A Cambridgeshire carer credits an NHS AI physiotherapist programme with saving her from paralysis after it flagged symptoms of cauda equina syndrome, a rare spinal condition affecting up to three in 100,000 people

A 47-year-old woman from Cambridgeshire has spoken of the “unbearable pain” she endured – to the point where she wished someone would amputate her “leg off” – before receiving a rare diagnosis that affects up to three in 100,000 people through an AI physiotherapist.

Amie Smith, a carer, said she first experienced lower back pain on Sunday April 20, 2025. Initially, she tried to manage it with painkillers, but within days, the pain had escalated to “excruciatingly painful” levels and had spread down her body into her legs.

The mother of three secured an urgent GP appointment on Tuesday April 22 and was referred to an AI physiotherapist programme named Flok Health, which was being trialled by the NHS trust in her area.

Following a consultation with the AI-powered physiotherapist, Amie received a call on Monday April 28 from Kirsty Henderson, senior physiotherapist at Flok Health. Henderson suggested that Amie might be suffering from cauda equina syndrome, a condition characterised by compression of the spinal nerves at the tail end of the spinal cord. If left untreated, this can lead to paralysis and incontinence, according to the NHS.

The following day, Amie was rushed to hospital where she underwent an MRI scan and was diagnosed with the condition. This led to a five-hour emergency lumbar decompression surgery on May 1.

Speaking to PA Real Life, Amie said: “Initially, I thought (an AI physiotherapist) is not very personal. I felt like I was probably talking to a robot that couldn’t really help me.

“But, actually, if it wasn’t for that process, I wouldn’t have gotten the help that I did, and ultimately I would have had a lot more damage.

“I think there’s a lot of people in my generation and upwards that are very negative (about AI), but I’m really quite thankful for it,” she added.

Following a fibromyalgia diagnosis in 2018 – a chronic condition that causes pain throughout the body – Amie said she has lived with discomfort ever since, but what she experienced in April 2025 felt “completely different”.

Amie said: “I’ve always suffered with back pain, but this was excruciatingly painful.

“I left it for a few days thinking that if I just take pain relief and I carry on, I should be fine. But it just gradually got worse.”

Amie arranged a telephone consultation at her GP surgery on Tuesday, April 22, but she said the doctor “automatically” wanted to “blame” her new pain on her fibromyalgia, despite Amie’s insistence that it was “different” and that she was really struggling to walk by that point.

Amie said she was directed to the Flok Health app, which was introduced in February 2025 by Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust (CCS) as a means to help reduce NHS back pain waiting lists. She didn’t initially use Flok, because she didn’t think it was “very personal”, so when her pain worsened she opted instead to request an e-consult from her GP, which she didn’t hear back from. Amie said she submitted another one the next day and when she didn’t get a response from that one too, she decided to give Flok a go on Friday, April 25.

According to Flok Health, patients receive an invitation to complete an automated video call assessment and during this consultation an AI-powered physiotherapist will evaluate their symptoms to determine the right treatment.

It was during this consultation that Amie said the AI physiotherapist flagged her symptoms and lack of movement as serious, so encouraged her to go to A&E, where she was prescribed muscle relaxants and was sent home.

By Monday, April 28, Amie said she was “beside” herself in pain and she hadn’t heard anything back from her e-consult requests, but then her phone rang around 5pm. She said she was “pleasantly surprised” to receive an hour-long telehealth appointment with Kirsty Henderson from Flok, calling to see how she had got on at the hospital.

Amie said: “I described everything to her and I just felt like she was able to do what nobody else had: Give me time to tell exactly how this is affecting me and what’s happening.

“Straight away, she said that I definitely needed an MRI.

“She explained to me that it could be something called cauda equina, and that getting help urgently is essential because the longer it goes on, the more damage that can be done.

“That was the first time out of all the people I spoke to that anybody actually told me that I was at risk,” she added.

After gaining the confidence from Kirsty to advocate for herself, Amie said she contacted her GP the next morning, but didn’t make any progress. Consequently, a friend of Amie’s took her back to A&E, where she said doctors noticed she was “extremely upset” so they checked her blood pressure and found it was “really high”.

