itself from its plight, the whale was spotted again at noon today in Wismar Bay.”

It has not been confirmed if a second rescue mission would be launched.

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Whale freed by rescuers

The initial rescue operation hit the headlines both in Germany and around the world, with local media sending news alerts of updates on its progress and streaming live video from the scene.

Authorities also attempted to coax the whale back towards deeper water by using coastguard and fire department boats to create large waves.

The rescue team tried to encourage the whale to swim along a trench dug for it by generating lots of noise, and the animal reportedly responded with a humming sound.

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The whale likely made its way to the Baltic Sea from the Atlantic Ocean, but it will not be able to survive there for long.

The salt concentration of the water isn’t high enough for humpbacks, and it will not be able to find the right kind of nutrition.

The whale has already developed a skin condition, according to local media.

Some experts suggested that the animal may have lost its way when it swam after a shoal of herring.

Others speculated that the whale is likely a male, as males tend to migrate.

If it is to survive, it will need to return to the Atlantic Ocean, which is a journey of several hundred kilometres through German and Danish waters.

Given you can buy a SIM-only monthly mobile tariff, with plenty of data and minutes, for less than the cost of a pint in your local, it’s hard to argue with the value on offer from Lebara. Little wonder then, that Telegraph readers voted it the joint best value award winner with Tesco Mobile.

The sweet spot tariff is the £9 a month 30GB deal, which you can get for £10 a month if you only want a month-to-month contract. Only the most TikTok-hungry teenager would burn through more than 30GB of data, and the fact that you can get that for less than a tenner is remarkable. For comparison, parent network Vodafone charges £15 per month for only 1GB of data.

To sweeten the deal further, Lebara throws in some international calling minutes with every tariff, which is great for reaching family abroad.

It’s worth noting here that Lebara doesn’t offer any tariffs that include a smartphone. While it does sell phones, it sells them on a SIM-free basis. Given its prices, it’s often cheaper than the phone/airtime bundle deals offered by other networks, and you can still spread the cost of buying phones on finance if you wish.

Speed

Score: 4.5/5

Lebara customers are happy with the speeds they’re receiving, with an 85 per cent satisfaction rating from the customers we surveyed. Only Tesco Mobile and Giffgaff posted (slightly) higher scores.

All Lebara plans now include 5G, although parent network Vodafone has some catching up to do with its 5G coverage, according to regulator Ofcom. Its outdoor 5G coverage reaches between 51 per cent and 64 per cent of UK premises according to Ofcom’s latest figures. This is a long way behind EE, which has 86 per cent coverage. Vodafone recently merged with Three, which could improve things.

Reliability

Score: 5/5

Reliability on Lebara is right up there with the best of them, according to Telegraph readers. A score of 94 per cent for network reliability means you can expect few dropouts or downtime, although it’s worth noting the 5G coverage numbers above if you need the fastest possible data wherever you might travel in the UK.

Customer service

Score: 4/5

One way in which Lebara keeps costs down is by providing support from its website, although you can get through on the phone if there’s an issue you can’t resolve with the online chat. Lebara is second only to Tesco Mobile in terms of the quality of its customer support, with the supermarket chain having the benefit of staff available in stores to help boost its customer service scores.

Roaming

Score: 5/5

Roaming is included with all of Lebara’s plans. This means that when you’re travelling to an EU country or India, you can use the data allowance, minutes and texts that are included in your plan, as if you were still in the UK. For other countries, you can buy roaming add-ons. In the US, for example, you can get an eight-day roaming add-on providing 3GB of data for £5. Of those we surveyed, 92 per cent were happy with the roaming value on offer, which is the best score of any network.

The city’s most recognisable building, part of the Durham Castle and Cathedral World Heritage Site, welcomed 393,090 visitors in 2024.

And recent reviews suggest its mix of history, architecture and setting remains a major attraction for those visiting the city.

Durham Cathedral (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

What is Durham Cathedral famous for?

The cathedral currently holds a 4.7 out of 5 rating on TripAdvisor, from more than 7,200 reviews.

Visitors have praised everything from its vast interior to its links with the Harry Potter films.

One person who visited this month said they spent “a pleasant few hours walking around this stunning Cathedral”, adding that a volunteer made the experience “even more special”.

Another described it as a “must do” in Durham, while a separate review called it a “beautiful, old and big Cathedral” with “lots to see inside”.

Others highlighted its architecture, with one visitor saying the “massive stone pillars, soaring arches and atmospheric lighting” make it feel “both grand and peaceful”.

The cathedral, which dates back to 1093, is one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in Europe and houses the tombs of St Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede.

Durham Cathedral (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

As well as being a place of worship, it is one of the North East’s leading tourist attractions, with free entry and optional paid extras including tower climbs and guided tours.

Several visitors said these added to their experience.

One reviewer said a guided tour was “well worth doing” and helped them “learn so much more about its history”, while another said climbing the tower offered “panoramic views across Durham”.

The cathedral’s location, perched above the River Wear next to Durham Castle, continues to be a major part of its appeal, with many visitors describing it as one of the most striking sights in the North East.

