Whoopi Goldberg has now come out and said that what he did wasn’t ‘rape-rape’. What kind of stupid defence is this? Things were different then, and it was perfectly acceptable to drug and rape a child? There’s no excuse for what this man has done, and the crime still stands. Therefore, he should face the music. Whoopi also asks the question ‘Would I want my 14-year-old having sex with somebody? Not necessarily, no’. But the real question should be ‘Would I want my 14-year-old being drugged and raped by a 43-year-old man?’. I’m sure the answer wouldn’t be ‘Not necessarily, no’ in this case.

There is no excuse for what this man has done. Abuse is abuse, and re-branding it ‘rape-rape’ is beyond stupid. I hope Roman is extradited and faces the charges he’s tried to evade for so long. Because until he does, he can only be labelled a rapist and a coward.

So in 2006, at the age of 32 and having just graduated in bioscience, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I’d first noticed the lump a couple of months before going to the doctor’s, and as it was still there and apparently growing, I went to see my GP. She told me it was most probably nothing serious, but sent me to a breast clinic just to be on the safe side. I got my appointment three to four weeks later. I saw a consultant, has fine needle aspiration, and went off on  holiday, believing it was not going to be serious as that was what everyone was telling me. A week later I got a phone call from my consultant insisting I came back for further tests. I knew then that it would be bad news. I had those tests and got the diagnosis of cancer.

I got assigned a breast care nurse, with whom I was to liaise should I need psychological/practical support. All the appointments were made for me – no phoning around, trying to fit things in. When I first saw my oncologist, she gave me all the treatment options, and explained to me which would be the best. I still had a choice of course. I was to get eight cycles of chemotherapy, spread over almost six months, followed by surgery, seven weeks of radiotherapy, one year of Herceptin and five years of Tamoxifen.  I had several MRI scans to check the size and location of the tumour, and to see whether chemotherapy was having an effect. I had bone and liver scans to determine whether the cancer had spread, two blood tests minimum every three weeks during chemo, a coil inserted to locate the tumour to aid surgery, and several mammograms. I could also have had a wig had I wanted one, but I opted for head scarves.  Oh, and I got tattoos – well three dots, almost invisible on my uber-white body – to help radiotherapy At no point did anyone ask whether I could afford to pay – everything was paid for. So, in a sense, I sat back and let others take charge of my treatment.

Over the months I’ve seen several consultants, surgeons, nurses, chemo nurses and radiotherapists. They dealt with me with great professionalism and care. There was a small problem after surgery, and on one occasion the chemo nurses messed up my appointments, but other than that, I felt in safe and competent hands.

So is the NHS perfect? Of course not. But it took care of me, at no cost. I got all the treatment I needed without having to re-mortgage my home. I’ll take the NHS ahead of the American system any day of the week.

Sir Bobby was first diagnosed with cancer in 1991. He has had bowel, brain and lung cancer as well as malignant melanoma, and in 2007 he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Following this, he set up the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation which has already raised over £1,000,000 to help in the fight against this dreadful disease. It is, once again, a remarkable achievement.

He has left a wonderful legacy behind him, and a fulfilled life in which football played a major part. Sir Bobby Robson – a great manager and a true gent.

But now this forecast has been revised. It turns out that the Jet Stream, once again, is camping over the UK. I’m sitting here looking out of my window, the rain falling incessantly, and we have a severe weather warning for the region. Well at least on that point the Met Office seem to be correct. Unfortunately. WHERE IS MY SUMMER? It now seems that we’ll be getting unsettled weather well into August, so that brollies will once again be a prerequisite of any outdoor activities. Right now, it feels mildly depressing to be honest. It’s not so much that the forecast has had to be modified, it’s that the Met Office felt the need to term their forecast as a ‘barbecue summer’ to make it media-friendly. Headline-grabbing term indeed, yet the actual message – odds for a summer scorcher of 65% – got lost in all the frenzy.

Thoroughly depressing. I guess you can put up with the rain if sunny conditions are on the horizon. I guess it’s back to ‘wait and see’.