Amie stated she was taken “straight through” to being admitted and saw a doctor who conducted some initial tests and immediately sent her for an MRI scan. Within hours, Amie said an orthopaedic doctor described it as a “really bad situation” where her discs had slipped and they were trapping the nerves – something she later discovered in her GP’s notes as cauda equina syndrome.

Half an hour later, Amie said she was in the back of an ambulance being transferred to a nearby specialist hospital, where she spent a couple of days, until she informed a doctor that the back of her leg was numb so she was rushed into a five-hour lumbar decompression surgery on May 1.

Since the operation, Amie said her pain has eased but she has had to make some “adaptations” because she still doesn’t have full use of her left leg, such as driving her son’s automatic car instead of her manual one. She said she also struggles to walk for extended periods.

Mike Passfield, the deputy director from Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS trust, told PA Real Life: “The new AI-assisted approach is having a significant impact in our region, enabling thousands of patients to get faster access to expert physiotherapy support.

“Not only is the technology capable of treating and discharging patients at scale, but its red flag system means patients with more serious or extremely rare conditions are identified and directed to the right human-led service quickly to get the appropriate care.

“During a pilot of Flok Health in Cambridgeshire last year, we cut waiting lists by more than half. Thousands more people are getting immediate access to support thanks to the new approach, transforming the way we deliver physiotherapy,” he added.

After everything settled down, Amie said: “I went back to Kirsty to really thank her because I honestly felt like she was the only person that actually listened.

“She realised the red flags, talked me through it, explained the risks and what she was concerned about, and even gave me advice on how to try to get the doctors to help me.

“Now I can see that every 24 hours that was going by, more damage was being done to my body.

“That damage is still here today to a point, but had I not spoken to Kirsty and then gone on to follow what I’ve been told to do, I probably would have been unable to walk.

“I feel like I owe a lot to Kirsty. She made a huge difference,” Amie said, still surprised by how it all “started” with an AI physio.

Manchester United are still aiming to have their new stadium built and ready to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup final.

It is more than a year since the club’s co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe unveiled grand plans for a 100,000-seater venue close to the site of their current Old Trafford home.

At the time, Ratcliffe spoke of trying to get construction down to a five-year timescale, which raised expectations about how quickly the project would begin.

However, as has been pointed out privately, at that point the club did not have the land to build on, the plans were not in place and there was no detailed business case.

The five years, in actuality, starts from the point at which United get the green light to put spades in the ground.

“We did say it would take between four and five years for construction,” Collette Roche, newly appointed by United as the chief executive of their New Stadium Development, told the club’s Inside Carrington podcast.

“People read that as we might have the stadium ready for 2030. But it does take one or two years to get ready for construction; to get the land assembled, to get the funds in place and to get the planning permission.

“That’s the part that we’re doing right now. We’ve not named a date for opening, but we are on track within those timescales.”

United sources had previously told BBC Sport the aim was to host the 2035 showpiece. That private message has now been repeated as Roche told MUTV: “Our plan is to be able to host other international sporting events and entertainment events.

“Andy Burnham, the mayor, said his ambition would be for us to host the final for the Women’s World Cup in 2035, so if we could pull that off, that would be incredible.”

Laura Stanley was reported missing months before her body was discovered in Chorlton Water Park

Advertisement

It took a week to report her missing. Two months before her body was discovered. Another eight before anyone recognised her. A year before her name was released.

On a chilly spring morning almost exactly two years ago, a dog walker passed through a scenic park in a south Manchester suburb. Close to the water’s edge, they made the most horrible of discoveries.

A woman’s body was discovered floating in the River Mersey as it passed through Chorlton Water Park on March 21 2024.

She wore nothing other than a bright green Primark corset top, black New Look jeans, and distinctive dark green anti-slip socks of the type used in care facilities. There was no jewellery, no tattoo, no bank card or driving license to say who this woman might be.

For months, her identity remained a mystery. Police shared photos of the woman’s clothing in the hopes that it might jog someone’s memory, as they combed national and international databases of missing and vulnerable persons, looking for a match.

In the end, the answer lay less than five miles away.

Advertisement

Nottingham-born Laura Michelle Stanley was last seen at Stockport Homes’ Cornerstone offices in Stockport town centre on January 5 2024, an inquest into her death heard today (March 23).

