COVID CRISIS DEEPENS INEQUALITY FOR WOMEN
Host reveals how first pregnancy could have resulted in two babies
The descendant of a suffragette icon is calling for more women in power – and says the Covid pandemic has deepened inequality.
Dr Helen Pankhurst – whose great-gran Emmeline led the battle to win women the vote – spoke ahead of International Women’s Day tomorrow, as figures show 77 per cent of frontline workers are women yet only 25 per cent make up the
Government’s coronavirus taskforce.
The activist, 56, whose grandmother Sylvia was a suffragette, said: “We need more women in leadership otherwise they are marginalised. You must have that lens of someone in policymaking who understands. It doesn’t work if you only have the male perspective.”
Dr Pankhurst is backing charity CARE International’s Stop Telling Half the Story campaign, which aims to prevent women being shortchanged by governments in the wake of Covid.
A study by the London School of Economics revealed women make up 69 per cent of workers in lowpaid jobs. Almost 20 per cent work in sectors that have suffered Covid job losses and pay cuts, compared to 13 per cent of men.
Jennifer Hyland
Edith Bowman has revealed how her heart condition meant she discovered she had lost a twin during her first pregnancy.
The radio and TV host told how her pregnancy with 12-year- old son Rudy could have resulted in two babies.
Edith was diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic valve in 2004, a condition which affects blood flow in the heart.
The former Radio 1 presenter was sent for an early scan which initially revealed there were two embryos instead of one. Edith, of Anstruther, Fife, said a later examination detected a single heartbeat.
The 47-year- old, who has sons Rudy and Spike, seven, with Editors f rontman husband Tom Smith, said the couple have been open with their eldest son about the loss.
She said: “I’ve got this heart thing. I’ve got a heart murmur – it means I’ve got a bicuspid valve rather than a tricuspid valve.
“So my doctor was like, ‘I just need you to go for an early scan much earlier than you would normally go’.
“Rudy was a double pregnancy but they said really early on that his heartbeat was really strong and the other one’s was quite weak and they were like, ‘It’s very unlikely this one is going to survive’.
“The nu r s e wa s amazing. She said, ‘ You wouldn’t believe the amount of pregnancies that actually start off as twin pregnancies but because most people don’t come for scans this e a r l y the y would never know’.
“I would never have known as EXCITED Pregnant in 2008
there were no clear signs I’d lost, well, it wasn’t really a baby it was so early, to be honest.
“We’ve told Rudy about it and we’ve joked about it being like Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger from the film Twins.
“It was quite quick from being told that to then going for the next scan and going, ‘ Yeah, there is just one heartbeat’.
“Then it’s just being excited and trying to work out what you do until this thing arrives, hopefully healthy.”
Speaking on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby Podcast, with Giovanna Fletcher, Edith went on to say she had hosted Glastonbury in 2008 only 10 days after having a caesarean section with Rudy.
She told how doctors advised her to opt for a C-section as natural childbirth would put her heart under unnecessary strain.
But she said she has felt judged by some after revealing she delivered her sons by C-section. She added: “My doctor made the decision for me. He said, ‘One of the things that puts your heart under the most strain is natural childbirth so I’d feel more comfortable that you have a C-section’.
“There is a massive stigma. I ’ ve experienced it whenever the person you’re talking to discovers you’ve had a C-section. I’ve had two actually and they go, ‘Ohhhh’. You’re like, ‘ You don’t know my situation or why that decision was made’.”
Jennifer Hyland
The mum of a teenage bar worker raped at knifepoint said she wishes her daughter’s attacker would die after he launched a bid to be freed from jail.
Thomas McLean, 63, subjected his 18-year-old victim to a horrific two-hour ordeal after she finished her shift at a pub in Zante, Greece, in 2014.
The truck driver, from Whitburn, West Lothian, was released on bail and returned to Scotland. But he failed to attend his 2017 trial and was found guilty and given a 10-year prison term.
McLean was only extradited to begin his sentence in January last year.
Now the young woman’s family have hit out after he lodged an appeal, which means she faces having to return to Greece to give evidence.
Her mum, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said: “I never thought I’d ever say this about another human being but I wish he would just die.
“This happened seven years ago and the appeal has just brought everything back up again. It’s a nightmare.
“There’s no new evidence. We just received an email from the lawyer in Greece to say she had received a court summons for my daughter as he had appealed.
“We waited three years for the trial and then it took years to get him back to Greece to do his time. We fought this tooth and nail and now we can’t believe we’re being faced with an appeal.”
The woman told how her daughter, who is from the north of England, started having nightmares at the thought of having to go back to Zante in May to give evidence. She said: “He did the most horrific things to her, she was only 18. He kept her two-and-a-half hours – she had to beg for her life. He’s a vile human being.
“My daughter has started having nightmares again. She’s had years of therapy and just doesn’t want to face this again. The system is so unfair.
“My daughter will have to return to Greece again, all because he has the right to appeal. She just wants to move on with her life.”
McLean’s trial heard he made sleazy comments to the woman, which she ignored, and went on to stalk her.
He barged into her flat and carried out a prolonged attack. The woman was only able to escape after she promised McLean she wouldn’t tell anyone about the assault.
A jury dismissed his claim that she had consented to sex.
The victim’s lawyer Angeliki Petta s a id: “The s y s t em in Greece provides anyone charged with a penal crime the right to appeal. If the verdict is a sentence of three months or more, you don’t have to justify or give a specific explanation about why you want to appeal. Sadly, the victim in his case will have to return to Greece. It’s very difficult.
“Since Mr McLean was absent from his first trial, I assume he will present his own version of events. From the very beginning in court, his version of events was full of contradictions.
“In my personal and professional view, he won’t achieve anything with his appeal.
“The case against him is very solid, there is clear evidence of his wrongdoing and I don’t think he would be able to overturn the verdict.”
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: “We have assisted a British man who is now detained in Greece. Our consular staff also helped the victim throughout this difficult case, including during her return home to the UK and attending court with her to provide appropriate support.”
The Sunday Mail have contacted the Court of Appeals in Patras for comment.
She had to beg for her life. He’s a vile human