Table of contents for December 31, 2015 in Chat

I’d hit rock bottom. Life can t get any worse, I thought. Social Services had just taken away my four kids, all aged under 6, because my partner was violent. I felt trapped, too scared to leave. But when social workers stepped in, I was distraught. I loved my kids and wanted more than anything to be a good mum. ‘I’m going to fight to get the kids back,’ I promised my mum Lorraine, 50. Summoning every ounce of courage, I left my partner. Changed my number, moved home. But, with no job, I ended up living in a caravan in my sister Nikki’s back garden. I wasn’t in a position to support my children. Mum was given custody of all four of them at first. ‘I just need time…

What I loved Being grown-up enough not to have to go to clubbing or pubbing on New Year's Eve! Oohhh…the luxury of friends and family. (We'll still frock up, though! Gotta have some standards!) What hacked me off People on the bus still stinking of last night's booze-up. Gross! What made me laugh Six-year-old Ava's letter to the tooth fairy. She demanded to know what happens to all the teeth collected from under the pillows of the nation's children. Good question! That kid'll go far… I hope you get all the answers you want in 2016! Here's to a fantastic year ahead!…

Shingles jab Q My husband's 72 and he's been called for a jab against shingles, but the surgery says I can't have one, even though I'm a year older! Mary, 73 A They're right! The shingles vaccine is being rolled out gradually, to avoid swamping the system. This winter, anyone who was 70, 71 or 72 on 1 September is entitled, as well as older people of 78 or 79. Your turn will come but not this year - sorry! Heartburn trouble Q I suffer terrible heartburn. Tablets help a bit, but isn't there an op to cure it? Celia, 36 A Pills to reduce stomach acid can work wonders, and surgery is rarely necessary nowadays. But an op on the valve at the top of your stomach can prevent…

Sainsbury's 6 Melton Mowbray Mini Pork Pies, £2 Great pastry with good, solid, meaty centres make these little pies worthy of any party! Tesco Finest 6 Mini Real Ale Chutney & Cheddar Pork Pies, £3 Now these are a bit different! The chutney inside the pies makes for a winning combination! Morrisons 6-Pack Mini Pork Pie Selection, £1.70 Three each of pork & cranberry and pork & ale pies. The fruit is a great match for pork - but we loved them both! Butterkist Gingerbread Popcorn, £1.49, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's Christmassy flavours in a big bag of buttery popcorn. Made for sharing - yummy!…

Nice profit While out Christmas shopping with my 6-year-old niece, we saw a man handing out leaflets that advertised Cash for goods. ‘Finally!’ said my niece. ‘It’s about time I got money for being good!’ Amy Rooney, Barnsley Good advice This sign is posted in our newsagent’s – it seems to strike a chord with customers! Irene Emerson, Grimsby Be positive I was heartened by the story of Bryan Baldwin (The life of Bryan, 29 Oct issue). Doctors gave him six months to live but, by staying cheerful and active, Bryan has lived another 10 years. And he and his wife are still enjoying life! I hope his story gives hope to anyone battling cancer. As for me, I tend to be quite pessimistic – but Bryan is so inspiring,…

I’d barely walked through the door when I got a new Facebook message. I want to treat you like a princess – show you how you deserve to be treated. It was September 2012, and I’d just spent the evening with Luke Strain, then 20. We’d been friends for a year, but hadn’t seen each other in a while. He was kind and thoughtful, and we were soon an item. ‘Let’s go for a walk,’ he’d say, surprising me with meals out. We’d talk into the early hours, and were like lovestruck teenagers. So, just six weeks later, I moved into Luke’s bedsit. We were so happy. The only downside – my family didn’t approve. ‘There’s something about him I don’t like,’ Mum said. My grandparents agreed. Young and naive,…

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At 21, I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, meaning I'd chronic inflammation of the intestines. When medications failed, in 2012, doctors operated to give me a permanent ileostomy bag to process my bowel movements. At first, I felt nervous telling others. But my pouch has literally saved my life, and I wear it proudly. Now I'm no longer in pain, and I want to be positive about everything that's happened to me. Determined to change attitudes, in May 2014, I launched Purple Wings Charity, supporting others - both men and women - with bowel conditions. And I found out that many bag-wearers were lacking in confidence. ‘We're still sexy, bags and all!' I declared. To prove it, in September this year, me and 10 brave girls posed in our undies…

