05/01/2017 South Today

The pioneering genetic research giving new hope to a chronically ill

What we did find out was that you have 3.2 billion

letters in your DNA, and for me to have what I have,

And this is where the breakthrough was made, a research laboratory

The team here are engaged in a project that's pushing

Jailed for three years, the cyclist who killed a pedestrian

after an argument about riding a bike on the pavement.

We'll tell you about a storytelling cottage industry that's now

And a haunting commemoration of World War I.

The scrap metal soldier forged in Dorset

A pioneering genetic test developed by doctors in Southampton has

pinpointed a rare immune deficiency in a ten-year-old Dorset boy.

Matthew Knight has suffered from one infection after another

The success of the test has made it possible

to boost his immunity and help him fight off future illnesses.

The team responsible believe their work could benefit

many more people, paving the way for a routine genetic test for all

Matthew has got no problem with Lego. It's the building blocks in

his DNA that have caught him grief. What we did find out was that you

have 3.2 billion letters in your DNA and for me to have what I have, I

have four missing. Just four, which is, wow. Matthew had been in and out

of hospital with infections since she was three months old. Endless

tests and blood tests and x-rays and scanned and everything. It was a

long haul, waiting and finding out exactly how he was going to be

treated because they did not know what to do with it. Then the family

was invited to take part in a medical trial. This is where the

breakthrough was made, research laboratory at Southampton Hospital.

The team are engaged in a project which is pushing the boundaries of

medical science. They have developed a test that can go deeper than any

time before it our genetic make up and pinpoint precisely because of a

range of rare diseases. Some have compared this to manned landing on

the moon. We are moving into a reality of delivering tests that we

would not have thought possible 15 years ago, into clinical care and in

Matthew's case, within three weeks, we were able to turn around a result

and give the family information that had been previously elusive. All of

the data in the lab comes into a sequence. This machine tells us what

the genetic code of an individual is and there we determine where the

illness arrives from. He is now getting the right treatment to boost

his immune system. I feel like I am sitting in now, now I feel like I am

covered, I fit in a bit more. You can get out and enjoy yourself.

Similar tests are being developed to detect the causes of common cancers.

It is thought they could be routine in the NHS within a few years.

A cyclist has been jailed for just under three and a half years

after admitting he killed a pedestrian last September

after an argument about riding a bike on the pavement.

69-year-old Roy Galvin, from Alverstoke in Hampshire,

was pushed over, hitting his head on the road.

Duncan Snelgrove from Gosport pleaded guilty to his manslaughter.

Roy Galvin was an aircraft engineer in the Royal Navy for 24 years.

Receiving Falklands War and good conduct medals.

Retirement was said to have given him a new lease of life,

but it was ended suddenly on a street in Gosport.

It was early evening in September when Roy Galvin and his wife Deborah

were coming along here on their way home from a nearby pub.

Deborah Galvin was in a motorised wheelchair.

Ahead of them were a group of people including two men on bikes.

One of the bicycles was obstructing the footpath, and it

Mrs Galvin said Snelgrove was full of rage, and without warning

had raised both arms and pushed her husband in the chest.

Mr Galvin fell backwards into the road and received

Snelgrove pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Today the court heard he has 17 previous convictions,

His barrister said Snelgrove was deeply remorseful.

Outside, a police officer read a statement on behalf

I've had my husband and soul mate taken from me far too early.

The terror of the incident of Bury Road is still with me

and is pretty much on my mind for every minute of every day.

I just can't seem to get out of my head.

Snelgrove was imprisoned for three years and four months.

It was an appropriate sentence, I thought, for this incident.

Comment on this incident was, it was just such an unnecessary use

of violence at that time on a Sunday afternoon in Bury Road, and such

I suppose it demonstrates the fact that even small amounts

of violence can end up in these outrageous tragic consequences.

A Berkshire council has been heavily criticised after a vulnerable woman

with dementia lost a third of her body weight while

The woman weighed less than six and a half stone at the end

of her three year long council-funded stay at Murdoch House

The Borough council has been ordered to pay compensation

Nikki Mitchell is in our Reading studio.

What were the consequences of this lady losing so much weight?

The woman was severely malnourished by the time she left the care home.

She simply hadn't been eating enough food to get the nutrients

And we're talking about a very vulnerable woman.

An elderly woman with dementia, who'd had a stroke and had

When she was moved into Murdoch House Care Home in Wokingham

in 2010 she weighed a healthy nine and a half stone.

But by the time she left three years later, she weighed less

Her family complained to Wokingham Borough Council and it

transpired that while the council had funded her care, they'd failed

The local government and social care ombudsman says it's one of the worst

The council failed to properly monitor the quality of care

and they are responsible for the quality of that care.