Nearly 1,000 years after construction began, Durham Cathedral remains at the heart of the city, continuing to attract visitors, generate discussion and cement its reputation as one of the region’s standout landmarks.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: “As a community, as an F1 community, we have identified that the priority number one, apart from safety, was qualifying, and driving in qualifying to the limit of grip and to make sure that the drivers that are best at exploiting the grip, and at times even take the risks to do so, they are rewarded.

“Here in Suzuka, because we have this shortage of energy, we expose some of the limitations of the current regulations.

“Degner One is now a corner in which you almost lift and roll through the corner, and then you have to avoid going on power between Degner One and Two, because that way of using your battery would not be efficient.

“Instead, that corner has always been one that the drivers will mention in a season, like what are the most challenging corners, that’s one of those.

“At the moment, that corner is kind of, you know, you think about the battery as you go through the corner, you don’t think about gaining half a tenth just by committing to it.

“The first corner at the Spoon as well, similar concept applies between the first part and second part of the Spoon.

“I can understand that the drivers push the F1 community to fix this, such that qualifying retains the excitement, the challenge, the DNA of being the moment in which the best driver gets rewarded, especially in the places where they can make the difference with the bravery and the ability.

“It is not obvious as to how to do that, but there are some possibilities, and there are some further meetings that will happen between the teams, the FIA and F1, between now and (the next race in) Miami, so let’s see what progress we can do there.”

Emergency services were called to Market Street in Stoneclough at around 5am today, March 28, after a car had crashed into a property, causing significant structural damage and forcing road closures.

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Tony Walters, whose home was struck, said he had been asleep when the incident happened.

“I was asleep, I thought a bomb had gone off,” he said.

“There’s been significant structural damage to my house.

“The vehicle went straight through my steel iron railings and front door and came to rest in the hallway.

“I was in shock.”

The car crashed through railings and into a house on Market Street in Stoneclough (Image: Phil Taylor)

Mr Walters said that although the damage to the property is severe, he and his son, who were both inside at the time, were not injured.

“Thankfully, my wife is away at our holiday home, so it was just me and my son. We’re not injured, but the house is very badly damaged,” he added.

null (Image: PHIL TAYLOR)

The crash also caused damage to nearby property and street infrastructure.

READ OUR LIVE UPDATES ON THIS CRASH HERE

Tony said: “It’s also damaged my neighbour’s property, taking parts off the wall and sending a brick through a window.”

Significant damage was caused after a vehicle ploughed into a Stoneclough home (Image: Phil Taylor)

A nearby bus stop had also been damaged by the vehicle, which the council have since taken away.

Ambulance were also on the scene.

Police have cordoned off sections of Market Street, with at least 10 homes within the closure area.

Roads in and around the village remain shut, with diversions in place.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service confirmed crews attended but said the incident is being led by Greater Manchester Police.

Road closures remain in place following the early morning crash in Stoneclough (Image: Phil Taylor)

A Serious Collision Unit is at the scene and investigations are ongoing.

By mid-afternoon, the vehicle had been removed from Tony’s home and builders have been called to secure the damaged property and board it up.

GMP have been contacted for comment.

Now that Megan Walsh’s (Beth Nixon) predatory grooming has been exposed, Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine) finds the strength to confront his own abuser on Coronation Street. Will he get the answers he needs?

After months of manipulating underage Will Driscoll into an illicit affair, Megan Walsh’s dirty secret is finally out in the open thanks to the detective work of schoolboy sleuth Sam Blakeman (Jude Riordan). The athletics coach and teacher exploited her authority to get close to Will and gaslight him into a twisted ‘relationship’, right under the nose of his loving dad Ben Driscoll (Aaron McCusker).

Playing Parallel to this story is Tim Metcalfe’s surprise reunion with Trisha Pinkerton (Anita Booth), an ‘old girlfriend’ from his school days. While Tim’s wife Sally (Sally Dynevor) was initially seething with jealousy when he snubbed their anniversary to meet Trish for a drink, it turns out that was the least of their problems. To Sally’s horror, Tim revealed that Trisha took his virginity when she was 20 and he was fourteen.

Despite Sally and friend Brian Packham’s (Peter Gunn) best efforts to convince Tim that he was a victim of sexual abuse, Tim defended the encounter as a ‘rite of passage’ that occurred ‘in a different time’ and refused to see anything wrong with it.

That’s all about to change.

With word of Megan’s abuse spreading all over Coronation Street, the scales finally fall from Tim’s eyes in upcoming episodes where he starts to see his relationship with Trisha in a new light.

When the Metcalfes bump into Ben, Sally tells him how sorry she is to hear about Will and explains how Tim was groomed by a woman when he was only fourteen.

Awkward, Tim tries to dismiss Sally’s accusations and does his best to play it down. However, making excuses for an abuser is the last thing Ben wants to hear and he snaps at Tim that he’s deluded. Will this be enough to make Tim see the light?

It seems that Tim’s got the harsh home truth he needed when later, he admits to Sally that Ben gave him cause to question his relationship with Trisha. Therefore, he decides to contact Trisha and get some answers once and for all.

Will Trisha respond? And even if she does, will Tim find what he’s looking for?