Table of contents for November 5, 2015 in Chat

Clutching the rag doll tightly in his hand, my son Daniel, 2, refused to let it go. He’d made a beeline for it in the charity shop. ‘We aren’t buying toys today,’ I told him. With that, Daniel burst into tears and pointblank refused to put the doll back. I’d never seen him like this over a toy before. But, from about 18 months old, Daniel hadn’t been interested in cars and trains like his brothers Ayden, 6, and Dylan, 4. Instead, he loved dressing up in his 10-year-old sister Amy Leigh’s clothes. And he’d often put a tea towel on his head to pretend he had long hair. So now, seeing him find something he really wanted to play with, I gave in and bought it. Back home, Daniel…

All hands on deck. That’s the kind of morning it’d been. It was June 2011, and my work at a property management company was crazy busy. Another couple of days and I ll be off! I reminded myself happily. The plan was for me and my sister-in-law to drive to John O’Groats. And I couldn’t wait. Because there, my sister-in-law would be reunited with her husband – my brother. And I’d be reunited with my gorgeous hubby Martyn, 51. The lads had set off a week before. Their challenge was to cycle all the way from Land’s End to John O’Groats. That’s 807 miles. Us girls had agreed to drive up to Scotland, just so we could ferry them and their bikes home again. ‘I’m so proud of you,’ I…

Burning feet Q My feet burn constantly. There's nothing to see, but it's starting to keep me awake at night. Celia, 58 A Usually this points to neuropathy, nerve damage affecting the nerves in your legs. Your GP will check for possible causes, including diabetes, vitamin deficiency, kidney or liver disease or an underactive thyroid gland, and might suggest nerve tablets such as amitriptyline. Sore mouth Q I keep getting really painful mouth ulcers. What could be causing them? Penny, 25 A Check with your dentist, as repeated scratching from a sharp tooth can be to blame. Your GP can rule out rare causes such as coeliac disease or iron and vitamin deficiency, but chances are you're just unlucky. Clean your teeth regularly and use an antiseptic mouthwash to help…

Suits you, Sir! Very dapper! My 8-month-old son Zachariah looking smart for his first wedding. Lucy Shah, Southampton Giddy up! A birthday pic of my cowgirl Bonnie, 3, who wears her pink Stetson everywhere! Michelle Bond, Stamford Flower power for star sisters Aren’t my daughters Destiny, 5, and Daisy, 3, pretty in their matching frocks? Leanne Chiles, Bexleyheath Old before my time Gulp! Our son Alfie, 4, wasn't so sure about the sneak preview of what he'll look like when he's an old man… Jo Doyle, Middlesbrough MY CUTE BABY PIC My 8-month-old son Kole is going to break some hearts with those Chelsea-blue eyes! Leanne Bates, Blackpool Caught on camera... My daughter Jemima, 2, doing her best Miss Piggy imitation at a play centre. Debbie Gilbert, Rookley, Isle of…

Morning madness The school run… Why can't I get it right? Some mornings, things run smoothly - the children are showered, well fed, happy and in good time for school, while I've managed to put on some make-up. Other days, we all get up late, eat an unhealthy breakfast and barely make it to school on time. I look harassed and the kids aren't happy. It's my second year of doing this and I haven't mastered the routine yet! Do any other Chat readers have this problem? Bernie Stewart, Gloucester One good deed… Can’t help agreeing with the letter from Ellie Kalkhorani (We hear you!, issue 38), about bad manners in older people. I saw a girl hold the door open for an elderly woman, who didn’t even acknowledge her.…

No time to say goodbye Dear Tony, My husband died from cancer seven years ago. I sat at the hospital for 18 hours, but was told to go home to rest. Next morning, I got a call saying he'd taken a turn for the worse. When I arrived, he was already in a coma, so I didn't say goodbye. I still miss him. Jo, Hants Dear Jo, Your husband tells me that the two of you had been together since you were 19, and had spent 50 happy years together, with rarely a day apart. He asks you to remember all the wonderful holidays you shared and how you would get excited at the prospect of returning home after your travels. I feel he was a modern-day man, as he…