A vulnerable woman with a history of mental health issues, Manchester City Coroner’s Court heard the 38-year-old had been taken to hospital the day before (January 4 2024) after being found in a state of distress on the M60 motorway, with drivers narrowly avoiding hitting her.

Giving evidence, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Edwards told the court that Laura was released from hospital the same day and given accommodation at Strathclyde House, temporary accommodation managed by Stockport Homes, where she spent the night.

The next day Laura met with a Stockport Council housing officer at their Cornerstones office, just off the A6, a busy road in Stockport town centre. There, she made disclosures that she had been the victim of domestic violence before Christmas, the court heard.

“She said she had been staying with a man she was in a relationship with,” Det Chief Insp Edwards said. “She claimed he had been physically and emotionally abusive to her.

“Laura told the officer there had been incidents involving a man strangling her. She was frightened of him and had not been taking her medication. She had been having suicidal thoughts and had tried to jump off a bridge in Stockport.”

That meeting on January 5 would be Laura’s last sighting. The housing officer was the last person to see her alive.

GMP were said to have since investigated the man for allegations of controlling and coercive behaviour, but no charges were brought.

It would be another week before Laura was eventually reported missing on January 12. But the court later heard that a Stockport police sergeant had ‘closed her file’ without Laura having been seen again.

“This has now been referred to police professional standards,” said Det Chief Insp Edwards. “If that had not happened, we could have identified her much more quickly.”

She was eventually retrieved from the River Mersey approximately four miles away from her last sighting on the morning of March 21, 2024. But it would be nearly a year before anyone would know her name.

Despite several public appeals, and extensive work by Greater Manchester Police, there were months of silence. Nobody came forward; no-one seemed to know who this woman was.

In November, eight months on, police issued another appeal. As releasing images of the woman’s clothing had born no fruit, Greater Manchester Police issued a digital reconstruction of her face.

Reporters were invited down to the spot where the body was found. Standing on a chilly bank, it became clear that the search was extending far beyond Greater Manchester.

“The River Tame travels through Tameside and the Goyt through Derbyshire and into Manchester, and both form the Mersey,” Det Insp Edwards said at the time.

“It could be that she entered the water somewhere else and she’s come downstream where she was discovered.”

The force were said to be looking at national and international databases, and liaising with police partners in Europe. There was even a mooted theory that this woman had been trafficked into Britain, possibly from Eastern Europe, so anonymous did she seem.

The reconstruction of her face was released to the media on November 29. Another three weeks later, it would turn up a match.

Advertisement

“On December 18, 2024, a Mr Collins contacted GMP to report that the reconstruction resembled his ex-sister-in-law, Laura Stanley,” said senior coroner Zack Golombeck. “We’re extremely grateful to him for his assistance.

“He provided a photo taken some years earlier and assisted in identifying her. DNA samples were also obtained from her two daughters which provided extremely strong forensic support that the deceased was their mother.”

Laura’s identity was made public in March 2025. At the inquest, the coroner asked Det Chief Inspector Edwards for her opinion on how Laura died.

“One hypothesis is that she took her own life,” she said. “But we can’t confirm that, nor whether any assault caused her death. We are just not sure.”

Mr Collins, who was the only representative for Laura’s family present at the inquest, then spoke up. “She suffered with mental health issues her whole life and she had suicidal thoughts,” he told the court.

“But she always sought help and never hurt herself. I think it’s unlikely that she took those steps instead of seeking help.”

He also took issue with Laura’s release from hospital the same day she was spotted on the M60. Mr Golombeck acknowledged his point but advised him to complain to the hospital trust, citing the ‘lack of evidence that [her death] was an intentional act’.

A Home Office post mortem was carried out the day after she was discovered on March 22, after police and coroners’ officers agreed that a forensic autopsy was required.

But pathologist Dr Phillip Lumb’s findings were inconclusive, due to the decomposition which had already taken place. Detectives believed her body to have been in the water ‘for a month or two’ when she was discovered.

“His investigations of the organs were limited,” said Mr Golombeck. “A toxicological assessment was not possible.

“There were no definite injuries to the neck muscles. There was some haemorrhaging of the soft tissue to the upper part of the larynx, which might have been related to decomposition or sustained through injuries.

