24/10/2016 Inside Out North West

Hello and welcome to Inside Out North West

Tonight, can the NHS survive diabetes?

We are certainly looking at a crisis in diabetes which does

We reveal the pioneering diabetes research in Manchester that

I cannot tell you how beneficial it is to me,

And the families of the north-west soldiers who captured one

He just happened to mention, matter-of-factly, "I captured

Around 4.5 million people in the UK now have diabetes and the number

Most of them have Type 2 which is linked to lifestyle

Yet diabetic care is already costing the NHS ?10 billion a year ? nearly

New figures seen by the BBC show those costs are likely to spiral

BBC Health Correspondent Dominic Hughes reports.

Today I'd like to invite you to a shoe-shop with a difference.

So what we've got here are 140 shoes and they represent 140 amputations

that take place in England every week due to diabetes.

We set up this shoe shop to show just how serious Type 2

Where you come from and your family history can increase your risk.

But doctors say most of it is down to obesity.

Now new data given exclusively to the BBC by Public Health England

estimates there'll be an extra quarter of a million people

with Type 2 diabetes by 2035 if we continue to get fatter.

Diabetics are at greater risk of kidney failure,

The NHS is spending ?10 billion a year on diabetic care.

As things stand we are certainly looking at a crisis in diabetes

which threatens to bankrupt the NHS if we continue

One of our shoes belongs to Steven Woodman.

Like 90 percent of diabetics, Steven has the Type 2 version

which is linked to lifestyle and so largely preventable.

But diagnosed as a young man ? he ignored his GP's advice.

I never took it that seriously so I carried on eating,

going to pub, doing things people of my age did.

Like many diabetics Steven developed an ulcer on his toe.

The ulcer wouldn't heal and in the end he had

My surgeon did say to me when he was taking my third toe off,

it's only a matter of time before you lose that one,

it's inevitable that will go the same way.

Patients with Type 2 diabetes aren't just losing their toes.

Some have had to have a foot amputated or even a lower leg.

It's life changing and very expensive.

It's approximately ?20,000 for the first six months

There's the limb fitting and even a basic prosthesis costs

All of those aspects mean it's very expensive process for the state.

Nick Hex is the health economist who worked out the current

cost of diabetes care - that ?10 billion figure.

Most of that is spent on complications.

Foot ulcers and amputations cost nearly a billion pounds a year.

Then there's sight loss and nerve damage.

But the biggest cost of all is for heart

With both obesity and Type 2 diabetes affecting more and more

of us ? costs for diabetic care are expected to increase

There is a fixed amount of money for the NHS so clearly if one

disease area like diabetes is taking up a more

considerable amount of that

cost then less money to spend on cancer.

Losing three toes means he has to have specially made shoes.

Just out of interest how much do they cost?

A new problem is expected to put even more financial

16-year-old Aisha is one of a small but growing number of children

I developed T2D by having a sweet tooth mostly.

I used to try out every new sweet in the store and I used to drink

When I was taken to the hospital, it hit me then because I started

Aisha now has to rely on medicine to control her condition.

But she's managed to lose a stone in weight and those fizzy drinks

But you can only have health once and you can't buy your health.

You have to keep changing your diet plan, to keep fit and healthy.

New research shows the number of children like Aisha with Type 2

diabetes has nearly doubled in the last ten years.

And they're likely to develop complications much earlier.

People who are getting Type 2 Diabetes when they're

15 or 16 are likely to have significant problems

36 and that's really much younger than you'd expect.

These are things like renal failure and heart attacks and strokes

and it's going to have a huge impact for them.

Ultimately, tackling the rise in Type 2 diabetes will depend

I believe we're facing a crisis and we really need concerted action

right across society for us to fund more research, provide best possible

care and crucially prevent so many cases of type 2 ? in future.

Steven's diabetes has stabilised but it's too late to save his job.

The toe amputations have left him unsteady on his feet and he's been

told by his employer he's no longer fit for work.

Given everything you've been through, Steve, what would your

advice be to people being diagnosed now with Type 2 diabetes?

It's the biggest regret I've ever made in my entire life.

Prescriptions for Type 2 diabetes have risen by a third in England

in the last five years according to NHS data.