Emmerdale Fireworks night Chas’ life is in danger when she’s locked in the pub cellar on Bonfire Night. Plus Jai ends up in hospital while Megan’s terrified he’s found out she’s pregnant and Ross is determined to prove that he can handle domestic life. EastEnders Bride & doom? It’s Shabnam and Kush’s wedding week but Kush finds himself in an impossible situation, so will he go ahead and tie the knot? Plus Ronnie and Mick firm up their plan to get rid of Dean, and Ben makes an alarming discovery… Hollyoaks Bright spark! Alfie’s plan to impress Nico with a fireworks display goes with a bang when a spark ignites all the fireworks in the crate and the explosion heads straight at her… Plus Lisa walks in to find naked…

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always done everything with my feet. You see, I was born with no arms. Doctors don’t know why – they think it’s just the way I developed in the womb. But, from an early age, I found my feet came in very handy! I’d pick up toys between my toes, and clap my chubby feet together when I was excited. When I was 3, I had prosthetic arms fitted. ‘They’ll help her do things more easily,’ the doctor told my parents William and Inez. I hated my prosthetics, though. They were clumpy and pinched. So I continued doing everything with my feet. As I got older, I learnt to write with my toes, even feed myself. I’d dress myself by hanging my…

How I lost it! I'd been overweight for 30 years! It started to creep on at 17 when I started work, got a boyfriend and was eating and drinking out. Two years ago , at almost 18st and a dress size-24, I had no energy , was embarrassed by my size and would drive everywhere, including my local shop , 200 yards away! I tried every weight-loss method out there, and I'd been e-mailing my local Slimming World consultant Tiffany for two years before I finally joined in May 2013! On the healthy-eating plan, I could still eat all my favourite dishes, just by cooking them a little differently . I began to lose weight steadily and, by last December , I'd lost 8st 4½ lb. Now I weigh 9st…

My sister Julie, 43, fired up her new laptop. ‘Isn’t it brilliant?’ she said, grinning. I’d always been close to my little sister, and she’d often pop in. This time she’d brought her new computer round to show me. ‘Let’s give it a try, then,’ I suggested As we browsed the Internet, we decided to look for a bingo site. Well, we’d seen ads for online bingo before and were big fans of bingo. So Julie signed up to Chat Mag Bingo, and I watched her play a few games. ‘It’s really fun!’ she smiled – and it certainly looked it! Only, back in 2010, I’d not got round to getting my own computer. Its time to change that, I thought, and went and bought myself a new laptop. Soon…

I fell into modelling back in 1997, after a clothing company hired me when I was a struggling actor. In 2007, browsing in a bookshop, I spotted a romantic novel adorned by a beefy bloke. I could do that… After contacting dozens of authors, I did my first shoot in May 2008. I was thrilled when I saw my glistening muscles adorning the cover. I've posed as everything from a lumberjack to a billionaire spy. But there have been a few disasters. Once, a lighting fixture came crashing down on me and a female model. Luckily, I dragged us out the way in the nick of time. Another time, I posed in an old barn truck filled with hay… and disturbed a beehive. My family knows about my office job,…

The Co-Op Loved by us Rosco the Reindeer Cake, £6 The whole family will love this festive chocolate sponge! Morrisons Christmas Pudding Novelty Cake, £8 (available 7 Dec) A giant chocolate sponge cupcake filled and finished with sweet chocolate buttercream. Iceland Orange Choux Ring, £4.99 Filled with cream and orange-flavour Belgian fudge and topped with orange-flavour Belgian chocolate ganache. Morrisons Chocolate Panettone, £2 (available 9 Nov) Rich and buttery hand-made panettone, baked with a generous amount of milk-chocolate chips.…

Danni’s sister and brothers weren’t fazed at all. They found it much easier than I did to adjust to her new name, and to refer to Danni as ‘she’ and ‘her’. Our parents were supportive, too. And we spoke to all of Danni’s nursery teachers, and sent letters out to the other kids’ parents, explaining to them what was happening. We were amazed by the kindness and support they all gave us. ‘It must have been so hard for you,’ one of the mums said to me. ‘I don’t know how I’d have coped.’ Of course, it hasn’t been easy for us. For ages, we kept Danni’s boys’ clothes and, every morning, I’d ask her if she’d like to wear them. But she always chose pretty dresses and skirts. What…

