With this Schadowpork chop, fry thee wed
JENNIFER Lopez and Ben Affleck were last night celebrating their second wedding by tucking into fried pork chops.
The greasy feast was part of a three-day bash at Affleck’s £6.75million riverside estate near Savannah, Georgia.
The A-list couple tied the knot in front of their families and Hollywood pals a month after their Las Vegas ceremony. Actress and singer Jen, 53, who previously showed off her wedding dress on Instagram, once let slip her love of pork chops as a latenight scoff, which is a speciality in her family’s native Puerto Rico.
Let’s hope previously-wed Ben, 50, and three-times divorced J.LO, who wore a Ralph Lauren gown, will not chop and change again…
We save the NHS a fortune but without help I will need hospital
I should get a refund but I’m banging my head against wall
at home. Without help, I may be forced to attend hospital again.”
Fiona Loud of Kidney Care UK said: “Some hospitals pay everything, others something, some nothing. This is just not good enough. Dialysis is a lifemaintaining treatment.”
Mid and South Essex NHS Trust said: “We are currently finalising our policy to enable patients to claim reimbursement.”
There are 30,000 patients who need dialysis and 5,000 do it at home – some for 35 hours over six nights a week, which lowers risk of death and boosts quality of life. They are also susceptible to the cold due to their anaemia. The alternative to home dialysis is three hospital sessions a week. Kidney Care UK says when the energy price cap went up £693 in April, patients faced extra costs of between £593 and £1,451 a year, depending on the amount of dialysis. That will range from an extra £967 to £2,238 when the new price cap is announced on Friday, with electricity expected to rise from 28p to 47p a unit in October. And those costs will almost double if the predicted price cap hits up to £6,000 next year. Geoff Gardner, 62, of Sandhurst, Berks, has pulmonary fibrosis and was given a year to live in 2018 – but is still battling with 24/7 oxygen. The ex-construction manager now pays £120 more a month for energy and gets £55 a month from the NHS for oxygen. But when prices rose he was left £73 short over three months. He said: “I hope the NHS is on top of this but I’m not confident. I can’t do without
oxygen so I will have to pay whatever happens.”
Neil Garbett, 65, of
Biddulph, Staffs, lives on a £250-a-week deputy head’s pension. He drives 90 miles three times weekly to University Hospitals of North
Midlands for dialysis but is yet to be reimbursed for his
£35 a week in petrol, despite saving the hospital £60 taxi fares. He said: “I know I should get a refund but it feels like banging my head against a wall. The last thing I need is this stress.”
Chief Nurse Ann-marie Riley said: “Mr Garbett’s concerns will be fully investigated and addressed quickly.”
MPS are pressing the Tories to act. Raising the case of home dialysis patient Phoenix Halliwell with Boris Johnson, Labour leader Keir Starmer told the PM: “He feels like he is being priced out of existence.” Shadow health minister Feryal Clark said: “Many patients get no or very little financial support.
They have to shut off heating or skip meals to afford vital treatment.”
The Department of Health said: “We are committed to supporting kidney patients with the pressure of cost of living. NHS England is working closely with all providers to ensure consistent measures are in place for the reimbursement of utility costs.”
nigel.nelson@people.co.uk