It wasn’t all bad

For the first time, Kew Gardens has opened to the public a vast swathe of woodland that once belonged to Henry VII. The 40-acre site, which used to be part of a deer park connected to the king’s royal estate, was donated to the Royal Botanic Gardens by Queen Victoria in 1898. Since then, it has been left largely untouched, but a new woodland walk offers visitors a route through some of its trees – among them sweet chestnuts planted in the 17th century and species of ancient yew.

A young woman who was so ill as a teenager that she went to court to fight for the right to die has celebrated her graduation from university. Hannah Jones, from New Quay in Ceredigion, was 13 when she was told she needed a heart transplant. Having already had chemotherapy for leukaemia, followed by surgery to repair a hole in her heart caused by that treatment, she couldn’t face such a major operation. She won her case – but then changed her mind, and received a new heart a year later. Now, aged 22, Jones has received a degree in English and drama from Aberystwyth University, and is shortly to start a teaching course. “I am very grateful for the chance to live,” she said.

In the 1950s, the Thames was declared “biologically dead”. Today, however, seals are thriving in the Thames Estuary, and have been seen as far west up the river as Teddington Lock. A Zoological Society of London study estimates that the estuary was home to 1,552 grey seals last year, up from 655 in 2013. Harbour seals are doing almost as well: there were 964 last year, up nearly 50% on 2013. Conservationists think numbers are rising because more seals are travelling from Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk to feed and rest in the estuary.