24/01/2017 Look North (Yorkshire)

Good evening and welcome to the late Look North.

Tonight: Fighting Yorkshire's biggest cause of premature deaths -

more than ?5 million is to be spent on the UK's biggest ever lung cancer

How the internet's bringing work from war-torn countries

Some sunshine through tomorrow and a much colder day on Thursday. I will

have the full forecast later in the programme.

The UK's largest lung cancer screening trial is to be

The ?5 million project hopes to increase early diagnosis

Nationally, breast cancer and prostate cancer are more common,

but in Yorkshire lung cancer affects most people, with around 4,500

Survival chances are low, and the disease claims

Now funding from Yorkshire Cancer Research is to be used to target

parts of Leeds where most people are at risk.

I go for another checkup tomorrow, I have another CT scan tomorrow.

68-year-old Val Sykes from Leeds found out she had

lung cancer last year, and that was quite by accident.

A former smoker, who hadn't had a cigarette in 20 years,

she actually went to the GP after straining her chest helping

As a precaution, she was sent to hospital for an X-ray.

It was there doctors saw a nodule on her lung.

Val then had an operation to remove it.

So it was quite a shock when they did find it and

Val is very lucky, but her case is unusual.

Lung cancer is so common and serious because there are usually no signs

or symptoms in the early stages of the disease.

In fact, you could have a large tumour with no pain at all.

But now, here in Leeds, they are launching a multi-million

pound investment in screening, which they hope will

At the moment, you're screened using a CT scanner in hospital,

but this ?5 million project will take the scanner

Similar to the ones used to detect breast cancer,

the lung cancer vans will be about the size of a single-decker

The project is being led by Dr Matt Callister.

The target age for our study will be people between the ages of 55 and 80

who have ever smoked, either current smokers or smokers

That's because 86% of lung cancers are caused by smoking,

and Yorkshire has one of the highest rates in England.

We know that by screening patients we can pick up cancer

at a much earlier stage, when it is hopefully suitable

for curative treatment, either with surgery

If it is successful it could become a national screening programme,

then more people like Val will be diagnosed before it's too late.

Well, a short time ago I spoke to Dr Kathryn Scott,

who's the interim chief executive at Yorkshire Cancer Research

and I began by asking her what kind of work was done before this

This room that I'm standing in now was full of experts in lung cancer

and in early diagnosis, and we brought them all

together and we said, "OK, we are a charity here in Yorkshire,

we are here for the people of Yorkshire, what biggest things

could we do to have the maximum impact in lung cancer?"

So you decided to invest ?5 million in Yorkshire.

So those are donations from the people of Yorkshire.

We have got a lot of legacies left to the charity in wills.

We have got people who do tea parties and the Great North Run,

They do all sorts of fundraising activities for us from

the sublime to the ridiculous, and we are so proud that we have

That has enabled this ?5 million investment in

How will the trial actually work then?

So, it is going to be working with GPs based in and around Leeds,

and it is going to be inviting people to go for a scan.

These people are not unwell, they don't know that they have got

anything wrong with them, but they will be in an at risk

population and we will be putting those people in a low

dose CT scanner on two occasions two years apart,

and then we're going to see if we can spot those cancers early.

When this similar study was done in the United States,

it showed a 20% improvement in mortality rates in this

disease that has got a very poor mortality outcome.

So we are hoping to recapitulate that.

We want to make sure that the people of Yorkshire get the very best

For you, how will success look at the end of this trial?

This charity, Yorkshire Cancer, is trying to get 2,000

fewer deaths by 2025, and we think this CT scanner trial

will significantly impact on that, actually within the trial.

If the trial works, we want to be able to roll this out to everywhere,

Dr Scott, thank you for joining me this evening.

A mother from Penistone, whose two sons were killed by their father,

has been to Downing Street to campaign for better

Claire Throssell delivered a petition calling for

the government to change the way courts handle cases involving

She had warned the authorities that her ex-husband posed

12-year old Jack and his 9-year old brother Paul died

after their father Darren Sykes lured them into the attic

No other parent should have to hold their child

in their arms as they die, knowing it was at the hands

of someone who should cherish and protect them the most.

The family courts are not run in the same way as Crown Courts.

We're not giving up on all the parents out there.

There is always hope because without hope

we have got nothing, and if we have got nothing,

We're not just going to sit by and let that happen.

So if anyone is out there and they are in despair,

then don't because there is hope and change on the way.

The Yorkshire Sculpture Park is renowned for showcasing art

and sculptors from all over the world, but their latest

exhibition is accessing art in a different way

Work from across the Middle East and North Africa is on display.

The artists themselves can't travel, but through the power

I love the fact that this girl could be any girl in any country.

We were keen with this show that we would see inside lives

that were not just on the news in war zones.

The real positivity and creativity and hopefulness.

Responding to an open call, artists from across the world

They cannot travel to the UK due to political unrest and immigration

We can work with partners all over the world in a way

He submitted the instructions for the sculpture to be printed,

via e-mail, and here I can see it being created from the other

People wrote down their thoughts on their environment

Visitors here are asked to do the same and the notes are displayed.

How does it feel to have your work displayed in the UK, even though

If your artwork is in a different country you've heard about,

there is artwork from Henry Moore, it will be a great feeling.

And that feeling is here, 3,000 miles away in Yorkshire.

It's fantastic, it's showing art where we can't access it.

These pieces here, you have the contrast of the conflict

I think those two pieces are quite symbolic.

It is hoped this will be the first of many exhibitions

where ideas and art can travel, even if people cannot.

In tonight's football, some Bradford City fans faced a long

The referee called off the Checkatrade Trophy game due

to a frozen pitch five minutes before kick off.

But in League One, Sheffield United lost their top of the table clash

That's it from me. Now the weather forecast.

I think there will be a touch of frost overnight, but not as

widespread as last night. Even though we will have some patches of

mist and fog, I don't think it will be to the extent it was this

morning. Tomorrow, it will be a cloudy start, but we should see some

sunshine across most of Yorkshire before allowed then increases again

from the south-east. It will get colder over the next day or so,

Thursday in particular looks chilly with a southerly breeze of the

continent. Francis Eric Holder the moment. Dash-macro is very cold.

Atlantic conditions will try to wind over the weekend and temperatures

will climb. We could see some fog in places, even some dense patches, but

not to the extent of this morning. Some drizzle possible over the days,

but otherwise a dry story overnight, and not as cold as last night.

Tomorrow, variable cloud to start the day with the mist and fog

lifting. For most of us, Western North Yorkshire in particular some

sunshine, but always the threat of cloud will stop. Temperatures

tomorrow in the North getting to around six or 7 degrees. Very chilly

on Thursday, and temperatures gradually climbing towards the

weekend. Have a good evening. For all of us, it'll get colder and

then milder again come the weekend. This shot taken earlier by a weather

watcher in East Anglia. The fog becoming extensive over the next few

hours in many south-eastern parts of England.

Much, much milder, further north and