1 Preheat oven to 200C/Gas 6. 2 Heat 2tbsp oil and gently fry a sliced onion, 2 sticks sliced celery, 200g sliced and halved green beans and 200g sliced carrots until softened. 3 Stir in 1 can of condensed mushroom soup and 1 can of water and simmer for 10 min. 4 Stir in 400g roast turkey-breast chunks, season with salt and pepper, then pour mixture into a large casserole dish. 5 Top mixture with 500g coarsely grated potatoes, brush with a little oil, and bake for 40-50 min until topping is golden. Serves: 4 Cost per head: £1.41…

Only the bottom of my feet and a patch on my abdomen were scar-free. I’d lost three fingers on my left hand. Once my scars started to heal, I had to learn how to do everything again. Walk, talk, eat. It was a long, agonising process. I spent over a year in hospital, 18 months learning how to walk. But that was nothing compared to the pain of my scars. Tight, stiff, thick and a source of constant agony. A lifetime of surgery and skin grafts lay ahead of me. At first, I couldn’t remember how the fire had started, and nobody else seemed to know, either. But I kept getting flashbacks. Nightmares of the flames lapping at my skin, sizzling through my clothing, scorching my flesh. Then I remembered…

I know what you’re thinking. How on earth did she get that big? Not far off half a tonne, I weighed more than a small car – was one of the fattest women in the world… I started piling on weight when I was a kid. I had a troubled childhood, sought comfort in food. Sweets, cakes, biscuits… The weight began to pile on. By 12, I was so big, there were no clothes in shops to fit me. ‘You need to diet,’ my mum Brenda, 57, said. She joined Weight Watchers with me for support. But I struggled to stick to the eating plan. ‘It’s no use,’ I’d sigh, defeated, reaching for the biccies. Aged 14, I weighed a whopping 32st. ‘Here comes Shamu,’ the kids at school would…

Bending my thumb back to my wrist, my friends gasped with shock. ‘How did you do that?’ one of my mates said. For as long as I could remember, I’d always been double-jointed. I could hold my hands behind my back and pull them over my head, too. Being weirdly supple was my party trick. It wasn’t all fun, though. As I got older, my joints would randomly dislocate. If I was writing for a long time at school, my thumb would pop out of joint. In agony, I’d have to visit my GP to have it reset. I bruised easily, too – the slightest knock could leave a purple mark. Some days, my joints would ache. ‘I hurt all over,’ I’d sob to my mum Kirsty, 40. Aged 15,…

Jobsworth ‘Right, I've got my laptop and I'm off to work!' I didn't have the heart to tell my son Jack, 2, that it was the Christmas holidays! Andrea Grace, Caterham In the hood My daughter Lexie, 3, is practising for Christmas morning, when she gets to keep her dressing gown on while opening pressies! Stacey Greenwood-Bullock, Wakefield Green light Nanny’s knitted me a Christmas outfit! Thank goodness greens my colour, thinks my 6-month-old son Henry. Katie Rawlins, Hitchin Chow down It's safe to say Elliot enjoyed his chicken carbonara! Bring on the turkey! Claire Hagon-Smith, Feltham MY CUTE BABY PIC Hark, my angel Holly sings! My 3-week-old daughter is all set for Christmas carolling! Emma Martin, Dublin Just one more… It was Mummy and Daddy's wedding day, but our…

Peering up at my partner Paul Singleton’s nose, I knew something wasn’t right about it. An angry, red lump bulged inside his nostrils. ‘You need to get that checked out – and don’t take no for an answer,’ I insisted. It was May 2013, and Paul, then 42, and I had just moved in together following a whirlwind, five-month romance. My son Thomas, 9, lived with us, while Paul’s lad Daniel, 12, visited on weekends. We were happy and settled. Paul had mentioned that he’d been suffering from nosebleeds and a sore nose, and doctors had given him creams to help. But, to date, nothing had worked. This growth had sprung up within a matter of weeks. Paul was referred to a specialist, who ordered a biopsy. That June, he…

