Gair Rhydd

The 'tiredness disease'

Emma McFarnon investigates the frequently misunderstood illness, ME

Myalgic Encephalopathy, or Chronic Fatigue syndrome as it’s more commonly known, affects more than 250,000 people in Britain alone. The neurological disorder causes severe and debilitating fatigue, disordered sleep, painful muscles and memory loss.

For some sufferers the effects may be minimal – but in a large number lives are changed drastically, with social lives being severely restricted and employment often becoming impossible. Sufferers can be housebound for months, sometimes years, and tend to follow a fluctuating pattern of good and bad periods of health. Relapses or exacerbations can be a regular occurrence, often precipitated by infections or stressful events.

Transplants Transforming Lives

gair rhydd speaks to Cardiff medic, Allison John, about her record-breaking four organ transplants...

I’m now 30 years old and I was born with Cystic Fibrosis. The main problem with Cystic Fibrosis is that it causes progressive damage to the lungs. However, about 10% get liver disease too, and unfortunately I was one of them. By the time I was 15 my liver was cirrhosed and I needed a liver transplant.

I sat 11 GCSEs while at the same time waiting 18 months for the call to say that there was finally a liver available for me. I found out after the operation that if the organ hadn’t become available when it did, I would have had between 3 days and 3 weeks left to live.

Susanna Byers looks at some of the strangest shows on TV...

The television: that infamous invention that impacts our lives without us even realising. It’s an invention that provides hours of procrastination for us ‘hard-working’ students. Apart from the news and the occasional dabble in culturally educational programmes; my viewing time mainly consists of Desperate Housewives, Lost and Dick van Dyke’s Diagnosis Murder.

In my teenage years I remember the exploding popularity of candid camera. One of the funniest clips I have seen comes from those cheeky Germans who hid a camera in a bed shop focused on a supposed waterbed. It was in fact a bed-like tank filled with water, with a sheet over the top. Much hilarity ensued as the camera filmed the potential bed buyers test their future rock solid ‘mattress’!

Square-eyed Students

With World TV Day commencing this week, Lucy Roden questions whether students are still the reigning Eggheads of daytime TV...

Winter and the credit crunch are both well and truly upon us, leaving more of us content with swapping boozy nights out for cosy nights in front of the TV with housemates. Typically known as members of the couch potato nation, nearly a quarter of us Britons spend as much time watching television as we do at work during the average week.

But do us students really live up to Britain’s couch potato stereotype and waste that much time in front of a TV when University is a time for socialising, meeting people and trying new things?

To give, or not to give?

November 17 sees the start of Anthony Nolan Week, dedicated to getting people on the bone marrow register. Huw Davies dispels some of the myths about donation

Right, it’s time I paid my debt to society and helped to make someone’s life better. What can I do? Give blood? Sure, sign me up. Organ donation? What the hell, I’ll be dead anyway. Bone marrow donation? Uh…doesn’t that hurt?

No, not really. For a start, the process only requires signing up to the bone marrow register first, and although you have to give a blood sample, that doesn’t mean you’ll definitely donate your bone marrow. Only one in a 1,000 registered actually do, and only one in a 100 even reach the stage of having to give another blood sample to test their compatibility. For the rest, the subject is gone from their lives forever.

Cyfrifoldeb at iaith

Cymrwch gipolwg ar esiampl ieithoedd leiafrifol Ewrop gyda Sara Orwig.

Y penwythnos hwn, cefais sgwrs ag un o’m ffrindiau gorau am ddysgu Cymraeg i’n plant yn y dyfodol. Roedd hi o’r farn y byddai hi’n dysgu Cymraeg i’w phlant petai hi’n byw yng Nghymru, mwy na thebyg petai hi’n byw ym Mhrydain, ond doedd hi’m wir yn gweld gwerth yn ei dysgu’n rhygl i’w phlant petai hi’n byw mewn rhan arall o’r byd. Fodd bynnag, rydw i’n siwr y byddai’n dysgu Cymraeg i’m mhlant dim ots lle y byddwn ni’n byw.

Ydi hyn yn fy nghwneud i’n eithafol? Efallai byddai mwy o wybodaeth o werth i chi. Mae hi o deulu Saesneg, wedi symud i Gymru, sy’n medru’r Gymraeg ond Saesneg yw iaith yr aelwyd. Rydw i o deulu Cymraeg cryf, ac yn cael ffrae os ddefnyddia i air Saesneg o’u blaen os oes gair Cymraeg i’w gael. Roedd hi’n gweld, hyd yn oed os y buaswn i’n byw dramor, y byddai fy mlant yn siarad Cymraeg â gweddill y teulu, tra byddai ei phlant hi yn gorfod siarad Saesneg â’i theulu hithau.

Total Thought Reform

Tom Baumer on the psychology of brainwashing

Ever found yourself sitting in a lecture, and as you glance around you notice many of your peers have a strange, almost mesmerized appearance to them as they stare at the lecturer? Or how about when you are busy shopping and various religious groups hand you flyers and ‘spread’ their news?

These situations, albeit perfectly normal, may have something a little more sinister to them. Perhaps a better way to explain is to use a well documented example:

The Human Papilloma Virus

Priya Raj on raising awareness of this all too often forgotten STI

Most students have heard of the famous STI’s such as HIV, gonorrhoea, Chlamydia and syphilis: but few have heard of HPV.

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is an example of a sexually transmitted infection transmitted specifically by skin contact.

Students who mean business

With Enterprise Week running from the 17-23rd November, there's never been a better time to find out more about setting up your own business. Aimee Steen spoke to some students who already have

Tom Hill: net wizard

Tom Hill runs techtom, which specialises in the retail and resale of computer goods, along with installation of networks and VoIP systems. The business caters for individuals, as well as small to medium sized enterprises.

Playing your cards right

What are you going to do after uni? Become a doctor? A teacher? How about a poker player? Tom Victor speaks to Cardiff graduate and poker pro Paul Senter about his career choice

Two years ago, when he was halfway through the final year of his Computer Science degree at Cardiff University, Paul Senter decided on his career path. However, he didn’t have to prepare himself for any interviews or apply for any specific jobs. He just needed to spend more time in front of his computer playing poker.

“To be honest,” he says, “the poker harmed my degree at first. I was staying up late several nights a week, and missing my morning lectures.”