Lottie London Balm Ball in Caramel Apple, £4.99, Superdrug The unusual ball shape makes this one really easy to apply for nourished lips on the go. Dolly's Mixtures Candy Floss Lip Jelly, £2, Asda Nowhere near as sticky as you'd expect, this glides onto lips. The sugary-sweet smell is amazing, too! Argan+ Argan Oil Nourishing Lip Balm, £3.95, Waitrose Argan oil is well known for its moisturising properties, and this restoring lip balm is no exception. Blistex Lip Brilliance, £2.59, Boots Contains SPF to protect your pout all year round, and leave it with a hint of tint and shimmer for fuller-looking lips. MOR Lip Macaron in Rosebud, £6, www. feelunique. com Filled with hydrating beeswax, this clear balm soothes lips from first use.…

It began when I was 10 years old. My whole body would suddenly start shaking from head to toe. It’d last a few minutes, then stop. Days later, it’d happen again. ‘You’ve just got the shakes,’ my parents Valerie and Thomas said. They didn’t think it was anything serious, and when I was 13, it stopped. Then in 1982, when I was 19, I met Jim, 20. We married a few months later, and shortly after, I fell pregnant with Matthew, now 32. Melissa, 30, and Thomas, 27, quickly followed. Suddenly, the shakes returned. My whole body would tremor for a few minutes at a time. I’d feel exhausted afterwards and would need to lie down. ‘Are you OK?’ Jim asked. ‘It’s nothing,’ I said. I thought it was just…

After six years of being engaged, my partner Paul Crockford-Taylor, 42, and I thought it was about time we got a date in the diary. So we booked a town hall ceremony for February 2016. But, once we started planning, we realised weddings didn’t come cheap! The dress, venue, cake – it all adds up. Then, in August this year, I saw a post on Facebook from a local bridal shop, Budeiful Brides. We re running a competition, it started. To win a £1,000 wedding dress, as well as shoes, lingerie, a photographer and discounts on things like the bouquet and cake, you had to stay in the shop window as long as you could while wearing a bridal gown. ‘You should enter,’ said Paul, laughing. So I messaged the…

Dirty Works Multi-Tasking 4-in-1 Face Wipes, £2, Sainsbury's Cleanse and moisturise in one swoop to save time and effort. Top tip: Keep a pack by the side of your bed so you never forget to take off your slap! Simple Kind to Skin Micellar Clea`nsing Wipes, £3.99, Boots Help unclog pores for brighter and clearer skin. Top tip: Start from the middle of your face and work outwards to remove make-up thoroughly. Kiko Energizing Pure Clean Revitalising Make Up Removing Wipes, £5,90,www.kikocosmetics.com With tiny micro-grains to massage and clean deep down. Top tip: Follow with a face wash for squeaky-clean skin. Manuka Doctor Apiclear 3-in-1 Purifying Facial Wipes, £4.49, Holland & Barrett Protect skin against bacteria and fight spots! Top tip: Use gentle, wiping motions - kinder to your skin!…

Aged 66, I upped and moved to the city of Rennes in France. It was August 2012, and with my hair dyed bright-red, I planned on enjoying my retirement! ‘I’m growing old disgracefully,’ I laughed. My daughters Karen, 41, and Claire, 45, were chuffed for me. Only, a year later, my left lower leg was blotchy. ‘You need a full CT scan,’ the specialist said. After, I went home to await the results. But I was immediately called back in. Doctors had found a lump on my left leg. I called my daughters. But before they could get there, a doctor broke terrible news. The scan had also shown a tumour on my right lung. Lung cancer. I sat in Rennes hospital, numb. But that wasn’t all. The lump on…