Travel woes Holiday is here, which means it's time for engineering works on our railways. Is anyone else exasperated by the timing of these? I know maintenance work has to be carried out at some point, but why always at weekends and bank holidays? Switching it to late-night weekdays would be much less inconvenient. So often I have planned a trip for my family, only to find our trains replaced by buses in the name of ‘planned improvements'... They're not well-planned at all! Martin Murphy, Beverley…

EastEnders Big-day drama After over 20 years together, Mick and Linda are set to tie the knot in a lakeside wedding on New Year’s Day. Mick’s promised Linda a day to remember… which it will be, for all the wrong reasons, when he tries to rescue a drowning Dean! Emmerdale Ross cops it! The net tightens around Ross when cops find evidence linking him to Robert’s shooting… Plus Debbie visits Charity in jail then tells Cain she’s taking the kids and leaving the village. And Tess is chuffed with a bracelet Paddy gives her. Hollyoaks New-year snog As villagers watch New Year’s Eve fireworks, Esther kisses Grace. Plus, Darren finds leaflets about cancer among Tom’s birthday cards and confronts Nancy. And menacing Lindsey has got her sights set firmly on…

It came as a terrible shock… ‘You have breast cancer,’ my GP said in March 2008. Just the day before, I’d found a marble-sized lump in my left breast, prayed it was a cyst. My husband John, then 46, a Navy engineer, was away at sea. I didn’t want to worry our youngest, Charlotte, 9, but I told James, 16, and Victoria, 21. ‘You’ll be OK,’ Victoria said. But when a mammogram, biopsy and scan at Bournemouth Hospital confirmed the diagnosis, I sat Charlotte down. ‘I’ve got breast cancer,’ I said gently. ‘But I’ve got a good doctor, everything will be alright.’ ‘Are you going to die?’ she asked. ‘No,’ I said, hoping it was true. I had to tell John over the phone. He arranged to come home as…

The Lemp Mansion This opulent home, in St Louis, Missouri, was owned by wealthy brewing family the Lemps, in the 1860s. But they were dogged by tragedy, with three members killing themselves inside the house. Now a restaurant and inn, visitors can go on a paranormal tour of the home…if they dare. The Whaley House This place, in San Diego, California, was designated an ‘official haunted house' by the US Department of Commerce in the 1960s. Ghosts sighted there include ‘Yankee Jim' Robinson, an alleged thief who was executed on the site in 1852, and former owners Anna and Thomas Whaley, early San Diego settlers. It's now a popular museum.…

THE CRIME Kind, caring headmaster Sam LaCara, 50, was shot dead in his office. By the caretaker he'd made his friend… THE STOR‘ It had been all hands on deck in the school office that morning. The phone was ringing nonstop, there was a heap of papers waiting to be signed, appointments to be made and letters to be sent. Wasn’t it the same in every school office on every day of the school year? But then, above the hubbub of the phones and laughter of children in the playground, something else. Raised voices. It was 2 February 2011. A pretty run-of-the-mill day for Joy Fausel, secretary at Louisiana Schnell Elementary School. Until the shouting started. It was coming from the office of her boss, head teacher Sam LaCara. Two…

I didn’t have a clue who she was – but, boy, was she persistent! ‘That Sheila Currie phoned again,’ my agent said in Spring 2013. ‘I don’t know any Sheila Currie,’ I insisted, baffled. I was living in London and working as an actor. And, for some reason, this woman kept calling my agent, trying to get hold of me. ‘Just give her my number,’ I sighed eventually. It wasn’t long before she phoned me. ‘It’s Sheila!’ she said. ‘I don’t know you,’ I replied. ‘You should do, you proposed to me twice!’ she laughed. ‘Sheila!’ I gasped in disbelief. ‘Currie’s my married name,’ she explained. I was absolutely over the moon. I’d last seen Sheila Price, as she was then, 34 years earlier, when I was living in Edinburgh.…