The first set was relatively even. Both women had breaks of serve but there were many unforced errors on both sides. On top of this Safina’s serve deserted her today. It is difficult to understand what went wrong since she had been by far, until this point, the best player in the women’s draw. She had already been in two Grand Slam finals – French Open of last year and this year’s Australian Open – and struggled in both. I thought she’d so better in this final, since she has progressed in all areas of her game. Did she simply not turn up on the day or did she choke? It is difficult not to feel a little sorry for her – she’s been under pressure since she was a child and she’s been trying to escape her brother’s shadow for years. Hopefully she’ll get her first Grand Slam under the belt sooner rather than later, for her own sake.

Kuznetsova dominated the second set. Overall she was the better player and deserved her win. She had more variety, had a clear plan and stuck to it. That the match had to end on a double fault by Safina summed up the final quite well. I think that young players such as Agnieska Radwanska or Caroline Wozniacki need to make their mark sooner rather than later in order to shake up the women’s game. Victoria Azarenka seems like the best bet at the moment as she’s had a fantastic year so far. But we now face the grass-court season and Wimbledon, where we can expect the Williams sisters to overpower their opponents once again. A little patience is needed.

Tennis has been mainly entertaining. Dinara Safina is in incredible form and if she keeps up this level she will win Roland Garros. I can’t see who could stop her, although Svetlana Kuznetsova has also been in fine form in recent weeks. I can’t see any other woman winning it, not at this point. The defending champion Ana Ivanovic is out, as are Venus Williams and Elena Dementieva, and Serena Williams has been struggling. Jelena Jankovic could be an outsider, but only a marginal one. Safina has lost a total of five games in four matches – she’s just blitzed the opposition. Granted, she hasn’t met a so-called big gun yet but she just seems unstoppable. The transformation from a few months ago is quite striking. She looks fitter, stronger and more powerful. I hope she wins it because from what I’ve seen she’d fully deserve it.

On the men’s side Rafael Nadal has just been knocked out so this should open up the draw and make it easier for Roger Federer to win it. Though of course there are still some big names left, such as Andy Murray and Fernando Verdasco. I’d love to see Federer win it as he’s been outstanding for so many years, and the only reason he’s been unable to win the French Open so far has been down to a clay court uber-specialist.

The Champions League final was not the best we’ve seen in recent years, despite being billed the dreams final by many people. The thing is, if you’ve followed Manchester United over this past season, you would have noticed that they have been far from convincing. Their form has been good enough against the likes of Wigan or Sunderland but not against better teams. They started the game well enough but they conceded a goal against the run of play after ten minutes. From thereon it was all one-way traffic, with Barcelona’s possession game making Manchester United look rather average. A bit like the Spain-England game really. Three players stood out for me – Lionel Messi unsurprisingly, Andres Iniesta (again unsurprisingly) and Carles Puyol. He’s been around for some time and I thought he might struggle a bit if United got their game going but he hardly put a foot wrong. A special mention has to go to Pep Guardiola, who at 38 in his first season as manager won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League. Fantastic achievement, maybe he should consider retiring now. It will be interesting to see how United will cope next season. Cristiano Ronaldo might be on his way out, and players such as Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs are reaching the end of their careers. These players will be difficult to replace.

The FA Cup was what most expected I guess. The early goal by Louis Saha was great but the result was never in doubt. Chelsea under Guus Hiddink have been superb and as a Liverpool supporter I’m glad he’s leaving the club. They didn’t panic once they conceded the goal and soon started dominating everything. Everton were struggling to keep possession and in the heat it cost them a lot of energy. It’s been a great achievement for them, and their season has been very good too considering the resources they have. The best team won on the day so no complaints there either.

And so far so good. You have the obligatory customising of your character, which really isn’t all that exciting but maybe I’m an old fart. Once that is done you can choose a number of options. There’s the journal section, in which you are asked questions about your diet and any extra exercise you might do. Or you can jump into the workout section and choose a preset workout or create your own workout. This, in my opinion, is a big plus as it means you can really tailor your exercise routine to your abilities and level of fitness. I tried one of the easy preset workouts and couldn’t finish it, which means these workouts are only easy if you are already reasonably fit.

