Amputations doc has own legs removed

Frances Barber on crash diet Drivers fined for taking too long to buy parking tickets

DETERMINED

A SURGEON who amputated thousands of limbs has returned to work after his own legs were removed.

Vascular surgeon Neil Hopper, 43, had to have the operation after falling ill with sepsis last April.

Mr Hopper, who works at Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, recently performed his first surgery after his own below-the-knee double amputation.

He said: “This is an operation I’ve done hundreds of times throughout my career so, yeah, I feel ready for it but I’m nervous.”

The operation went well and the patient is now recovering. Mr Hopper added: “Previously this would have been the end of my relationship with my patient – but now I know that this is where it actually starts.”

FRAUD TRIAL

PRESSURE Frances lost a stone and a half

ANGRY motorists have hit out at parking firms fining them £100 for taking too long to buy a ticket.

Firms facing appeals include HX Car Park Management, whose sites have a 10-minute deadline.

Furious NHS bio-chemist Becky

TV STAR Frances appeared in hit shows Poirot and Silk

Jones, 29, was fined in Nottingham. HX has rejected her appeal.

She said: “The pay meter had a big queue. I tried to pay online but it wouldn’t let me buy a ticket for two hours, so I queued. A couple of days later I got a letter to say I had a fine.

WEIGH TO GO Liz said she had starved herself

I realised I’d not got a ticket within 10 minutes. I was infuriated. I didn’t feel I deserved to be fined.”

John Wilkie, of Private Parking Appeals, said six firms are enforcing the 10-minute rule. He added: “It seems ridiculous – if someone is

ACTRESS Frances Barber has revealed she starved herself to make it in Hollywood – after speaking to her pal Elizabeth Hurley.

The 62-year-old flew there five years ago to try to build a film career and felt under pressure to lose weight to get parts.

So she dropped a stone and a half by not eating – and says it was thanks to some words from actress friend Liz, 54.

The pair starred together in Channel 4 series Orchid House in the early 1990s.

“I literally stopped eating and not in a healthy way,” admitted Frances, who dated director Danny Boyle in college.

“Elizabeth is an old friend of mine and she lost weight very, very rapidly a few years ago.

“I asked her how she did it and she said ‘I just starved’ – and that’s what I did. I lost a stone and a half.”

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live, she told of the pressure she felt to be skinny.

“It was really brutal but I was going to castings and I was the biggest person there, a size 12.

“I was twice the size of everybody else. It got to me.”

But Frances said the transformation was short-lived once she returned to Britain.

GLAD

“I came back two years ago and everyone said I looked amazing –for about 10 months.”

Wolverhampton-born Frances has had two Olivier Award nominations for her stage work here and appeared in films including Prick up Your Ears and An Ideal Husband.

But she says her experience in California made her glad she didn’t go there when she was young. She said: “I went a few years ago when I got a job with director William Friedkin but it didn’t work out.

“I got a visa for however many years and I thought ‘this is unfinished business’. I also felt like I wasn’t a newcomer so I could go into castings and had a CV.

“So I worked for three years and loved it but I missed my friends and family.

“I am happy I got it out of my system. I am also happy I didn’t do it when I was young. It is very tough for women.” paying for parking, why should they be penalised? Grace periods have always been allowed in the parking industry code of practice.”

HX, based in Huddersfield, West Yorks, said the 10-minute rule is made clear on its car park signs.