The condition can have devastating consequences for those diagnosed ?

I've been to meet a doctor calling for change in Oldham -

one of the top ten areas for diabetes prescriptions

in the country, and have been finding out about

the pioneering new medical research from our region that

could save the NHS millions of pounds.

I was surprised ? a bit shocked actually when I was diagnosed ?

I was close to losing half of my leg on each leg and that was

The complications of diabetes are a major economic burden

It's reported that three out of five cases of Type 2 diabetes can be

prevented or delayed through adopting a healthy lifestyle.

Diabetes UK has been running road shows in our region to raise

In the North West ? where are we placed country-wide

Prevalence here is higher than in England and also the rate

of increase here is higher than in England.

well placed in terms of Diabetes and I suspect that's essentially

In the UK, 11.9 million people are at increased risk of developing

Here in Oldham alone there are nearly 13,000 already

Left untreated or poorly managed diabetes can cause devastating

complications such as amputation, blindness,

People are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes

if they are overweight, or have a close relative

with the condition, but your ethnicity also

But what about the increased incidence in certain

If you are South Asian you are at higher risk of diabetes ?

you are actually six times more at higher risk compared

Dr Chauhan says your genes are just as much a factor as your diet.

I give you a simple example - if you get a small Indian milk ball

which is called Gulab Jamun, it contains 15g of sugar.

Just two of these typical Indian sweets contain more than the NHS

Most people will have two or three in one serving

either ? so you don't have the contents displayed ? so how

If you are born and brought up here as an Asian ? so you will have

Asian stuff but you will also have Western fast food as well.

That's one of the reasons thought to be why

we have seen younger and younger people being diagnosed

you are at high risk of having diabetes at the age of 25 and if you

Dr Chauhan warns that more education about the sugar content in food

is vital ? especially ahead of Diwali festival

It's not good enough to give them a leaflet

and say there you go, it's

in your language, that's not good enough.

If you've been brought up that its OK to have a sweet ?

you need to deal with those beliefs and the fundamental problems before

they can really understand and take that message on.

Mohammed is from Blackburn, he was diagnosed with Type 2

I was surprised ? a bit shocked actually when I was diagnosed ?

I said, I'm perfectly healthy ? sports minded person,

healthy, I eat well, my weight isn't excessive ? I don't

eat too many sweets ? I don't eat the sugary drinks ?

Yet despite his diagnosis, Mohammed is determined

Because you have been diagnosed as a diabetic,

it doesn't give you the cause or an excuse not to fast.

So as I am able, fit, so I keep fast.

The Curry Mile in Manchester is world famous thanks largely

to the sheer number of bright neon-lit restaurants

Looking around, it's no surprise that curry is one

of the most popular dishes in Britain.

it be for those diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes?

One restaurant on Manchester's Curry Mile has

trained its managers to ask about medical conditions

like Diabetes as well as food allergies, and offers to make

changes to some of its favourite dishes to help people

We recommended to most of the customers BBQ and grilled

foods ? brown rice, not white rice, and wholemeal whole wheat chapattis

and vegetable dahls and white meats like chicken and fish but not

They recommend a more traditional, home-style way of cooking.

We use less oil and less oily dishes.

Our duty is to look after the customer's health.

And an important part of the NHS budget is spent on treating foot

In Manchester, a group of researchers believe they've come

up with a solution to this problem, which could save the NHS millions.

Everyone in this study has suffered with foot ulcers in the past.

I've got no feeling of pain in my feet so I can't

Foot ulcers are a major cause of amputation in diabetic patients

if left untreated as the open wound can allow bacteria

Dr Neil Reeves and his team are working on a new Biofeedback

system which aims to treat the cause of the problem.

been possible to measure the foot pressures in a laboratory,

but what we are doing here is that we are measuring

pressures under the feet very accurately and we are relaying that

Research Fellow, Caroline Abbott, explains how they are measuring

everyday foot pressure using a custom made insole

There are eight distinct pressure sites which detect pressure whilst

in the shoe during real time so we get a very extensive picture

of foot pressures during the entire day while a patient is moving

Can you just tell me a bit about how many alerts you've had this week?

