“It’s like picking up a pile of sand in your hands and trying to hold on to it over a day. Grain by grain - it’s trickling away. It’s like seeing your life disappear before your eyes,” says Tom Caulker, founder of the World Headquarters nightclub in Newcastle, who has committed 30 years of his life to the events industry. Over the past year, he’s watched his business crumble — an experience shared by many across the country. The nightlife industry is on the brink of “extinction”, according to a

I was fourteen when I first saw a homeless person. My upbringing in the rural town of Richmond, tucked away at the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, was a sheltered bubble—it’s a blessing and a curse. Conservative since 1910, Richmondshire has hosted notable politicians such as William Hague and now Rishi Sunak. Although we don’t face the same issues as those growing up in urban areas, there are unique problems people here face in terms of employability which have only been exacerbated by the COVID-

Of those, 26% reported that they were unable to access mental health support; peer support groups and face-to-face services due to the pandemic. The study involved 2111 participants but indicates the alarming scale of the mental health crisis young people are facing due to the closure of our schools. Traditional mental health support provided in schools have now been swapped with phone or online methods - which have been “challenging for some young people”, according to YoungMinds. What’s perh

Although cautiously optimistic, Helen Moulinos - CEO of POhWER, an Independent UK Mental Health Advocacy - voices her concern over the clarity of some points in the revised act. In particular, she argues that the revision needs more investigative oversight for non-natural deaths in a mental health setting, more work to understand discrimination in how the Act is applied and more charity funding. She also called for clearer safeguards for patients being treated informally with consent. Currentl

“In my second year, I was struggling with attendance and was feeling pretty alienated at University. Following an attendance hearing, which was my first and only warning from the University that they were paying attention, I was advised to seek help from Disability and Support Services at the University of Manchester.” Jordan continued: “In my halls, at the end of the first year, I intentionally overdosed and spent four days in the hospital, with two days in intensive care. I submitted my docum

An anti-racism protest will be held in Richmond on Sunday. Organisers say the event at 1pm at the Obelisk will last 30 minutes. It will include two speakers and a nine-minute silent kneel before ending on a reflective poem. The rally is part of the global Black Lives Matter movement, sparked by the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis last month. The protest is organised by the newly-formed group Anti-Racism in Rich