The game comes with a resistance band, which you have to assemble yourself (very easy) and a leg strap in which you sometimes have to stick the Nunchuk. Some exercises are compatible with the Wii board, which enables you to do a little kick-boxing among other things. The exercises are broken down into four sections:

1. Cardio – includes running, dancing and boxing.
2. Upper (body) – includes bicep curls and tricep kickbacks
3. Lower (body) – includes squats and lunge exercises.
4. Sports – includes basketball, baseball, in-line skating, volleyball and tennis.

I’ve tried a bit of everything and it’s been mostly enjoyable. I’ve concentrated mainly on sports though as they’re the easiest on your body. All the exercises are clearly well conceived as they all make you sweat. The game keeps track of the number of calories you burn during your workout, and it gives you an indication of which body areas you’re using.

I can’t think of much to criticise this game and I plan on using it as often as possible. It’s varied, entertaining and great value for money. I’m hoping that at some point I’ll be able to do the 30-day challenge as it would be a clear sign that my fitness levels have improved. Thoroughly recommended.

This girl was simply visually impaired. Yet her parents took her on a trip  that lasted several weeks for a treatment which is far from safe. The issue is that her parents were willing to take excessive risks so that their daughter could be ‘normal’. Is simple visual impairment that bad that you have to risk your child’s health to ‘cure’ it? A baby born with visual impairment will certainly have to face a few obstacles but it is is perfectly possible to live a fulfilling life with such a disability. The brain adapts, the person relies on other senses and life goes on. In a sense, this reminds me of the problems faced by Cerrie Burnellwith, a children’s TV presenter, who had to endure complaints made by a small number of parents because she is missing part of an arm. Apparently, this was scaring the children. In both instances, it would seem that the way parents perceived the disability was responsible for actions which were, in my opinion, unreasonable.

The fact is that we live in a world where people have disabilities. We also live in a society which is fairly inflexible, and if you don’t fit the mould, you are left facing far more obstacles than you need to. A friend who went to the opera where a person was signing so that people with hearing impairments could enjoy the show complained that it ruined her experience. I suggest that next time she chooses a performance where no such signing is taking place. Or should we exclude people who are hearing impaired from such shows so that her experience isn’t potentially ruined in the future?

Perhaps this is also down to the fact that if you live in the UK and don’t have cable or satellite TV, you don’t get to watch much tennis at all. Things haven’t changed much in the men’s game, and whatever changes take place are fairly well publicised since we have a player in the top three. On the other hand, having subscribed to Eurosport online in order to watch some of the women’s tournaments, I was surprised to see that Dinara Safina was number one in the world. Having watched a few matches now, I’m a bit confused as to who all these young upcoming players are. So I’m quite looking forward to seeing more of it on TV in next few weeks. As someone who’s a bit of a romantic I’d to see Federer lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires but it’s obviously going to be very hard. I don’t have a firm favourite as far as the women go; I’m just hoping to see a lot of good tennis.

As for the roof at Wimbledon, it actually looks quite good but it does seem a bit low. It takes about 10 minutes to get it shut, and 30 minutes for the ventilation system to get moisture conditions to suitable level. It’ll be great to be able to watch more or less uninterrupted tennis during Wimbledon. And best of all, no more Cliff Richard.

And yet you are expected to have resumed a ‘normal’ life by now. Your life has been changed dramatically, your reference points are not where they used to be and you’re not quite sure where you fit in. But still you have to plod on. There is very little help for young adults who have had cancer, and yet we face specific problems when it comes to career, families and social life. My main concern is trying to find a job. There’s no way I can work full time now, and working part time is not an option as it’s not financially viable unless there’s adequate support. It all seems such a mess at the moment, and one I’m not sure I’ll manage to escape.

Having said that, when you’re stuck at home you find new things to do to keep you busy. So far I’ve taken up sewing, knitting and cooking. I’ve always liked cooking but I used to hate knitting and sewing. I’ve now made several cushion covers, a blanket, hats and scarves. I’m looking into painting again, which I used to really enjoy. And with the warmer weather on its way – it has to come back at some point surely – I’ll be taking my camera out more regularly. So it’s not all bad but I do feel like a headless chicken at times.