Well the alerts I've had are mainly when driving, which you're aware

OK Gary we'll just download the monthly data

The advantage for me from that is that I'm not getting

the ulcers because with myself, some of the ulcers I've had have

taken over two years to heal up and while it's open,

Caroline is able to get a lot of information from the data

We can see the places where he has high pressure in his normal daily

activity and we are able to advise him how to change his

behaviour to offload that very important high foot pressure.

Someone who knows all too well the risk of amputation is Wayne.

So the watch would vibrate and beep and tell Wayne that he's

And he's got it on his left foot on the top side

I don't get any sensation in my feet or very limited sensation

whereas somebody else who has good sensation will know that their foot

is aching and they have an irritation there.

On two occasions I was close to losing part or half

I didn't even realise I'd had a problem on my foot at first.

His foot ballooned in size and turned bright red.

The doctor was very concerned about his condition.

She was actually considering bringing the surgeon to talk to me

about amputation of my leg if it didn't go down within 24-36 hours.

So that's how close it came to being a major problem for me.

If we can prevent diabetic foot ulcers from reoccurring in people

where they do occur, then we can certainly have a major

impact on health but also a major economic impact in terms

For Gary and Wayne this study has been life changing.

It eases the worry of the inconvenience of ulcers.

I can't tell you how beneficial it's been to me ? it's

else looking after my feet, I can actually tell them that I've

got an issue there and we can look at it from there.

So it's given me a little bit of self-esteem back as well.

All across our region there are memorials to the men

and women who fought and died in the two great wars

Of course many of our heroes lived to tell their tales from the most

One incredible story involves one of the most infamous Nazis

of World War II and four soldiers from the North West.

May 1945 ? the war in Europe is over.

Germany has surrendered, Hitler has taken his own life along

On May 23rd this extraordinary footage is taken.

It shows the dead body of the most wanted man in Europe -

He's just taken a cyanide pill after being taken prisoner two

days earlier by British troops near Hamburg.

History doesn't say who caught him but today Inside Out can reveal

that his captors were five regular British soldiers ? four of whom came

To appreciate the magnitude of the arrest ? made

during a routine patrol ? you have to understand how powerful Himmler

had become during the Nazis' reign of terror.

Heinrich Himmler was probably the second most powerful

He was head of the SS which was Hitler's bodyguard.

He controlled the Gestapo, he controlled the security division

of the Gestapo, controlled all of the security forces of Germany,

He also oversaw the concentration camps in Germany, he planned

the Holocaust and he also ran the death camps in Poland that

killed all those millions of people in the Second World War.

This is Chris Mannion who stumbled on the story while researching his

Proving it has consumed him for the past three years ? so much

so, that he's now a volunteer at the Imperial War Museum North.

My grandad's picture was on my grandma's mantelpiece.

Sadly he died years before I was born.

As a boy, men in uniform and who go to war are heroes.

He quickly established that Patrick Mannion was a Lance Sergeant

in the 73rd Anti-tank Regiment ? this is the only known footage

But it was during a visit to the Royal Artillery museum that

Chris got the information that completely floored him.

They said you need to read this ? it's a very small file.

They said it's about the capture of Heinrich Himmler.

I read the arrest report and my jaw hit the floor.

It's my grandad's regiment ? the 73rd.

That was it ? there was this rumour about my grandad's involvement

with a top Nazi ? I had to know everything.

Chris was determined to get the full facts behind the arrest of Himmler.

He knew there were four other men who went out on patrol

with his grandfather that day - he just didn't know who they were.

However he DID know that in all probability,

The problem was, there are over 100 men on this photograph.

There was only one thing to do - track them down, one by one.

The first and easiest name to add to the list was that

of Lance Sergeant William Morris ? the only man named

The others were a little more elusive.

I thought, how do I get in touch with these people are any of them

Then I had a brainwave ? I contacted all the local papers in the areas ?

wrote to them and said these are the men who lived in your area,

and they may have something to do with the capture of Heinrich

While he was waiting for replies, internet research

led him to Mike Fahy from Egerton near Bolton.

Mike had grown up listening to his dad's tales of the war.

Gunner Michael Fahy from Manchester, told his son one story

We'd have chats on Saturday mornings, looking out the window.

And he just happened to mention matter of fact,

It sort of struck me as a bit of a thunderbolt.