“Pressure to the neck cannot be excluded. Signs of drowning were minimal and may have been lost due to decomposition – this cannot be excluded either.”

Mr Lumb was also unable to say whether Laura had died before entering the water, or ‘as a consequence of immersion’. The medical cause of death was recorded as unascertained.

“It cannot be said either way what happened,” Mr Golombeck remarked. “Her daughters simply do not know how their mother died and may never know.”

Giving his conclusion, and acknowledging the ‘substantial amount of work’ undertaken to identify Laura, Mr Golombeck returned an open verdict. Mr Collins said that this was ‘the conclusion he had come to himself’.

“There are a number of probabilities put forward, but none cross the threshold of being probable,” Mr Golombeck said.

“She had a history of mental health issues. I cannot be satisfied that she intended to take her own life, or that she went into the water by accident.

“I cannot be satisfied whether there were drugs or alcohol involved; or if there was a third party. It is a last resort, and I do not do so lightly, but I must return an open conclusion.”

Advertisement

As it was ‘not possible’ to say when and where she died, Mr Golombeck recorded the time and place of her death as March 21 2024 at Chorlton Water Park.

The inquest concluded with Mr Golombeck thanking Mr Collins for attending the hearing and for helping identify Laura. “Please pass my sincerest condolences to her family,” he finished.

Paying tribute to her last March, Laura’s family said: “Laura was a kind and gentle person with a great sense of fun and adventure. She was generous, thoughtful, caring and always keen to volunteer within the community.

“Laura was a proud and loving mum and she will be greatly missed by her girls and all of her friends and family who loved her dearly.”

GMP was contacted for comment.

It took less than a minute for a routine landing to spiral into a deadly crash Sunday at New York‘s LaGuardia Airport. But the collision between an Air Canada flight and a fire truck crossing the runway was the culmination of a series of events that began much earlier.

The Associated Press created this timeline based on a review of air traffic control recordings and information from the Federal Aviation Administration, publicly available flight tracking data and the National Transportation Safety Board, including information it obtained from the jet’s cockpit voice recorder.

A late departure from Montreal

10:12 p.m.: Air Canada Express Flight 8646, operated by Jazz Aviation, leaves Montréal–Trudeau International Airport, two hours and 13 minutes late. By the time the aircraft reaches New York, it is part of an influx of late-arriving flights, including some waiting extended periods for a gate.

Issues on the ground at LaGuardia

11:16:42 p.m.: A United aircraft, Flight 2384, aborts takeoff for a second time because of an anti-ice warning light in the cockpit.

11:20:48 p.m.: “We have an odor on the plane as well here at this time,” the United pilot reports. “We are going to be going back to the gate, request fire as well,” using shorthand for the airport’s fire rescue team.

11:21:12 p.m.: Another pilot chimes in: “If that’s a sewer smell … we smelled that too going around the terminal there.”

11:22:24 p.m.: A controller asks the United pilot if it is a smoke odor. He responds: “No, it was a weird odor. I don’t know exactly how to describe it,” and says he can’t get ahold of anyone to obtain a gate assignment.

11:24:49 p.m.: The controller confirms there is no gate available. He asks the pilot, “Do you still need us to send fire there?” The pilot says yes, citing the odor.

11:27:44 p.m.: United 2384’s pilot tells the controller he doesn’t plan on evacuating the plane. The controller instructs the pilot to move to another taxiway.

11:29:54 p.m.: United 2384 makes a wrong turn and ends up in a different part of the taxiway, but the controller doesn’t sound concerned. “You can just stay over there … and we’ll have the guys go over there,” he says.

11:31:41 p.m.: United 2384 declares an emergency. The pilot says: “The flight attendants in the back are feeling ill because of the odor. We will need to go into any available gate at this time.”

11:31:59 p.m.: The controller asks again if there’s an available gate, telling the person he’s speaking with, “now they’re declaring an emergency. They want to get out.”

11:33:39 p.m.: The controller tells United 2384 there is still no open gate, but fire trucks are headed over with a stair truck if they want to evacuate. “Let me know if you do,” he says.

Flight 8646 is cleared to land

11:34:18 p.m.: In a routine step near the end of a flight, the air traffic controller handling approaches into LaGuardia instructs the pilots of Air Canada Express Flight 8646 pilots to contact the airport’s control tower, which will guide them the rest of the way.