Even though the failures rest with the care home ultimately.

So the message we want to send out today is that the councils have

to recognise that they must monitor the quality of care,

they must review the needs of the people in these placements

and make sure those needs are being met.

And I'm afraid that didn't happen in this case.

How were things allowed to go so badly wrong? The council accepts it

failed in this case. This lady's name vanished from a computer

system. We changed from one

computer system to another, and unfortunately in the transfer,

we lost the name of that individual. And whereas normally, they would get

at least an annual review, that became unsighted to us

and we can't do anything We know that that led

to an unfortunate outcome So I'm happy to say that we've

corrected all of that and massively So the Borough Council

is going to have to pay ?4,000 in compensation to the lady

concerned, and her family. The company which runs

Murdoch House Care Home meanwhile has also apologised

for any failings. But it says the ombudsman's report

did not reflect the substantial weight loss the patient suffered

while in hospital, and that the home did take steps to fortify her diet

with additional cream and butter. An MP's stepped into the row

about a controversial bus lane camera near the QA

hospital in Portsmouth. Penny Mordaunt, Conservative MP

for Portsmouth North has asked the council to rethink how it

operates the camera after more than 3,500 people were fined

in just five months. The camera was installed in July

and within the first 11 weeks, fines totalling nearly

?124,000 were issued. Between October and December fines

totalled another ?87,000. It's a camera that's been called

a cash cow and unfair. It was meant to deter nonhospital

users from using the bus lane as a short cut,

but because you cannot see the sign clearly,

it's actually penalising hospital If you approach this

junction from the north or the south car park,

then the signing here is obscured so people don't actually noticed

there's a bus lane as you turn left And as you go through there,

there's a camera, which would then Andrew is one of more than 3500

drivers who have been caught. He received the fine only two days

after his terminally Although the council has

since let him off the ticket, on compassionate grounds,

he says the system is unfair. I think it's immoral

that they do that. People here are coming

here for treatment or to take relatives, or visit relatives,

and it's quite immoral that people Where you've got cameras in the city

that are creating very, very high levels of fines,

that should be reviewed And in this instance, clearly,

those who have been fined had suggested that the signage could be

improved, and I think that's probably the sensible thing

for the council to do. Motoring experts say the issue

in Portsmouth is not unique. In Preston recently,

a bus lane was actually switched off after two weeks of a camera looking

at a bus lane and catching people. And the reason they stopped

that was that they realised that there were, that the signage

it wasn't adequate. So they decided that they would stop

putting fines in place, they would reassess the site,

and look at the signage And that's what we'd

like Portsmouth to do. Portsmouth City Council says

that the current signs do comply However it does recognise there have

been a large number of fines issued so it's now speaking to the hospital

trust to see if any additional signs or road markings on the approach

to the bus lane can be put in place. A motorway service station

in Hampshire which was engulfed by a large fire

has partially re-opened. The southbound Fleet Services

on the M3 was closed last month. The blaze started in a restaurant

and spread to other buildings. Operators Welcome Break have

reopened some of the facilities including the forecourt and toilets

with access restored to the northbound service station

across the footbridge. Don't go away because Tony's

here with all the sport in a few minutes' time,

and Alexis will tell us if last Last night was the coldest night of

the season. Tonight will not be as cold but still pretty chilly. I will

have the forecast for you shortly. It's the argument at the heart

of the year-long dispute that has wrecked services for hundreds

of thousands of commuters. Plans to run driver only

trains between Horsham and Bognor Regis are safe,

according to the Chief He's carried out months of research

into Southern Railway's plan for drivers to operate train doors

on the route, instead of conductors. The rail unions which are striking

over this issue dismissed the report Our transport correspondent

Paul Clifton is at Does this report prove

the unions are wrong? Sally, there have been many reports

into the safety of driver controlled operation. Everyone, without

exception, has concluded that it is safe. So what makes today's report

different? It was carried out on Southern Railways on the exact route

through West Sussex that the system is being extended across. It has

been carried out by the most senior safety expert in the industry, a man

who is widely respected. Driver only operation can be

operated safely in compliance with the law on Southern Railways

and we have told Aslef The safety inspector ran tests on

the Horsham to Bognor Regis route. They looked at the union claims that

cameras on trains were unsafe in poor light and at night-time.