He said, "I didn't know who he was at the time."

He said, "Three chaps were coming over a bridge and I was out

on patrol with Sergeant Mannion and he said "Fahy ? grab 'em!"

and one of the other soldiers fired a warning shot in the air.

Two of the fellers who were walking slightly in front of the third

feller tried to shoot round the side of the building and three

of the other patrol men went to get them and this other feller ran

inside the building he said it was like a mill or a baker's shop.

Anyway I ran in after him and he said he was hid under

the counter, so I grabbed hold of him and pulled him out.

This footage shows the two men who were arrested with Himmler,

who'd altered his appearance and given a false name.

All three were carrying forged papers.

He said, "when we looked at the papers it seemed a bit funny

cos they were brand new and almost too perfect, really".

He said that's why they were sent down the line after we apprehended

Meanwhile local newspapers were starting to pick up on Chris's

plea to find the men from the 73rd Anti-Tank Regiment.

I was just reading the Echo online and I thought "this is the same

Paul Fletcher and his sister Tricia had also been told about Himmler.

But their dad, John Fletcher from Toxteth, had a bit of a reputation.

He'd tell us little stories about the war and things that had

happened and it came across he said he'd captured Heinrich Himmler

but me dad could be a bit of a joker so we all thought he was stretching

the truth basically so we took it with a pinch of salt.

They got in touch with Chris Mannion who immediately came to meet them.

Tricia showed Chris a picture ? we didn't know who this person was ?

we thought it might have been someone important and Chris went

This is a picture of me dad and he's hugging him in one picture

and the next picture Chris's grandad's got hold him.

That was what me dad was like ? he was always like that with us,

Tom Snee was at home in Runcorn when he spotted Chris's appeal.

I thought wow, this is my Uncle, he's looking for my Uncle and I know

So I rang him up, and he asked me a few questions like,

and said "sounds like your George is the man we're looking for."

Tom's uncle, George Snee was from Widnes.

He was also a gunner in the 73rd ? and it turns out, a reluctant hero.

He didn't tell the story very often, but I was lucky enough to have

heard him tell the story, he didn't tell it very often

as I say, and we tried to get more out of him

Like everyone else, George had no idea he'd helped to catch the most

George tells it they were called back to the headquarters

And they said, do you know who you ve captured?

When he told it he told it with truth you know.

After the arrest in Meinstedt, the men had taken Hitzlinger,

as he called himself, to their camp at Seedorf.

Here was he was interviewed by Sergeant Nicholas Carlston

? another local man, from Stretford in Manchester.

The next day he was sent up the line to Bremenforde and then

on to an internment camp where he admitted his true identity

No history book records the names of the five men who picked him up

but thanks to Chris Mannion's dogged research, even the experts find it

I don't think there's any reason to discount this story.

You wouldn't imagine the five people would say

they captured somebody so famous, and make it up.

So I think the fact there's five of them is pretty good

corroboration of this story, this sort of footnote in history.

And of course, it's a great thing that they captured him you know

he was one of the most horrific people in the third Reich.

The descendants of our five heroes had never met ? so we

brought them together at the Imperial War Museum North.

The museum now has a special display all about the capture of Himmler.

It seems strange ? it's making the hairs on the back

He told me he captured Himmler and for all of this to come

They played football together, they were at war together,

slept in same rooms, went drinking together.

Yes the bond would have been incredible.

It sounds corny but my Grandad can see this 70 years later ? we're

having a drink together as they would have done but in more

Now that is an incredible story. We're back next Monday. See you

then. Next week we investigate the growing

number of homeless people in our region. It is really scary.

Hello, I'm Riz Lateef with your 90 second update.

The first of an estimated 8,000 migrants

have left the camp at Calais known as The Jungle.

French authorities plan to bulldoze it.

Migrants are being resettled around France.

But 20 teenagers have arrived at a centre in Devon

The Home Office has stopped any more coming for now.

Chemotherapy for terminal cancer patients,

and casts for children's broken wrists.

Just some of 40 treatments doctors said today are unnecessary

A Christian-owned bakery which refused to make a cake

with a pro-gay marriage slogan has lost a legal fight.

Ashers bakers in Belfast was found to have 'unfairly discriminated'