11:35:08 p.m.: Flight 8646 is cleared to land on Runway 4/22.

Fire truck is cleared to cross

11:36:45 p.m.: At the airport, a controller asks: “Is there a vehicle that needed to cross the runway?”

11:37:00 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company, LaGuardia Tower, requesting to cross 4 at Delta,” the firefighter says, meaning he is requesting clearance to use Taxiway D to cross Runway 4 — the same runway where Flight 8646 is about to land.

11:37:05 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company cross 4 at Delta,” the controller says, authorizing the truck and other emergency vehicles to cross Runway 4. Simultaneously, on a different frequency, the pilot on the odor-stricken United flight reports that his plane has finally been cleared to go to a gate.

11:37:08 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company crossing 4 at Delta,” a firefighter in Truck 1 repeats, confirming that the controller has cleared the vehicle to cross.

11:37:11 p.m.: An electronic call out in Flight 8646’s cockpit indicates the plane is 50 feet above the ground.

11:37:12 p.m.: A controller tells the pilot of an outbound Frontier Airlines flight to stop on a taxiway.

Flight 8646 lands and collides with the fire truck

11:37:15 p.m.: “Sorry, Truck 1,” a controller says as Flight 8646 bears down on Runway 4/22.

11:37:16 p.m.: A controller then frantically tells the fire crew: “Stop. Stop Stop. Stop. Truck 1. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.”

11:37:17 p.m.: Flight 8646’s cockpit voice recorder captures a sound that investigators say is consistent with the plane’s landing gear touching down..

11:37:19 p.m.: Flight 8646’s first officer, who was flying the plane, transfers control to the captain.

11:37:20 p.m.: The controller continues, “Stop Truck 1. Stop. Stop Truck 1. Stop.” As he speaks, an alarm begins to beep.

11:37:25 p.m.: Flight 8646 slams into the fire truck. The cockpit voice recording stops.

Aftermath

11:37:45 p.m.: A controller tells the pilot of the next plane set to land to “go around,” meaning he should keep flying instead of landing.

The controller then tries to raise the pilots of Flight 8646. “I see you collided with a vehicle there. Just hold position. I know you can’t move. Vehicles are responding to you now.” Other rescue vehicles race to the crash site.

11:55:37 p.m.: The pilot of another plane tells a controller: “That wasn’t good to watch.” The controller responds: “Yeah, I know. I was here … We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.” The pilot says: “Nah, man, you did the best you could.”

The flight bound for Torp, Norway left the airport an hour after is scheduled departure

A flight departing from Manchester Airport sparked concern after declaring an emergency mid-air and turning back shortly after take-off.

The Ryanair service, Flight RK3226, left Manchester at 8.39am, almost an hour behind its scheduled departure, bound for Sandefjord Airport, Torp, in Norway.

The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, appeared to be progressing normally during the early part of the journey. However, around 40 minutes into the flight, while cruising at 37,000 feet over the North Sea, the crew issued a Squawk 7700, the international code indicating a general emergency.

Get MEN Premium now for just £1 HERE – or get involved in our WhatsApp group by clicking HERE. And don’t miss out on our brilliant selection of newsletters HERE.

The plane then made a sharp U-turn and diverted back to Manchester Airport, the IrishMirror reports.

A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “This flight from Manchester to Oslo Torp (24 Mar) diverted back to Manchester due to a minor technical issue with the aircraft. To minimise disruption, we arranged for a replacement aircraft to operate this flight to Oslo Torp.

“This flight departed for Oslo Torp at 11:21am local time.”

Less than a year ago, Salah was sitting on a throne inside Anfield after renewing his contract and signing a deal until the summer of 2027.

His previous deal was set to expire in the 2025 but, given his numbers last season, where he topped the goalscoring and assist charts in the Premier League, the Liverpool hierarchy had no choice but to offer him a new deal.

Yet by December, Salah was benched – then left out of the squad entirely – after his explosive mixed zone interview at Leeds, where he claimed that his relationship with Slot had broken down and that someone at the club wanted him out.