Deficiencies were found at some stations, so Southern is more

lights. The inspectors looked at whether cameras can see small

children adequately. They also looked at leaving the door cameras

running as the train starts to move. This offers clear safety benefits

compared to using a guard, they say. But the drivers union is pressing

ahead with next week's strike. It says the two sides are on different

planets. The reality is that there has been

no real move to address the fundamental issues that

are at the heart of the deal. It is about the imposition of

a system and breaking of agrrements And if everything is done

by imposition in the future, then the reaction is always

going to be the same. What other reaction do you get

from anybody in any other walk of life if they're forced

to do things? But every safety report, every

statistic I have ever read, on driver door operation, says it is

safe. But the RMT union called today's report a total whitewash,

which proved the safety authority is no longer fit for purpose. The union

even said there was no longer any independent safety regulation of

Britain's row ways. So, sadly, the two sides are not in any mood for

compromise. Portsmouth port will lose

about a third of its cruise ship trade after a holiday company went

out of business. All Leisure holidays went

into administration yesterday, affecting Swan Hellenic

and Voyages of Discovery. The City Council, which owns

the port, says the expected loss will be less than 1%

of the ?15 million generated Two friends, working in a converted

shed in rural Berkshire, producing audiobooks

for blind people. They're still doing that,

but the initial idea has morphed They're now producing

recordings of stories that, thanks to the internet,

are reaching people If you're sitting comfortably, Allen

Sinclair has the story for you. He slipped his finger to the tail

section of the blueprint. In the back would be

another smaller... Creating audio books is a lot more

involved than simply recording Can we actually have

that heaving sigh? You need a soundproof studio,

the kit, vocal talent, and an ability to judge pace,

passion and pitch in a performance. We don't want that,

that's the wrong one. Then a way to get the

finished work out there. You'll agree this is

certainly interesting. Matt is almost totally blind and set

up Living Audio as a social Initially to produce recordings

of fan fiction featuring He even got JK Rowling's

blessing, because it was They were released, really,

to benefit blind and print disabled people, and they've

been very popular. And many, many blind and dyslexic

people and people with other various disabilities that prevent them

from reading have come back and said, you know,

these are absolutely amazing. That led the friends to seek out

collaborations with other, It was very much working with books

that wouldn't normally be Even when we do commercial books,

we're producing audio to the best quality that we can do,

knowing that blind, print disabled, anybody that can't hold a print book

or read it comfortably, will have the best

production we can produce. The UK spent ?12 million

on digital downloads in 2015. The business is still finding

its feet but audio books recorded here in Berkshire are now

being downloaded daily Excellent work. On to sport, Tony is

here, cricket in a moment and think of the summer.

Still frost on the ground but let's talk about winter first.

Southampton say captain Jose Fonte has asked to leave the club.

The 33-year-old has been in a contractual impasse

with St Mary's officials for several months.

Southampton say he turned down a pay rise in the summer

but the Portuguese defender, who is the only survivor

from their time in League One, wants a longer term deal.

Saints Executive Director Les Reed says the club are yet

The question of another year, we haven't rejected that.

He has turned down the opportunity to increase his salary,

and he's turned down the opportunity to get another permanent

That interview is in full on the BBC sport website.

Meanwhile Portsmouth could close the gap to just a point

on the promotion places in League Two tonight.

They're at the leaders Doncaster, you can hear it live

on BBC Radio Solent and we'll have the goals at 10.30pm.

Some big news from Hampshire cricket today, and a signing

which has sent shock waves through South African cricket too.

Fast bowler Kyle Abbott has turned his back on his international

career to sign a four year deal at the Ageas Bowl ending

his Test match career, amid controversy back home.

He'll become the latest player to use a freedom

of movement law, known in sport as the Kolpak agreement.

Abbott himself revealed he was joining Hampshire

after South Africa's test victory over Sir Lanka in Cape

For Kyle Abbott, a huge life decision.

I'd like to take this opportunity to announce that I have signed

It has been one of the hardest decisions I have had to make.

But at the end of the day it is the right decision for me.

Abbott will play as a non-overseas player under the Kolpak agreement.

South African citizens have the same freedom of movement as EU citizens,

but it means the end of his international

It has been a few evenings where I have gone to sleep thinking,

But I have always woken up the next morning knowing

I have had a great run with Cricket South Africa,

I have no regrets at all, I have been involved

And I'm incredibly grateful for that.

And I just feel it's a time in my life where I have

The 29 year old signed a four-year contract.

He's a well considered man, and he's decided this is the right

And we're obviously the club that he's chosen to come

to and we're delighted that he's on board with us.

Abbott's move is emulated fellow South African Rilee Rossouw,

a batsman and another Kolpak player, who's agreed three-year deal.

Meanwhile Hampshire all-rounder Liam Dawson arrives in India tonight

to play in England's one-day international series.

The one-day cricket we've played, in the last sort of two years,

So hopefully can continue that in the next in India.

Dawson will be in the squad for three one-day internationals

Another step towards becoming a regular in the national setup.