Morrisons Sausage & Mash, 450g, £2 The onion gravy is delicious, the mash is creamy, and two big sausages make this a tasty meal that's ready to eat in minutes. Sainsbury's Be Good To Yourself Sausage & Root Vegetable Mash, 400g, £2.40 This combines pork sausages with an excellent potato-and-carrot mash, and surprisingly sweet gravy made with red onions and apple cider. Tesco Classic Kitchen Sausage & Mash, 450g, £2.30 A winning combo of two big, meaty bangers, lots of really good gravy and a pile of fluffy mash. Tuck in! NEW Morrisons Pizza Cake, £8 This jam and buttercream filled sponge is topped with more jam and icing trimmings. Everyone will want a pizz-a this pud!…

Swap...a regular latte… 200 cal For…a skinny cappuccino…80 cal SAVES 120 CAL! Diet bites LighterLife Fast  from £2.99, Superdrug Are you on the 5:2 plan? Any four of these products gives you all your daily nutrition and add up to around 600 cal. Hand weights £3, Tiger Stores Try adding some small hand weights like these into your exercise routine. They'll boost your heart rate and make you work harder without adding more time to your workout. £50  What worked for you? I'll pay a full-fat £50 if I use your weight-loss story. Write to me, enclosing before and after pictures at: Losing It, Chat , Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU, or e-mail me: christine.parsons@timeinc.com…

It’d only been half an hour since I’d tested my blood sugar levels, but I was already anxious to do it again... I’d been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 4 years old, and had needed daily insulin injections ever since. Sweating and feeling dizzy usually meant I was having a hypo, where my blood glucose levels dropped too low. But, after suffering a bout of food poisoning in 2010, my body stopped giving me those signs. I ended up in hospital a few times after severe hypos. Overnight, I lost my independence and confidence. I began testing my blood glucose levels obsessively and, scared of collapsing, I wouldn’t go out alone. I had to leave my job as a community healthcare assistant and take an office job. Then my…

Smothering my bag of chips with lots of salt and vinegar, I gobbled the lot down. ‘Delicious!’ I said, licking my lips. I was a regular customer at my local chippy, and was always buying takeaways for dinner. If it wasn’t chips, it was burgers, kebabs, pizzas… But my addiction to fast food had left me with an ever-expanding waistline. At a whopping 15st 11lb, yet just 5ft 1in, I was huge. I hadn’t always been big. But since having my son Shane, now 14, the weight had crept up on me. And the greasy takeaways hadn’t helped! I’d hide my body away under baggy size-24 clothes. Still, my jeans were stretched to the seams. And if I wore dresses, my thunder thighs would rub together and become sore. In…

If you’re as old as me, your birth certificate is in Roman numerals and you fart dust. But I’ve got something the other girls don’t have – shock value! Because no-one comes to a burlesque show expecting to see an 82-year-old stripper with more wrinkles than an ageing prune. Well, you gotta have a gimmick, right? When I was younger, I never thought I’d end up doing burlesque – or anything at all in front of an audience. My life was pretty tame. I was a primary-school teacher. Married, then divorced. Then married, then divorced again. But, one day, I decided to do something totally different – I started writing for magazines. I was good at it, too, like I’d been good at the teaching. Then, when I got to…

After exercise one day, a faint, red line appeared down the middle of my forehead. I was just a teenager. ‘You had that at birth,’ my mum explained to me. It disappeared, though, so I forgot about it, got on with my life. Life moved on. And, in time, I kept busy with my girls – Melanie and Stephanie. Over the years, I had regular nosebleeds, but assumed I was prone to them and, apart from the odd migraine, I rarely felt ill. Then, in March 2001, I had a constant pulse in my left cheek. Then living in St Albans, my GP referred me to the Royal Free Hospital for an MRI scan. ‘You have an arteriovenous malformation, or AVM,’ the doctor explained to me. It meant blood vessels…

Scorpio 24 Oct - 22 Nov Someone you know wants to get to know you even better. If you’re in the market for a little romance, then fine. If not, then the old trick of playing hard to get and showing no interest will actually work this time, because your paths only cross for a short while. It’s up to you. • Call 0905 817 0697* for more Sagittarius 23 Nov - 21 Dec You’re currently in the wonderful position of being able to do no wrong. Successful, popular, you have it all. It’s really so tempting to do nothing and just enjoy your 10 minutes of fame - but it’d be a lot better if you could use this opportunity to take yourself even further onwards and upwards… •…