Those close to Salah say he was always going to speak at Elland Road, regardless of the result, and that his initial discontent had started when he was benched for a Champions League game away at Eintracht Frankfurt in October, a match Liverpool won 5-1.

Slot admitted it was a difficult decision but it didn’t sit right with Salah, who believed he should be starting every Premier League and Champions League game, given what he had done for the club.

Put simply, that was the first seed that Salah would no longer be a guaranteed starter and, given Liverpool‘s summer outlay of £450m including Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike, the direction of their attacking strategy was clear. Salah knew he would no longer be the main man.

In the weeks leading up to that explosive interview, he was left upset after meetings with the Liverpool hierarchy, including sporting director Richard Hughes, where it was outlined that he could be benched.

His punishment for the interview was being left behind for the trip to Inter Milan but, three days later, Salah came off the bench against Brighton and got an assist – with Slot saying post-match there was “no issue to resolve”.

From there, the Egyptian travelled to the Africa Cup of Nations while the club held talks with his agent Ramy Abbas and, when Salah returned to England in January, those close to the situation felt a verbal agreement was in place for both player and club to part ways this summer.

Last month, BBC Sport reported that a summer departure was increasingly likely.

Collagen supplements have become one of the bestselling products in the wellness industry, promising everything from smoother skin to stronger joints. But do they actually work?

A major new review of the evidence – pulling together data from 113 clinical trials – suggests that, for some health outcomes, the answer is probably yes. But as ever with nutrition science, the full picture is more complicated.

Collagen is a protein the body makes naturally. It gives skin its structure and elasticity, supports bones and muscles, helps wounds heal and plays a role in protecting organs. The problem is that production slows as we age, which is why so many people turn to supplements to top it up.

Not all collagen is the same, though. The collagen found naturally in food may be less well absorbed than the smaller forms used in most supplements. These hydrolysed forms – where the protein has been broken down into shorter chains called peptides – are thought to pass more readily into the bloodstream and making it easier for the body to transport these fragments to tissues where they may have biological effects, potentially supporting skin, joint and muscle health.

The new review examined research published up to March 2025, drawing on 16 systematic reviews that between them included nearly 8,000 participants. The overall picture was cautiously positive.

Collagen supplementation was linked to moderate improvements in muscle health and reduced pain in people with osteoarthritis. There were also improvements in skin elasticity and hydration – though these benefits built up gradually, suggesting that taking collagen consistently over a longer period matters more than a short-term burst.

Some of the findings were less clearcut. Results for skin elasticity and hydration shifted depending on when the studies were conducted, with newer research showing lower improvements in elasticity but greater improvements in hydration. That inconsistency is worth noting – it suggests the science is still settling.

The quality of the research itself is also worth scrutinising. The studies used a wide variety of methods, doses and ways of measuring outcomes, which makes direct comparisons difficult.

Fifteen out of the 16 reviews included were rated as low or critically low quality – not necessarily because the supplements don’t work, but because of methodological problems such as studies not being registered in advance and poor reporting on potential biases. Many trials were also short and included few participants, which limits what we can reliably conclude about long-term effects.

Not all collagen is equal

Part of the problem is that collagen supplements vary enormously. Some are derived from animals, such as cows, pigs and chickens, and others come from marine sources, including fish, jellyfish and shellfish. There are even so-called “vegan” collagen alternatives. Some studies used oral supplements, while others tested collagen dressings applied to the skin.

The way collagen is processed also affects the size and composition of the peptides in the final product, which in turn influences how it behaves and is absorbed in the body. Lumping all these different products together in a single analysis risks obscuring as much as it reveals.

Individual differences matter too. Factors such as sun exposure, smoking, sleep quality, environment and hormone levels all affect how skin ages and how it might respond to supplementation. If studies fail to account for these variables, it becomes very difficult to know whether any observed changes are genuinely due to the collagen or simply reflect differences in participants’ lifestyles.

This review adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting collagen supplements are not simply expensive placebos. There appear to be real, if modest, benefits – particularly for skin hydration, joint pain and muscle health.

The research base still has significant gaps. Without more rigorous, standardised studies, it remains genuinely difficult to say what is driving those benefits, or who is most likely to see them. Studies need to clearly specify the type of collagen used, the dose, how it was delivered and the characteristics of the people taking it.