Gold medal winning diver Chris Mears from Reading,

says he's angry that his coach has quit to join the Australian team.

Ady Hinchliffe is moving to Australia to become lead

Mears says Hinchliffe should have been offered a full time

British Diving says it began discussions but timescales didn't

It's led to frustration and anger from the winning pair

Ady has taken me from a boy with a lot of dreams to a man able

It is a massive shame from the bottom of my heart to say

He has his reasons for why he's leading, and I think to be honest,

he's been forced to leave, which is a shame, for what he's done

The three time Olympic rowing champion Pete Reed has announced

that he will bid to compete in the 2020 Games.

The Caversham based rower has returned to the gym this week

and will be aiming to match Sir Matthew Pinsent's haul of four

Reed will be 39 come Games time and faces four years

of gruelling training, including rowing more

I made sure I had a good break, I had a lot to do in that time

off after the Olympics, and you can see we are back

at Caversham now, this is not Rio de Janeiro,

I haven't got a suntan, I feel, to be quite honest,

And this is day three of training for me, I'm already aches

But yeah, a big decision and definitely the right one

It is a gruelling schedule. 25,000 miles on the water! You can hear

more on the BBC Berkshire site. Next year marks the centenary

of the end of the first world war and to mark a significant milestone,

a monumental sculpture has Made as a tribute to all those

Tommies who lost their lives, it is a six metre high soldier

forged out of scrap metal. Clinton Rogers has had

a preview of a work He is a monument to bravery, but

also recycling. At the Dorset Forge where he was created, they pieced

together pretty much everything they could get their hands on. From car

parks to spammers. -- parts of cars to spammers, changed to garden

forks, and the result is impassive. Only when you stand next to the --

impressive. Only when you stand next to the sculptured EU get a true

sense of scale, it is 5.8 is tall and weighs one and a half tonnes and

took three and a half months to build. It is called The Haunting and

it has been made for a local man who wants to remain anonymous. It is a

commission for a local author who came to us and ask if he could build

a ghostly figure of a First World War soldier. This is what we have

ended up with an I think it fits the bill spot-on. It is going to be

featured in the book, at the moment that is as much as I can say. As it

stands proudly waiting for delivery, the sculpture is certainly

attracting admiring glances from passers-by. I think it is just

incredible. The more you look at it, you see so many little bits that he

missed and it's absolutely wonderful -- that you missed and it is a

wonderful tribute, beautiful. Though younger admirers are not sure who it

is. What do you call him? The DFG? He might be! He is a giant and

friendly, and I think that depends on which side you are on. The

Haunting will go on public show, but when and where that will be for now

remains a mystery. That is magnificent, I hope we get

an opportunity to see it. Onto the weather, very cold. I had the

thermals on walking the dog this morning. My hands were white 30

seconds after stepping outside the front door. The temperatures in a

minute, but here are some pictures. It was the coldest night of the

season last night, with temperatures plunging down to minus eight

Celsius, -7 at Bournemouth Airport and freezing us elsewhere across the

region. It will not be as cold tonight but chilly temperatures for

the widespread frost and freezing fog patches. The fog will develop

through the second part of the night. Temperatures in towns and

cities down 2-3 C, but in the countryside, we could get to minus

five. Slightly more cloud arriving in western areas during the second

part of the night. The fog will clear around 11am and once it does,

sunny spells. Sussex and Surrey holding onto the sunshine but Al

where the cloud will increase, turning the sunshine hazy. The odd

spot of frames in northern and western areas. Temperatures -- the

odd spot of rain. Temperatures will not be as low as today. Feeling my

-- milder tomorrow, and a band of rain will be coming through tomorrow

night. The odd moderate to heavy burst in there. Temperatures will

fall away tomorrow night to milder 47 Celsius, maybe some mist patches

to start the weekend. The weekend as a whole -- 4-7 C. The weekend as a

whole will be milder. High pressure will be building but there will be

cloud associated with it. The odd spot of drizzle cannot be ruled out

over the weekend, more likely Saturday. Temperatures will reach

high of ten to 11 Celsius. The outlook, a frost tomorrow in some

places, a bright start to the day but cloud increasing and rain

arriving by dusk and into the evening. Over the weekend, mainly

dry but fairly cloudy. Tomorrow we are looking ahead to the

FA Cup? Yes, Reading at Old Trafford. That is it from us, good

night. We're looking for someone

who can sing, someone who can move. Someone who can keep an audience

on the edge of their seat. Something like this

could change my life. When you're born to perform,

Let It Shine... Magical new drama...

The Worst Witch. Shall we? Absolutely.

..DI Goodman... It's been lovely, our little holiday

romance. ..is back on the case.