Coronation Street The wedding’s off and Alya’s reputation is in tatters as word spreads that she slept with Jason. Anna’s furious, Izzy’s furious and Zeedan… Well, Zeedan’s so mad he punches Jason, and threatens to push him off a balcony. Gary, meanwhile, has sloped off to stay with his dad in Hamburg. Eva’s upset, too, because Jason slept with Alya and suggests to Kylie they get drunk. David then worries that Kylie will lose control and tell her mate what they did to Callum. He’s right to worry as Eva tries to get to the root of Kylie’s problems over cocktails… Will Kylie spill the beans? Elsewhere – while Ken, thinking Audrey’s not interested – is being distracted by Cathy’s sister Nessa, Audrey decides that she does have feelings for…

HEAD-ON COLLISION A horror car smash saw Lisa Somerville, from a town near Glasgow, recovering in hospital with a punctured lung, cracked ribs and a broken nose. But it could’ve been much worse. Self-conscious about her AAA cup breasts, Lisa, 28, had been wearing two boob-boosting ‘chicken fillets’ in each cup of her bra at the time of the accident. And that’s what stopped her broken ribs from piercing her heart, leaving her life on the line. Lisa was reported as saying, ‘I hated my chicken fillets, constantly fearing they’d fall out at the most embarrassing moment. But that night, for the first time, I was glad of them.’ HIKING DISASTER While hiking in the Bavarian Alps in June 2008, Colorado native Jessica Bruinsma was hit by bad weather. She…

Serves: 6-8 Prep: 5 min Cook: 15 min 10g butter 100g demerara sugar 410g can condensed milk 8 ready-made sweet-pastry cases Strawberries Icing sugar to dust 1 Preheat oven to 190C/Gas 5. 2 In a small, nonstick saucepan, melt butter and sugar together. 3 Add condensed milk and bring to a gentle boil, stirring until thickened and butterscotch in colour. Do not overcook as butterscotch will become too firm. 4 Place pastry cases on a baking sheet, pour butterscotch into them and bake for 5 min. 5 Remove tarts from oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely. 6 To serve, decorate with sliced strawberries and dust with icing sugar.…

1 Preheat oven to 180/Gas 4, and put 300g macaroni in a large saucepan. Cover with salted, boiling water, bring back to the boil, stir once, and cook for 7 min. Drain and set aside in a 1-litre baking dish. 2 Melt 20g butter in a saucepan and stir in 20g flour. Cook for 1-2 min, to make a paste. Pour in 500ml semi-skimmed milk. Over a gentle simmer, whisk sauce until it thickens. 3 Add 2tbsp creamed horseradish sauce, 1tsp paprika and 100g grated light mature Cheddar. Stir until cheese has melted. Season, and then stir sauce into drained pasta. 4 Scatter over 10 halved cherry tomatoes. Mix 25g fresh breadcrumbs with a handful of grated Cheddar and sprinkle over. 5 Bake for 30 min, then put under a…

SACHERTORTE Serves: 12 Prep: 25 min Cook: 1hr 150g soft unsalted butter150g caster sugar6 large free-range eggs200g dark chocolate, melted150g self-raising flour1tsp baking powderPinch of salt4tbsp apricot conserve1tsp lemon juice200g dark chocolate50g unsalted butter2tbsp golden syrup200ml double cream 1 Heat oven to 170C/Gas 3, and grease/line a 23cm tin. 2 Whisk soft butter in a food mixer, then add half sugar and beat until light and fluffy. 3 Separate eggs, put whites into another bowl. Beat yolks into creamed mixture, then add chocolate. Sift flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt into mixture and fold in. Add 1tbsp hot water and fold in. 4 Whip egg whites until stiff then beat in rest of sugar. Mix in quarter to choc mix. Fold in rest. 5 Spoon into tin, make…