250g softened butter100g dark muscovado sugar100g caster sugar4 medium eggs250g self-raising flour150g crystallised stem ginger150g stem ginger in syrup,blitzed in a food processorto make a puree Icing: 400g icing sugarJuice and zest of 3 limesCrystallised ginger, to serve 1 Preheat oven to 150C/Gas 2, and grease and line a 15cm round cake tin. 2 Beat butter, both sugars and eggs until light and fluffy. Gently fold in flour, crystallised stem ginger and pureed ginger. 3 Spoon into tin, level top, then place tin on a newspaper in the oven and bake for 1 hr 10 min. 4 Mix icing sugar with lime juice, pour half into a small saucepan, and heat gently to dissolve sugar. Set aside. 5 Remove cake from oven, and use a skewer to make small holes…

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Clutching the positive pregnancy test, I nearly fell off the toilet. My fiance Lee Walters, 26, and I had been trying for just two months. ‘What a birthday pressie!’ I exclaimed, showing Lee. It was 7am on 14 January this year – my 22nd birthday. Engaged for four years, I hadn’t wanted to wait to be a mum. But I’d expected it’d take longer to conceive! Shock soon turned to excitement as I told my mum, Diane 42, and dad Darren, 44, who were thrilled. After my 12-week scan, I told family and friends. Due on 23 September, we decided to keep the gender a surprise. Which meant everyone enjoyed speculating! A size-16/18 before pregnancy, I was quickly becoming the size of a house. ‘It’s a boy!’ my nan Kathleen…

You may recognise me from a previous issue of Chat magazine. It was only a few months ago that I was smiling from the pages, holding my first, big £1,250 cheque. But you might not recognise my gorgeous pooch Duke. Because he’s got a whole lot bigger since then! Duke was just a cute, little puppy when I won that first jackpot on the 90-ball bingo in Cloud on a 1p ticket. My hubby Andy, 44, and I had recently bought him from a local breeder. Although it was Duke who’d picked us in the end, gazing up at us with big, puppy-dog eyes. Our daughter, 12, son, 23, and grandson, 4, were soon smitten, too. But Duke kept us very busy! We had to get up three times a…

Barry M Pout 'N' About Lip Gloss Palette, £6.49, Superdrug Wear the darker shades at night and the lighter for day - nothing hides a late night like some lippy! City Color Contour Palette, £7.99, smbeauty. co.uk These make it easy to transform your face in minutes! It comes with a handy guide, too. Seventeen Easy On The Eye Eyeshadow Palette in The Big Smoke, £7.99, Boots With 12 fab shades, this has everything you need to create party looks. Freedom Pro Blush Palette in Peach and Baked, £6, www.beauty  crowd.com Six blushers in peach tones and two pink highlighters. Collection #Conceal And Light LikeAPro Palette, £5.99, Boots Everything you need to conceal, colour-correct and brighten your skin.…

How I lost it! A slim teenager , I gained a lot of weight when I had my first child at 18. I had an ‘eating-for-two ' mentality , and never lost the 5st I gained. Over the next eight years, my weight crept up to over 17st, and I was a dress size-20 . Whenever I tried to lose weight, I’d start off well, then go back to unhealthy eating and regain the weight – plus more! But, after Mum encouraged me, in June last year I joined Slimming W orld. I loved the Food Optimising plan, as I could still enjoy all my favourite things – lik e chicken and chips, and pizza – but made healthier! My family loved the new meals, too. Soon after getting to…

Capricorn22 Dec - 20 Jan If you’ve decided on something, it’s enough just to do it. There’s no need to tell everyone you know, repeat it, get it in writing or have it witnessed and signed! Actually, the more noise you make about an upcoming project or other life change, the more people will suspect your motives or honesty. For now, quiet determination is best. • Call 0905 817 0699* for more Aquarius 21 Jan - 19 Feb If you turn a car round by reversing it, there’ll probably be a moment as you change gear when you’re stationary, moving neither forwards nor back. That’s where you are now. To outsiders, you appear to be going nowhere - but, actually, you’re very sure of your direction. • Call 0905 817…